Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Basic aspects for improving the energy conversion efficiency of hetero-junction organic photovoltaic cells

Hetero-junction organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells consisting of donor (D) and acceptor (A) layers have been regarded as next-generation PV cells, because of their fascinating advantages, such as lightweight, low fabrication cost, resource free, and flexibility, when compared to those of conventional PV cells based on silicon and semiconductor compounds. However, the power conversion efficiency (η) of the OPV cells has been still around 8%, though more than 10% efficiency has been required for their practical use. To fully optimize these OPV cells, it is necessary that the low mobility of carriers/excitons in the OPV cells and the open circuit voltage (V OC), of which origin has not been understood well, should be improved. In this review, we address an improvement of the mobility of carriers/excitons by controlling the crystal structure of a donor layer and address how to increase the V OC for zinc octaethylporphyrin [Zn(OEP)]/C60 hetero-junction OPV cells [ITO/Zn(OEP)/C60/Al]. It was found that crystallization of Zn(OEP) films increases the number of inter-molecular charge transfer (IMCT) excitons and enlarges the mobility of carriers and IMCT excitons, thus significantly improving the external quantum efficiency (EQE) under illumination of the photoabsorption band due to the IMCT excitons. Conversely, charge accumulation of photo-generated carriers in the vicinity of the donor/acceptor (D/A) interface was found to play a key role in determining the V OC for the OPV cells.
Through the Immune Looking Glass: A Model for Brain Memory Strategies

The immune system (IS) and the central nervous system (CNS) are complex cognitive networks involved in defining the identity (self) of the individual through recognition and memory processes that enable one to anticipate responses to stimuli. Brain memory has traditionally been classified as either implicit or explicit on psychological and anatomical grounds, with reminiscences of the evolutionarily-based innate-adaptive IS responses. Beyond the multineuronal networks of the CNS, we propose a theoretical model of brain memory integrating the CNS as a whole. This is achieved by analogical reasoning between the operational rules of recognition and memory processes in both systems, coupled to an evolutionary analysis. In this new model, the hippocampus is no longer specifically ascribed to explicit memory but rather it both becomes part of the innate (implicit) memory system and tightly controls the explicit memory system. Alike the antigen presenting cells for the IS, the hippocampus would integrate transient and pseudo-specific (i.e., danger-fear) memories and would drive the formation of long-term and highly specific or explicit memories (i.e., the taste of the Proust’s madeleine cake) by the more complex and recent, evolutionarily speaking, neocortex. Experimental and clinical evidence is provided to support the model. We believe that the singularity of this model’s approximation could help to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms operating in brain memory strategies from a large-scale network perspective.
Communicative patterns and politeness strategies in ‘sms your views’ column in a local English daily / Shanthi Karappan

This study investigates the linguistics forms, communicative features and language use in ‘SMS Your Views’ column of The Star daily. A collection of 1030 text messages sent by the readers of The Star daily retrieved from the daily’s online portal. Three frameworks were used in this study. The frameworks are by Ling(2005), Thurlow(2003) and Brown and Levinson(1987). Ling’s framework is used to investigate the linguistics forms of the text messages. Thurlow’s communication theme and orientation framework is used to identify the communicative pattern of the messages. Brown and Levinson’s Politeness theory is used to examine the politeness strategy in the messages. Investigation on linguistics forms identified that the use of abbreviations in these messages is not new or incomprehensible. The messages were also identified containing complex message structure, minimal violation of capitalization usage, rare punctuation usage and the use of Malay acronyms as the most preferred code-switching pattern. The communicative pattern in the messages was identified with only seven communication thematic content. In sequence of order, they are Informational Practical, Informational Relational, Social Arrangement, Practical Arrangement, Friendship Maintenance, Phatic and Chain Messages. The communication orientation identified is more high intimacy high relational orientation. Lastly, investigation of language use in terms of politeness strategy identified that the use of positive politeness strategy is prominent. This is followed by bald on record strategy, negative politeness strategy and off record strategy. This study reflects on Malaysian diversity in embracing technology into their daily life. It reflects the capability, creativity, and hospitality of local texters in indulging themselves openly by texting to a publicly accessible social media.
Soy food intake behavior by socio-demographic characteristics of Korean housewives

