Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electrochemical Hydrogen Production Powered by PV/CSP Hybrid Power Plants: A Modelling Approach for Cost Optimal System Design

Global trade of green hydrogen will probably become a vital factor in reaching climate neutrality. The sunbelt of the Earth has a great potential for large-scale hydrogen production. One promising pathway to solar hydrogen is to use economically priced electricity from photovoltaics (PV) for electrochemical water splitting. However, storing electricity with batteries is still expensive and without storage only a small operating capacity of electrolyser systems can be reached. Combining PV with concentrated solar power (CSP) and thermal energy storage (TES) seems a good pathway to reach more electrolyser full load hours and thereby lower levelized costs of hydrogen (LCOH). This work introduces an energy system model for finding cost-optimal designs of such PV/CSP hybrid hydrogen production plants based on a global optimization algorithm. The model includes an operational strategy which improves the interplay between PV and CSP part, allowing also to store PV surplus electricity as heat. An exemplary study for stand-alone hydrogen production with an alkaline electrolyser (AEL) system is carried out. Three different locations with different solar resources are considered, regarding the total installed costs (TIC) to obtain realistic LCOH values. The study shows that a combination of PV and CSP is an auspicious concept for large-scale solar hydrogen production, leading to lower costs than using one of the technologies on its own. For today’s PV and CSP costs, minimum levelized costs of hydrogen of 4.04 USD/kg were determined for a plant located in Ouarzazate (Morocco). Considering the foreseen decrease in PV and CSP costs until 2030, cuts the LCOH to 3.09 USD/kg while still a combination of PV and CSP is the most economic system.
Dealing with the COVID-19 infodemic

This exploratory study seeks to understand information experiences, emotional reactions, and coping mechanisms of young adults concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Studying two different populations, the Finnish sample included 49 young adults, while the US sample included 154. A qualitative content analysis approach was utilized in analyzing research findings. Respondents experienced a variety of emotions including negative, positive, and neutral emotions while searching for information about the COVID-19 crisis. Respondents utilized limited information consumption, selective information consumption, and information avoidance as their primary coping mechanisms to manage information overload, anxiety, uncertainty, and emotional well-being. Overall, the findings highlighted similarities in young people’s emotional reactions and coping mechanisms in managing the pandemic-related information in both countries. The study also revealed considerable differences in their perceptions about the role of media and politics in shaping how people consume and evaluate information.
Procedure for the quantification of the degradation index of Photovoltaic Generators

A procedure is presented for the quantification of the degradation index of Photovoltaic Generators, based on the quantification of the operational losses inherent in the system, which allows maintaining the nominal operating conditions and by the warranty terms of the photovoltaic generator. A photovoltaic generator connected to the network with a nominal power of 7.5 kWp, installed in the Solar Energy Research Center of Santiago de Cuba, is used to evaluate and validate the procedure. The starting point is the mathematical model of the photovoltaic generator, then the operational losses of the photovoltaic generator are quantified and the mathematical model is adjusted to real conditions, through a polynomial adjustment. The results obtained show that the photovoltaic generator presents deviations in terms of the nominal power generation, because the operational losses are 7% with respect to the values ​​given by the manufacturer.
A Spatially Highly Resolved Ground Mounted and Rooftop Potential Analysis for Photovoltaics in Austria

