Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Purification and Characterization of Alcayota Gum. Experimental Reviews

In this work by means of alkaline hydrolysis, the extraction of alcayota gum from Cucurbita ficifolia was carried out. The gum is purified by hydroalcoholic precipitations. This rubber is characterized by measurements of viscositydensity, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), and rheological. The intrinsic viscosity of the gum was 149.83 cm3/g and the molecular weight of 1867 kDa (whose Mark-Houwink parameters were k=0.00263 and a=0.7583), a shape factor of 3.12 and a hydration value of 47.63 g/g. From DLS the hydrodynamic radius was determined with a value of 53 nm, a molecular weight of 1722 kDa and with Mark-Houwink parameters of aD=0.5998 and kD=0.002543. The studies carried out for CyOH(d) showed a thixotropic behavior for the dispersed solutions that increased with the increase in hydrolysis and glycerin and decreased with the increase in temperature. The degree of thixotropy is higher for CyOH(d) compared to Cy(d). This polysaccharide can be applied in the film forming technology, as a thickening agent, etc.
DIPEAc promoted one-pot synthesis of dihydropyrido[2,3-d:6,5-d′]dipyrimidinetetraone and pyrimido[4,5-d]pyrimidine derivatives as potent tyrosinase inhibitors and anticancer agents: in vitro screening, molecular docking and ADMET predictions

The present method provides a wide scope and quick access to dihydropyrido[2,3-d:6,5-d′]dipyrimidinetetraone and pyrimido[4,5-d]pyrimidine derivatives in good to excellent isolated yields from a one-pot three-component reaction of aldehydes, barbituric acid and ammonium acetate/urea in DIPEAc at room temperature. Major advantages of the present methodology are: use of green solvent, short reaction time, catalyst free, compatibility with a wide range of substrates, ease of recovery, reusability of the reaction medium, and DIPEAc as an alternative solvent and catalyst. All the synthesized compounds (3a–k) and (4a–g) were evaluated for their in vitro anticancer and tyrosinase inhibitory activity. In vitro anticancer screening of the synthesized compounds was performed against MCF-7, HeLa and A-549 cancer cell lines and 3f, 3h and 3i showed good activity. The compounds 3a, 3c, 3f and 3i showed good in vitro anticancer activity against SK-MEL-2. The synthesized compounds were also tested on non-tumorigenic MCF-10A cell lines and were found to be selective towards their cancer cell lines. At the IC50 concentration of compound 3f there were typical morphological changes such as cell wall deformation, cell detachment, cell shrinkage and a reduced number of viable cells in MCF-7 cancer cell lines in comparison to control cells. Among the series, compounds 3f, 3h and 3i excellently inhibited the tyrosinase enzyme. A molecular docking study of the compounds was also performed and compounds showed overall very effective binding modes and good agglomeration in the active site by forming various interactions with active site residues. The in silico ADMET properties of the synthesized compounds showed that they possess worthy oral drug like properties.
Surface modification of cellulose nanocrystals with different acid anhydrides for improved dispersion in poly(butylene succinate)

Hydrophilic cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) are typically poorly dispersed in non-polar polymer matrices and, hence, a method for the surface modification of CNC is developed for improving this dispersion. This method included an esterification reaction with acetic anhydride, butyric anhydride, and caproic anhydride. The particle size distribution (range of sizes: 80–310 nm) of CNC was determined. The SEM-EDAX indicated that (i) the structure of CNC was maintained even after incorporation of the acid anhydride and (ii) the carbon C content of modified-CNC was higher than that of pure CNC. The chemical structure of modified-CNC was identified via FT-IR and 13C NMR spectroscopy. The contact angle of CNC and modified-CNC with water and methylene iodide was measured. The surface energy of modified-CNC was lower than that of pure CNC. Thermal-property measurements indicated that the initial decomposition temperature (based on 5 wt%) of the modified-CNC was slightly higher than that of CNC. Poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) composites were obtained by mixing modified-CNC into a PBS matrix via simple melt blending of a double screw. The PBS/modified-CNC composites were investigated via DSC and XRD. Tensile testing indicated that the tensile modulus improved gradually with increasing modified-CNC content, whereas the elongation at fracture decreased.
What makes a good caseworker

How do caseworkers affect job finding and what characterizes a productive caseworker? To answer these questions we exploit variation coming from the fact that many local employment offices in Sweden assign job seekers to caseworkers based on their date of birth. We couple this identification strategy with fine-grained administrative data on both caseworkers and job seekers. Estimation of caseworker fixed effects reveals sizable variation in overall caseworker value-added. Female caseworkers perform better than male caseworkers and caseworkers with two years of experience outperform caseworkers with less experience. Cognitive ability and personal experience of unemployment are not related to caseworker performance. Based on the actions taken by the caseworkers we show that caseworker strategies are important. Analyses of caseworker–job seeker matching show that matching based on previous labor market experiences or gender leads to better outcomes.
Design, fabrication and characterization of pectin-coated gelatin nanoparticles as potential nano-carrier system.