In this study, the soy food intake behaviors including perception and intake frequency of soybean foods by sociodemographic variables were analyzed in housewives. The perception of housewives for soy foods showed that soybean paste, soybean curd, and Dambuk were high in the descending order for nutritional quality and health promotion effect, and soybean paste received the highest score in taste and flavor. Soybean sprouts received the highest evaluation score in the economic aspect. In the aspect of safe food, soybean paste received the highest evaluation score, as mush as a traditional food. The analysis of perception by sociodemographic variables showed that soybean curd, Dambuk, and soybean sprouts had higher perceptions as education level increased, and soy milk had higher perceptions in subjects with younger age and with employment. In the intake frequency, more than 50% of the subjects had soybean curd, soybean sprouts, and soybean paste more than once a week. The analysis for correlation between the intake frequency of soy foods and the degree of perception showed that taste and flavor had high correlation with the intake frequency of soy foods except soybean sprouts. The intake frequency of soybean paste, Dambuk, and soy milk had positive correlations to familiarity and that of soy milk had positive correlations to nutrition and health perception, and those of soybeam paste, soybean sprouts, and soy milk had positive correlations to safe food perception. From the above results, housewives in Korea had very high perceptions to nutritional quality and health promotion effect of soy foods and the degree of perception and accompanied intake frequency had significant differences by age, education level, and economic level among sociodemographic variables.
Estimation of Expected Life-Years Saved From Successful Prevention of End-Stage Renal Disease in Elderly Patients With Diabetes

OBJECTIVE Because of the increasing incidence and prevalence of diabetes as a leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the aging population, we estimated the expected life-years (LYs) saved from successful prevention of ESRD in elderly patients with diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted a population-based cohort study using the National Health Insurance Research Database. We identified all incidences of ESRD in the individuals >65 years of age who were receiving maintenance hemodialysis (N = 24,243) from the registry files of catastrophic illnesses in Taiwan from 1 July 1997 to 31 December 2005. We then retrospectively searched the database to determine whether there had been a diagnosis of diabetes in these cases. After the exclusion of individuals with malignancy (n = 3,423), we extrapolated the survival rates through the end of 2006 using the Monte Carlo method. Using the data of preventable ESRD cases due to diabetes and expected years of life lost (EYLL) in each age stratum, we further estimated the expected LYs saved from successful prevention of ESRD in elderly patients with diabetes. RESULTS The estimated average EYLL was 10.6–5.8 and 12.3–7.3 years for diabetic males and females, respectively, aged 65–79 years. In total, 5,430.1 LYs and 10,177 LYs could be saved by the successful prevention of ESRD in male and female elderly patients with diabetes, respectively, in a single year. CONCLUSIONS The LYs saved by successful prevention of ESRD in elderly patients with diabetes in a single year are substantial and deserve special attention, especially in elderly females.
THE CHANDRA DEEP PROTOCLUSTER SURVEY: EVIDENCE FOR AN ENHANCEMENT OF AGN ACTIVITY IN THE SSA22 PROTOCLUSTER AT z = 3.09

We present results from a new ultra-deep ≈400 ks Chandra observation of the SSA22 protocluster at z = 3.09. We have studied the X-ray properties of 234 z ∼ 3 Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs; protocluster and field) and 158 z = 3.09 Lyα Emitters (LAEs) in SSA22 to measure the influence of the high-density protocluster environment on the accretion activity of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in these UV-selected star-forming populations. We detect individually X-ray emission from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in six LBGs and five LAEs; due to small overlap between the LBG and LAE source population, ten of these sources are unique. At least six and potentially eight of these sources are members of the protocluster. These sources have rest-frame 8–32 keV luminosities in the range of L8−32 keV = (3–50) ×1043 ergs s−1and an average observed-frame 2–8 keV to 0.5–2 keV band ratio (BR) of ≈0.8 (mean effective photon index of Γeff≈ 1.1), suggesting significant absorption columns of NH ≳ 1022–1024 cm−2. We find that the fraction of LBGs and LAEs in the z = 3.09 protocluster harboring an AGN with L8−32 keV ≳ 3 × 1043 ergs s−1is 9.5+12.7−6.1% and 5.1+6.8−3.3%, respectively. These AGN fractions are somewhat larger (by a mean factor of 6.1+10.3−3.6; significant at the ≈95% confidence level) than z ∼ 3 sources found in lower-density “field” environments. Theoretical models imply that these results may be due to the presence of more actively growing and/or massive SMBHs in LBGs and LAEs within the protocluster compared to the field. Such a result is expected in a scenario where enhanced merger activity in the protocluster drives accelerated galaxy and SMBH growth at z≳ 2–3. Using Spitzer IRAC imaging we found that the fraction of IRAC-detected LBGs is significantly larger in the protocluster than in the field (by a factor of 3.0+2.0−1.3). From these data, we constrained the median rest-frame H-band luminosity in the protocluster to be ≳ 1.2–1.8 times larger than that for the field. When combined with our X-ray data, this suggests that both galaxies and SMBHs grew more rapidly in protocluster environments.
Internationally adopted children’s cognitive and social-emotional development during the first post-adoption year: A longitudinal study