Austria aims to meet 100% of its electricity demand from domestic renewable sources by 2030 which means, that an additional 27 TWh/a of renewable electricity generation are required, thereof 11 TWh/a from photovoltaic. While some federal states and municipalities released a solar rooftop cadastre, there is lacking knowledge on the estimation of the potential of both, ground mounted installations and rooftop modules, on a national level with a high spatial resolution. As a first, in this work data on agricultural land-use is combined with highly resolved data on buildings on a national level. Our results show significant differences between urban and rural areas, as well as between the Alpine regions and the Prealpine- and Easter Plain areas. Rooftop potential concentrates in the big urban areas, but also in densely populated areas in Lower- and Upper Austria, Styria and the Rhine valley of Vorarlberg. The ground mounted photovoltaic potential is highest in Eastern Austria. This potential is geographically consistent with the demand and allows for a production close to the consumer. In theory, the goal of meeting 11 TWh/a in 2030 can be achieved solely with the rooftop PV potential. However, considering the necessary installation efforts, the associated costs of small and dispersed production units and finally the inherent uncertainty with respect to the willingness of tens of thousands of individual households to install PV systems, installing the necessary solar PV on buildings alone is constrained.
Cadmium Uptake and Growth Responses of Potted Vegetables to the Cd-Contaminated Soil Inoculated with Cd-Tolerant Purpureocillium lilacinum N1

Bioremediation of Cd- (cadmium) contaminated soil using Cd-tolerant fungus is considered an eco-friendly and cost-effective technique. In this study, we isolated one fungal strain that was hyper-tolerant to Cd from a highly polluted river and conducted pot experiments to evaluate its effects on bioremediation. We found that the fungal strain belonging to the genus, Purpureocillium lilacinum, tolerated 12,000 mg/L Cd. SEM manifested that Cd can be bioaccumulated on the crumpled mycelial surface, generating plenty of metal precipitation particles. In addition, pot experiments showed that the inoculation of P. lilacinum N1 could reduce the total Cd content in soil (2.09% in low contaminated soil and 12.56% in high contaminated soil) and greatly promote plant growth (2.16~3.13 times). Although the Cd concentration of plants was increased by 112.8% in low contaminated soil and decreased by 9.5% in highly contaminated soil with the inoculation of P. lilacinum N1, the total uptake of Cd by plants was greatly improved—1.84~3.6 times higher than that in CK groups. All our results suggest that P. lilacinum N1 is a valuable candidate for the bioremediation of Cd-contaminated soils because of its dual effects on the total Cd content in soil and Cd uptake in plants.
Vitamin-D-Versorgung und die Gesundheit von schwangeren Frauen und Kindern bis zum Schulalter

Zusammenfassung Die derzeitige Studienlage weist Unklarheiten in Bezug auf Folgen einer Vitamin-D-Unterversorgung für Mutter und Kind sowie Plasma-Referenzwerte für Vitamin D und Aufnahmeempfehlungen auf. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht auf Basis einer systematischen Suche und Metaanalyse die Evidenzlage zum Zusammenhang von mütterlichem und kindlichem Vitamin D mit bestimmten gesundheitlichen Endpunkten.
Comparative Behavioral Activity Of Methanolic And Aqueous Withania Somnifera Root Extracts In Stressed Rats

In the present study, the effect of Withania somnifera extracts prepared by two different methods on behavioral parameters assessed using open field exploratory behavior, behavioral despair and passive avoidance tests were compared in young and old stressed Wistar rats. Stress was induced on the animals by giving 30 intermittent shocks for 3 s consecutively for 7 d. W. Somnifera extracts prepared with 50% methanol and solvent containing water, ghee and honey were administered orally as fine suspension during the shock period. The results revealed that stress produced depression anxiety and retention deficit in young and old rats. Administration of W. Somnifera methanolic extract 250 mg/kg during shock period in young and old rats attenuated the stress-induced depression and enhanced memory. W. Somnifera traditional extract 250 mg/kg produced memory enhancement in both control and stressed young and old rats. Both the W. Somnifera extracts failed to reverse the stress-induced anxiety. It can be concluded that in comparison to methanolic extract, traditional extract was found to be more active in memory enhancement than anxiolytic and antidepressant activity.
An Ion Chromatography Method for Simultaneous Quantification of Chromate, Arsenate, Selenate, Perchlorate, and Other Inorganic Anions in Environmental Media