The main purpose of this study was to fabricate potential nano-delivery systems based on protein-polysaccharide complex for use in beverages. In this regard, optimum gelatin-pectin complex (GPC) nano-carrier with hydrodynamic diameter of ≈200 nm was designed and fabricated using low-bloom gelatin (BG) and high-methoxyl pectin (CP) at BG/CP weight ratio of 1:1 (0.025%(w/v) CP on 0.025%(w/v) BG) and pH 4.5. The suspension containing GPC nano-carrier had very good transparency (14.1NTU). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images illustrated that the GPC particles were spherical with fairly smooth surface. Particle size analysis showed that the complex particles had a narrow size distribution (polydispersity index (PDI)≈0.254). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) confirmed the formation of amide bonds between carboxyl groups in CP and amino groups in BG, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis showed the amorphous nature of the GPC nano-carrier. Finally, the storage stability test indicated that the GPC particles didn't significantly grow after 20 days of storage at 4°C. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The encapsulation of bioactive compounds have different benefits, for example, protection from several damaging environmental factors such as light, oxygen, moisture, heat, mechanical stresses, or other destructive agents, controlling the release of bioactives within foods during storage and also in human gastrointestinal tract, increase in solubility in aqueous foods and covering unfavorable flavor and odor of bioactive ingredients. So that, development of this technic can develops new functional, healthy foods, and foods with new tastes.
Value Creation of E-commerce Platform Firms in Competitive Dynamics: From a Resource Orchestration Perspective

: This study examines the rules of resource combination for e-commerce platform firms value creation in competitive dynamics. Based on the resource orchestration view and competitive dynamics theory, we suggest a configurational analytic framework that departs from the standard linear paradigm to examine how configurations of digital strategic action formed by digital resources creates value through the effect that competitors hard to respond to. In line with this approach, we use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to news data from Chinese online tourism industry. Our findings suggest equifinal pathways to gain the effect that is hard to be responded and the specific boundary conditions of our propositions that determine what way digital technologies and partnership resources orchestrate in e-commerce platform firms’ creating value. We discuss implications for theory and practice.
A Sawtooth MEMS Capacitive Strain Sensor for Passive Telemetry in Bearings

The development of economical and high-sensitive strain sensor is crucial for precise measurement of strain in industrial applications, such as bearings. During operation, bearing itself is a harsh environment, which usually has large temperature variations and large centrifugal forces. This paper presents a sawtooth MEMS capacitive strain sensor for passive telemetry in bearings. The interdigital fingers are designed into sawtooth shape to decrease the influence of centrifugal acceleration. The strain sensor chip is 4mm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times4$ </tex-math></inline-formula>mm in size, and is fabricated by a simple SOI process. Connecting the sensitive capacitor with an inductor, an LC resonant tank is formed, and the strain signal can be read out wirelessly and passively through a readout coil. Measurement results show that, in the range of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0\sim 1000~\mu \varepsilon $ </tex-math></inline-formula>, the sensitivity of the LC strain sensor reaches 34kHz/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \varepsilon $ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and the gauge factor (GF) of the strain sensor reaches 430. The influence of thickness of adhesive layer on the strain sensitivity is investigated. When the thickness of the adhesive layer reaches <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$500~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, the applied stress cannot be transferred at all. Finally, the LC strain sensor is tested on a rotating platform. The measured resonant frequency shows only 0.4% deviation under 1000m/s<sup>2</sup> centrifugal acceleration.
Origami-Inspired Soft Actuators for Stimulus Perception and Crawling Robot Applications

Origami has been proved as a valuable tool to develop deployable, multifunctional, and tunable devices for diverse engineering applications. Inspired by the Kresling origami, this article presents a soft pneumatic actuator with vacuum control to realize the compound motion of twist and contraction. The twist direction varies as the crease angle changes and it offers pure contraction after combining two actuators with reverse creases. Our actuator can lift 180 folds of its weight and achieve the contraction ratio of 47%, while the response time is below 0.3 s. The origami-based actuator can realize an adjustable bistable property, leading to the possibility for external stimulus detection and mechanical memory devices, where the sensitivity can be regulated by the initial vacuum pressure. Through several actuators, we demonstrate the reconfigurable crawling robots capable of worm-like creep, alternating-step locomotion as well as obstacle detection. After activating all the actuators, the four-actuator robot with two working modes is validated to perform agilely for confined space navigation, showing our actuator has the potential in soft robotics applications.
Nexus between Economic Policy Uncertainty and Renewable Energy Consumption in BRIC Nations: The Mediating Role of Foreign Direct Investment and Financial Development