Abstract Research is consistent in showing that international adoption is an intervention leading to great recovery for adopted children, but there is a need of research on factors associated with recovery. The present study is aimed at: (a) assessing children’s cognitive skills and social-emotional dimensions on their arrival to their new family; (b) evaluating their development after one year; (c) identifying which factors influence development, taking into account children’s gender, age, health status on arrival, years of institutionalization, and the initial psychological delay. Participants were 53 internationally adopted children (30 boys and 23 girls), aged 5.68 years old on average at placement (range 2–14). Results showed that children’s development one year after adoption was extraordinary, both in cognitive skills and in social-emotional dimensions. The children more delayed on arrival showed the larger progress over time, and their recovery was greater in cognitive skills than in social-emotional dimensions.
User Response to Speech Recognition Errors: Consistency of Behaviour Across Domains

The problems caused by imperfect speech recognition in spoken dialogue systems are well known: they confound the ability of the system to manage the dialogue, and can lead to both user frustration and task failure. Speech recognition errors are likely to persist for the foreseeable future, and so the development and adoption of a well-founded approach to the handling of error situations may be an important component in achieving general public acceptability for systems of this kind. In this paper, we compare two studies of user behaviour in response to speech recognition errors in quite different dialog applications; the analysis supports the view that user behaviour during error conditions contains a large component that is independent of the domain of the dialogue. The prospect of a consistent response to errors across a wide range of domains enhances the prospects for a general theory of error recognition and repair.
A GPU implementation of a track-repeating algorithm for proton radiotherapy dose calculations

An essential component in proton radiotherapy is the algorithm to calculate the radiation dose to be delivered to the patient. The most common dose algorithms are fast but they are approximate analytical approaches. However their level of accuracy is not always satisfactory, especially for heterogeneous anatomical areas, like the thorax. Monte Carlo techniques provide superior accuracy; however, they often require large computation resources, which render them impractical for routine clinical use. Track-repeating algorithms, for example the fast dose calculator, have shown promise for achieving the accuracy of Monte Carlo simulations for proton radiotherapy dose calculations in a fraction of the computation time. We report on the implementation of the fast dose calculator for proton radiotherapy on a card equipped with graphics processor units (GPUs) rather than on a central processing unit architecture. This implementation reproduces the full Monte Carlo and CPU-based track-repeating dose calculations within 2%, while achieving a statistical uncertainty of 2% in less than 1 min utilizing one single GPU card, which should allow real-time accurate dose calculations.
Tuition Fees in Spanish Public Universities: A Regional Convergence Analysis

We examine the regional evolution, dispersion and mobility of Spanish tuition fees using sigma and gamma convergence methodologies. The period of analysis varies depending on the type of study considered, being the maximum period between 1992 and 2014. The analysis reveals an increase of tuition fees over time. With regards to σ-convergence, there has been a growing dispersion of tuition fees of all type of studies considered among Spanish regions: undergraduate degrees adapted and not adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) as well as master studies (adapted to the EHEA). Moreover, γ-convergence results show an increasing mobility of regions in a ranking of tuition fees in all type of studies (although especially in masters). These results illustrate that the dispersion and mobility of university fees among Spanish regions have increased during a period of decentralisation of the Spanish Higher Education system, adaptation to the EHEA and a new tuition pricing system (since 2012).
Cholelithiasis in Childhood: A Cohort Study in North of Iran

Objective Cholelithiasis rarely occurs in children but the increased use of ultrasonography has led to increased detection of gallstones in patients. The epidemiology and predisposing factors of cholelithiasis vary in different populations. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical presentation, predisposing factors and to evaluate management and outcome of patients referred to Amirkola Children's Hospital jn Babol. Methods This cohort study was performed on children with cholelithiasis referred during 2000 to 2011. Cholelithiasis was diagnosed with ultrasonography. The data was obtained based on history, physical exam, clinical and paraclinical investigations and analyzed by SPSS version 18. P-value <0.05 was considered being significant. Findings From the 66 patients with cholelithiasis, 39 (59.1%) were males. The mean age at diagnosis was 6.6±4.5 years. The most common predisposing factor included ceftriaxone therapy (27.3%), hemolytic diseases (13.6%), hepatobiliary diseases (7.5%) and cystic fibrosis (7.5%). In 30.3% of patients, no predisposing factor was detected. The most common complaint was abdominal pain (67%). Among the patients in whom abdominal X-Ray was performed, only 20% had radiopaque gallstones; 6 (9%) patients underwent cholecystectomy. Conclusion According to this study, ceftriaxone therapy and hemolytic diseases were the most common predisposing factors in children with cholelithiasis in our area and cholecystectomy had not been needed in most patients.
Comparison of boreal ecosystem model sensitivity to variability in climate and forest site parameters