Chromium (Cr) (VI) is a toxic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic water pollutant. The standard ion chromatography (IC) method for quantification of Cr (VI) in water samples is Environmental Protection Agency Method 218.7, which requires postcolumn derivatization with 1,5-diphenylcarbazide and UV-Vis spectroscopy detection. Method 218.7 is Cr (VI) specific; thus, it does not allow detection of co-occurring natural and anthropogenic anions in environmental media. In this study, we developed an isocratic IC method with suppressed conductivity detection, a Metrohm Metrosep A Supp 7 column, and sodium carbonate/acetonitrile as mobile phase for simultaneous quantification of Cr (VI), ClO4−, As (V) as arsenate, Se (VI) as selenate, and the common anions F–, Cl–, NO2−, NO3−, and SO42−. The determination coefficient for every analyte was >0.99 and the method showed good accuracy in quantification. Cr (VI), As (V), Se (VI), and ClO4− limit of detection and limit of quantification were 0.1–0.6 μg/L and 0.5–2.1 μg/L, respectively. Recovery of Cr (VI) in various aqueous samples (tap water, surface water, groundwater, and wastewater) was between 97.2% and 102.8%. Overall, most analytes showed acceptable recovery (80–120%) in the environmental samples tested. The IC method was applied to track Cr (VI) and other anion concentrations in laboratory batch microcosms experiments with soil, surface water, and anaerobic medium. The IC method developed in this study should prove useful to environmental practitioners, academic and research organizations, and industries for monitoring low concentrations of multiple anions in environmental media, helping to decrease the sample requirement, time, and cost of analysis.
A convolutional neural network combined with positional and textural attention for the fully automatic delineation of primary nasopharyngeal carcinoma on non-contrast-enhanced MRI.

Background Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have the potential to automatically delineate primary nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but currently, the literature lacks a module to introduce valuable pre-computed features into a CNN. In addition, most CNNs for primary NPC delineation have focused on contrast-enhanced MRI. To enable the use of CNNs in clinical applications where it would be desirable to avoid contrast agents, such as cancer screening or intra-treatment monitoring, we aim to develop a CNN algorithm with a positional-textural fully-connected attention (FCA) module that can automatically delineate primary NPCs on contrast-free MRI. Methods This retrospective study was performed in 404 patients with NPC who had undergone staging MRI. A proposed CNN algorithm incorporated with our positional-textural FCA module (Aproposed ) was trained on manually delineated tumours (M1st ) to automatically delineate primary NPCs on non-contrast-enhanced T2-weighted fat-suppressed (NE-T2W-FS) images. The performance of Aproposed , three well-established CNNs, Unet (Aunet ), Attention-Unet (Aatt ) and Dense-Unet (Adense ), and a second manual delineation repeated to evaluate human variability (M 2 nd ) were measured by comparing to the reference standard M 1 st to obtain the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and average surface distance (ASD). The Wilcoxon rank test was used to compare the performance of Aproposed against Aunet , Aatt , Adense and M 2 nd . Results Aproposed showed a median DSC of 0.79 (0.10) and ASD of 0.66 (0.84) mm. It performed better than the well-established networks Aunet [DSC =0.75 (0.12) and ASD =1.22 (1.73) mm], Aatt [DSC =0.75 (0.10) and ASD =0.96 (1.16) mm] and Adense [DSC =0.71 (0.14) and ASD =1.67 (1.92) mm] (all P<0.01), but slightly worse when compared to M 2 nd [DSC =0.81 (0.07) and ASD =0.56 (0.80) mm] (P<0.001). Conclusions The proposed CNN algorithm has potential to accurately delineate primary NPCs on non-contrast-enhanced MRI.
Genetic diversity of