In recent literature, the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on macro aspects have been investigated, but the aspect of energy, precisely renewable energy still to explore. The motivation of the study is to produce fresh evidence regarding the nexus between EPU and renewable energy consumption (REC) with the mediating role of forcing direct investment (FDI) and financial development (FD) in BRIC nations for the period 1997q1–2018q4. The study applied unit root tests following Ng-Perron and Zivot and Andrews for detecting variable’s stationary properties. The long-run cointegration was evaluated by implementing Bayer, Hanck combined the cointegration test, Bound testing approach, and tBDM test. Both linear and non-linear ARDL were implemented to evaluate long-run and short-run shocks, and directional causality was assessed through a non-granger causality test. Furthermore, the study implemented robustness by implementing fully-modified OLS, dynamic OLS, and canonical cointegrating regression (CCR). Unit root test established the variables are stationary after the first difference; moreover, the Bayer and Hanck cointegration test confirmed the long-run association between EPU, FD, FD, and REC in BRIC nations. Accruing to ARDL estimation, adverse effects running from EPU to REC both in the long run and short run. Furthermore, the positive statistically significant linkage revealed for FDI and FD to REC implies that clean energy integration could be augmented with continual inflows of FDI and development of the financial sector. Model estimation with asymmetric assumption, the study documented asymmetric effects running from EPU, FDI, and FD to renewable energy consumption, especially in the long run. Finally, the directional causality revealed unidirectional causality between REC and EPU, whereas the feedback hypothesis was disclosed for FDI and REC] and FD and REC. Study findings postulated that the role of foreign direct investment and financial development is critically significant because technological advancement and capital investment augment clean energy integration through the application of renewable energy.
A Joint Sonar-Communication System Based on Multicarrier Waveforms

Jointdetection and communication systems demonstrate their unique efficiencies in both spectrum and cost. In this letter, we propose a sonar-communication (SonarCom) system for underwater scenarios based on two multicarrier (MC) waveforms, which are orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and orthogonal chirp division multiplexing (OCDM) waveforms. Different types of waveforms provide flexibilities to deal with various underwater environments. Furthermore, a generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) is proposed for detection to deal with multipath channels. Time aliasing techniques are applied to leverage the signal structure. Moreover, a minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalizer is developed for communication to counter frequency-selective fading. Simulation results show that the GLRT detector for the SonarCom system outperforms the existing matched filter (MF). The OCDM scheme maintains better communication performance than the OFDM one.
Predição do movimento do índice Ibovespa a partir de notícias

A predição do movimento do mercado acionário vem a muito tempo sendo o objetivo de pesquisadores e de agentes do mercado financeiro afim de antecipar movimentos para melhor alocação dos ativos na busca de evitar perdas e aumentar a rentabilidade nas aplicações financeiras. Existe a defesa de que o movimento dos preços dos ativos se comporta de maneira aleatória, ou em função de muitas variáveis com previsão inviável [19]. Existem também estudos empı́ricos apontando contra exemplos onde há previsibilidades ao longo da história do mercado acionário. Tais estudos buscam padrões conhecidos chamados de anomalias de mercado, documentados e testados empiricamente, tais como os citados nos trabalhos [5,21] direcionados ao mercado brasileiro. A possibilidade de usar as informações passadas para predizer o movimento do mercado acionário traz a questão proposta por Eugene Fama em [8] quanto a análise da previsibilidade associada à eficiência informacional dos mercados. A Hipótese de Eficiência de Mercado (HEM) defende que, se toda informação relevante se reflete completamente nos preços, o mercado em questão pode ser considerado eficiente [8], mercados mais eficientes se comportariam de maneira mais aleatória, e quanto maior a ineficiência, maiores as chances de sucesso em predições de arbitragem nos preços dos ativos, ou seja, existiria a possibilidade de encontrar padrões que se repetem no comportamento dos preços dos ativos. A questão que se coloca então é se o mercado financeiro brasileiro apresenta eficiência informacional [8], ou seja, se os investidores dispondo de informações sobre as empresas interpretam racionalmente e de maneira instantânea essas informações. Supondo que sim, os preços dos ativos deveriam refletir as informações tão logo essas viessem a ser publicadas, evitando assim ganhos de arbitragem através dos preços dos ativos. No entanto, sabe-se que os preços atuais dos ativos
An Improvement of SNR for Simultaneous Wireless Power and Data Transfer System With Full-Duplex Communication Mode