Ecosystem models are useful tools for evaluating environmental controls on carbon and water cycles under past or future conditions. In this paper we compare annual carbon and water fluxes from nine boreal spruce forest ecosystem models in a series of sensitivity simulations. For each comparison, a single climate driver or forest site parameter was altered in a separate sensitivity run. Driver and parameter changes were prescribed principally to be large enough to identify and isolate any major differences in model responses, while also remaining within the range of variability that the boreal forest biome may be exposed to over a time period of several decades. The models simulated plant production, autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration, and evapotranspiration (ET) for a black spruce site in the boreal forest of central Canada (56°N). Results revealed that there were common model responses in gross primary production, plant respiration, and ET fluxes to prescribed changes in air temperature or surface irradiance and to decreased precipitation amounts. The models were also similar in their responses to variations in canopy leaf area, leaf nitrogen content, and surface organic layer thickness. The models had different sensitivities to certain parameters, namely the net primary production response to increased CO2 levels, and the response of soil microbial respiration to precipitation inputs and soil wetness. These differences can be explained by the type (or absence) of photosynthesis-CO2 response curves in the models and by response algorithms of litter and humus decomposition to drying effects in organic soils of the boreal spruce ecosystem. Differences in the couplings of photosynthesis and soil respiration to nitrogen availability may also explain divergent model responses. Sensitivity comparisons imply that past conditions of the ecosystem represented in the models' initial standing wood and soil carbon pools, including historical climate patterns and the time since the last major disturbance, can be as important as potential climatic changes to prediction of the annual ecosystem carbon balance in this boreal spruce forest.
Broncho-Pleural Fistula with Hydropneumothorax at CT: Diagnostic Implications in Mycobacterium avium Complex Lung Disease with Pleural Involvement

Objective To determine the patho-mechanism of pleural effusion or hydropneumothorax in Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) lung disease through the computed tomographic (CT) findings. Materials and Methods We retrospectively collected data from 5 patients who had pleural fluid samples that were culture-positive for MAC between January 2001 and December 2013. The clinical findings were investigated and the radiological findings on chest CT were reviewed by 2 radiologists. Results The 5 patients were all male with a median age of 77 and all had underlying comorbid conditions. Pleural fluid analysis revealed a wide range of white blood cell counts (410–100690/µL). The causative microorganisms were determined as Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium intracellulare in 1 and 4 patients, respectively. Radiologically, the peripheral portion of the involved lung demonstrated fibro-bullous changes or cavitary lesions causing lung destruction, reflecting the chronic, insidious nature of MAC lung disease. All patients had broncho-pleural fistulas (BPFs) and pneumothorax was accompanied with pleural effusion. Conclusion In patients with underlying MAC lung disease who present with pleural effusion, the presence of BPFs and pleural air on CT imaging are indicative that spread of MAC infection is the cause of the effusion.
A Protocol to Generate Germ Free Drosophila for Microbial InteractionStudies

Drosophila (fly) gut is used as a model system to study the host microbe interaction. Various developmental, physiological, functional and immunological similarities exist between the gut of the vertebrate and the fly. These similarities advocates their utility as a model system for the study of various gut related diseases. Wild type flies found in its natural environment and those raised in the enclosed laboratory conditions have their own natural microbiota colonizing the gut. This natural gut microbiota may interfere with orally administered microbe-Drosophila interaction studies. To overcome this problem various labs are in the process of raising germ free flies. Germ free Drosophila is completely devoid of intestinal microbiota or any kind of microbial colonization. These germ free fly would be helpful as powerful model in exploring the role of a particular microbial strain or a specific microbial genera interacting with the host in isolation either in the mono- or poly-associated state unravelling the complex interplay between bacteria and the host. The current paper describes a protocol to generate a germ free fly for use in microbial interaction studies.
Future Orientation and Self-Perception Minimize Risk Engagement and Promote Positive Youth Development

ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . iv LIST OF TABLES . ix LIST OF FIGURES . x CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW . 1 Conceptual Frameworks . 4 Identity Development . 4 Self-Concept . 6 Possible Selves . 7 Future Orientation . 8 Sense of Purpose . 10 Self-Perceptions . 11 Future Orientation and Self-Perceptions . 14 CHAPTER II STUDY 1 . 16 Theoretical Framework . 17 Future Orientation and Adolescents’ Risky Behavior . 17 Self-Esteem and Risky Behaviors . 20 Self-Esteem and Future Orientation as Mediating Variables . 22 The Current Study . 24 Method . 25 Participants . 25 Measures . 26 Procedure . 29 Preliminary Analyses . 30 Data Analyses . 31 Model testing. 32 Model fit. 33