Teratosphaeria pseudoeucalypti is a fungal pathogen that causes a severe leaf blight disease on Eucalyptus trees. While presumed to be native to Australia, T. pseudoeucalypti has become well established and an important constraint to forestry in South America. The aim of this study was to use microsatellite markers to investigate the genetic diversity of T. pseudoeucalypti outbreaks occurring in plantations in two distinct environments. In the New South Wales (NSW) plantation in Australia, a hybrid of two native Eucalyptus species was planted outside of its natural environment. In contrast, the plantations in Uruguay were of a non-native Eucalyptus species. Sixteen polymorphic microsatellite loci, identified in two genomes of T. pseudoeucalypti, were used to genotype 36 individuals from the NSW plantation and 21 were collected from across Uruguay. Genetic diversity in the NSW population was low (Hexp = 0.05), comprising five genotypes of which one occurred in > 80% of individuals. Despite high clonality and one MAT1-1 isolate among many MAT1-2 isolates, different genotypes co-occurred on a single tree and the hypothesis of recombination was not rejected. The diversity in the NSW plantation was consistent with that of an introduced pathogen, either from the surrounding native forests, or supporting earlier findings that T. pseudoeucalypti has only recently established in NSW. All isolates from Uruguay were clonal, harbouring the MAT1-1 idiomorph and a genotype distinct from those in Australia. This clonality suggests a single introduction of T. pseudoeucalypti into that country.
Anti-allergy activity of Cinnamomi cortex.

The anti-allergy activity of Cinnamomum cassia cortex extract and its fractions were investigated in mice. The extract exhibited potent anaphylactic shock and Arthus reaction. Among the fractions obtained in the successive fractionation with n-hexane, butanol and acetone, the butanol insoluble portion was shown to have the activities.
Volatility Spillovers among Developed and Developing Countries: The Global Foreign Exchange Markets

In this paper, we investigate the “static and dynamic” return and volatility spillovers’ transmission across developed and developing countries. Quoted against the US dollar, we study twenty-three global currencies over the time period 2005–2016. Focusing on the spillover index methodology, the generalised VAR framework is employed. Our findings indicate no evidence of bi-directional return and volatility spillovers between developed and developing countries. However, unidirectional volatility spillovers from developed to developing countries are highlighted. Furthermore, our findings document significant bi-directional volatility spillovers within the European region (Eurozone and non-Eurozone currencies) with the British pound sterling (GBP) and the Euro (EUR) as the most significant transmitters of volatility. The findings reiterate the prominence of volatility spillovers to financial regulators.
Genome-wide comparison of the GRAS protein family in eight Rosaceae species and GRAS gene expression analysis in Chinese white pear (Pyrus bretschneideri Rehder)

ABSTRACT The GRAS protein family encodes a family of plant-specific transcription factors that have diverse and significant functions in regulating plant development and anthocyanin biosynthesis. Our study represents the comprehensive identification and comparison of GRAS protein family genes in the Rosaceae. Here, 535 GRAS genes were screened from eight Rosaceae species. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that whole-genome duplication (WGD) events and dispersed duplication events were the major mechanisms promoting the expansion of the GRAS protein family in these Rosaceae species. Furthermore, selection pressure caused by different duplication events indicates that GRAS genes were mainly under purifying selection during the evolution process, suggesting that strong functional restriction affected the evolution of GRAS genes. Analysis of gene expression patterns and qRT-PCR assays showed that GRAS genes were widely participating in the development of pear and that expression could be tissue-specific. In particular, further analysis indicated that Pbr010864.1 and Pbr024549.1 might be two important candidate genes during anthocyanin biosynthesis in pear. Our study is the first to perform a comprehensive analysis of the GRAS genes in pear and other Rosaceae species. These results presented here provide profitable information for understanding the process of the GRAS genes evolution and the possible improvement of pear fruit quality.
Different Roles of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Processes in the Distribution of Size-Fractionated Phytoplankton in Gwangyang Bay