The power interference is always inevitable in the simultaneous wireless power and data transfer (SWPDT) system resulting in the lower signal to noise rate (SNR) and may cause the failure of communication. Besides, the interference between bidirectional data source is also the problem during the full-duplex communication. To solve these problems, in this article, an improvement of SNR for SWPDT system with full-duplex communication mode is proposed. In the power transfer channel, the double-sided LCCL compensation topology is selected due to its good performance of blocking the power interference on data transmission. Besides, the constant current characteristic of primary coil could guarantee the stability of power transmission. In the data transfer channel, a novel data transmission based on the dual-resonant structure is proposed to suppress the ipsilateral interference, and the full-duplex communication is achieved by two different frequencies. An optimization method of power and data transfer channel to improve SNR further is proposed after the analysis on interferences of power transmission and ipsilateral data source. Finally, the feasibility of proposed topology and the correctness of the parameter design method are verified by the simulation and experimental results.
Artificial Intelligence based Threat Assessment Study of Uncertain Ground Targets

The upcoming warfare will be network-centric warfare with the acquiring and sharing of information on the battlefield through the connection of the entire weapon system. Therefore, the amount of information generated increases, but the technology of evaluating the information is insufficient. Threat assessment is a technology that supports a quick decision, but the information has many uncertainties and is difficult to apply to an advanced battlefield. This paper proposes a threat assessment based on artificial intelligence while removing the target uncertainty. The artificial intelligence system used was a fuzzy inference system and a multi-layer perceptron. The target was classified by inputting the unique characteristics of the target into the fuzzy inference system, and the classified target information was input into the multi-layer perceptron to calculate the appropriate threat value. The validity of the proposed technique was verified with the threat value calculated by inputting the uncertain target to the trained artificial neural network.
Modifications to Finite Difference Algorithm for Polynomial Phase Signal Parameter Estimation

The finite difference (FD) algorithm is a recently proposed algorithm for single-component polynomial phase signal (PPS) parameter estimation. It can handle high-order PPSs, while being computationally simple. A drawback of the algorithm is that it cannot operate at lower signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). We propose modifications to allow the FD algorithm to operate at lower SNRs. The modifications are magnitude weighting for phase values, phase difference filtering, and iterating the polynomial refinement step. Simulation shows that these modifications can reduce the algorithm’s SNR threshold by 5 dB, without greatly increasing the computational complexity.
Climate Change Policies and the Carbon Tax Effect on Meat and Dairy Industries in Brazil

This study analyzes the impacts of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on the meat and dairy industries. To achieve this goal, the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) database was used in a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) setting, which allows for the inclusion of carbon taxes and the definition of four alternative environmental policies scenarios using both Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Global Temperature Potential (GTP) as GHG emissions measures. All scenarios analyze the main effects of carbon-based tax economic instruments on the industry and national production, trade, and emissions, comparing the results for different measures of GHG, GWP, and GTP from the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimation System (SEEG) sectoral Brazilian emissions database. In contrast with other industries, relatively lower taxes on the meat and dairy industries seem to be the most adequate in terms of cost distribution in the Brazilian economic structure when only the GWP measure is considered. Urban activities and less-methane-intensive industries benefit from climate change policies designed using GWP-based rather than GTP-based carbon taxes. The article also highlights the importance of a gradual introduction of carbon taxes, allowing the most vulnerable industries a transition moment to adopt clean technologies and/or redirect economic activity to less-GHG-emitting segments.
ORB-SLAM PERFORMANCE FOR INDOOR ENVIRONMENT USING JACKAL MOBILE ROBOT

This thesis explains how Oriented FAST and rotated BRIEF SLAM (ORB-SLAM), one of the best visual SLAM solutions, works indoor and evaluates the technique performance for three different cameras: monocular camera, stereo camera and RGB-D camera. Three experiments are designed to find the limitation of the algorithm. From the experiments, the RGB-D SLAM gives the most accurate result for the indoor environment. The monocular SLAM performs better than stereo SLAM on our platform due to limited computation power. It is expected that stereo SLAM provides better results by increasing the experimental platform computational power. The ORBSLAM results demonstrate the applicability of the approach for the autonomous navigation and future autonomous cars.
Сrowdfunding platforms as an example of innovation startup’s financial support

Financial support is very important in the innovative sphere, because it creates the basis of the whole economic development. There are several ways how this support can be organized: from the family money to government subsidy. This paper focused on a relatively new way how a startup as a small innovative business can gain finance - crowdfunding platforms. As a preparation for the analysis theoretical concepts of innovative startup investment were considered and the unique characteristics of crowdfunding market were examined. The purpose of the study is to underline main characteristic of startups as a way of financial innovation performance, analyze the determinants of crowdfunding platform’s effectiveness, define an optimal strategic behavior for a platform to accumulate greater amount of investment and increase the number of startups which achieve their financial goals. Analysis is based on the data from 105 crowdfunding platforms during last 3 year (from 2018 till 2020). As a result, based on the multiple linear regression an analysis was conducted which showed that age, platform type and scope are main characteristics of crowdfunding platform efficiency while commission type is not correlated with startup crowdfunding success rate.