The interactive roles of zooplankton grazing (top-down) and nutrient (bottom-up) processes on phytoplankton distribution in a temperate estuary were investigated via dilution and nutrient addition experiments. The responses of size-fractionated phytoplankton and major phytoplankton groups, as determined by flow cytometry, were examined in association with zooplankton grazing and nutrient availability. The summer bloom was attributed to nanoplankton, and microplankton was largely responsible for the winter bloom, whereas the picoplankton biomass was relatively consistent throughout the sampling periods, except for the fall. The nutrient addition experiments illustrated that nanoplankton responded more quickly to phosphate than the other groups in the summer, whereas microplankton had a faster response to most nutrients in the winter. The dilution experiments ascribed that the grazing mortality rates of eukaryotes were low compared to those of the other groups, whereas autotrophic cyanobacteria were more palatable to zooplankton than cryptophytes and eukaryotes. Our experimental results indicate that efficient escape from zooplankton grazing and fast response to nutrient availability synergistically caused the microplankton to bloom in the winter, whereas the bottom-up process (i.e., the phosphate effect) largely governed the nanoplankton bloom in the summer.
Temperature rise in the human body exposed to radiation from base station antennas

Thermal analysis of human expoure to base station antennas radiation is presented in this work. The formulation is based on a simplified cylindrical representation of the human body. Knowing the internal electric field and related total absorbed power in the human body, a resulting thermal response of the body due to the exposure to high frequency (HF) radiation can be determined. The temperature rise in the body exposed to base stations antenna radiation is determined by solving the bio-heat transfer equation via both the dual reciprocity boundary element method (DR-BEM) and finite element method (FEM). The temperature rise in the body is found to be rather negligible.
The neighbourhood as a fitness circuit: a Singaporean case study of designing for active ageing

ABSTRACT Population ageing is a rapidly emerging policy and planning challenge for cities around the world. Physical activity is one important piece of this puzzle, linked to benefits to quality of life, physical and mental health and long term functional independence of older adults. This case study considers how to facilitate such healthy ageing in the context of neighbourhood design. The research centres on the behaviour and preferences of adults aged 55+ in a microcosm of Singapore’s housing estates. A mixed methods approach is used to understand how older adults perceive, move within and utilize the facilities available in their immediate vicinity. The research finds ample opportunity for the design of fixed elements in the neighbourhood – stairs, walking paths, seating – to more productively engage older adults in physical activity. The findings are translated into the concept of the neighbourhood as a fitness circuit, focused on adaptations of existing elements within the built environment that are geared towards the physical development needs of older adults and integrated into common neighbourhood walking routes. They further highlight how we can continue to reframe and adapt infrastructure to meet the constantly evolving demographics of the city.
Cognitive Support Tools for a Pre-Performance Routine in a Darts Game

This paper describes two types of a cognitive support tools for a pre-performance routine (PPR) in a darts game. PPRs entail the performance of determined motions before an action and are often executed in sports for the purpose of removing stress or raising concentration. The concentration-stabilizing phenomenon was discovered by the previous research, and it determined that the phenomenon appears more conspicuous in the case of experts and PPRs. A tool using a simple brainwaves sensor has been designed and shows us the current status of concentration and notifies us of the concentration-stabilizing phenomenon on a tablet computer. Another tool has been developed on a smart watch with a heart rate sensor. The smart watch indicated heartbeat as a “beep” sound to a user. It was designed based on a result that indicated that darts game scores tend to improve by throwing immediately after a heartbeat. The effectiveness of the tools were verified in several experiments.
Factors Affecting Performance and Growth of Food Sector BUMD Jakarta Province

This study identifies factors that improve the food sector BUMDs in Jakarta province's performance and growth through a quantitative approach using SEM-PLS data analysis. The research was motivated by the consistent under-performance of the BUMDs in Indonesia. Respondents were 98 employees from middle to top-level management positions in three food BUMDs in Jakarta. The 12 main indicators were divided into five variables in the measurement model, including management, organization, human resources, finance and technology mastery. Among the five variables used in the structural model, only finance significantly affected the BUMD business's performance and growth. Contrastingly, management, organization, human resources and mastery technology do not significantly improve business performance and growth. Therefore, companies and the Provincial Government need to evaluate and improve capital structure and business volume growth. Due to increased company profitability, the multiplier effect improves business growth and performance.