Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electron-hole excitations and optical spectra from first principles

We present a recently developed approach to calculate electron-hole excitations and the optical spectra of condensed matter from first principles. The key concept is to describe the excitations of the electronic system by the corresponding one- and two-particle Green's function. The method combines three computational techniques. First, the electronic ground state is treated within density-functional theory. Second, the single-particle spectrum of the electrons and holes is obtained within the $\mathrm{GW}$ approximation to the electron self-energy operator. Finally, the electron-hole interaction is calculated and a Bethe-Salpeter equation is solved, yielding the coupled electron-hole excitations. The resulting solutions allow the calculation of the entire optical spectrum. This holds both for bound excitonic states below the band gap, as well as for the resonant spectrum above the band gap. We discuss a number of technical developments needed for the application of the method to real systems. To illustrate the approach, we discuss the excitations and optical spectra of spatially isolated systems (atoms, molecules, and semiconductor clusters) and of extended, periodic crystals (semiconductors and insulators).
Predicting information searchers' topic knowledge at different search stages

As a significant contextual factor in information search, topic knowledge has been gaining increased research attention. We report on a study of the relationship between information searchers' topic knowledge and their search behaviors, and on an attempt to predict searchers' topic knowledge from their behaviors during the search. Data were collected in a controlled laboratory experiment with 32 undergraduate journalism student participants, each searching on 4 tasks of different types. In general, behavioral variables were not found to have significant differences between users with high and low levels of topic knowledge, except the mean first dwell time on search result pages. Several models were built to predict topic knowledge using behavioral variables calculated at 3 different stages of search episodes: the first‐query‐round, the middle point of the search, and the end point. It was found that a model using some search behaviors observed in the first query round led to satisfactory prediction results. The results suggest that early‐session search behaviors can be used to predict users' topic knowledge levels, allowing personalization of search for users with different levels of topic knowledge, especially in order to assist users with low topic knowledge.
Non‐canonical roles of tRNAs and tRNA mimics in bacterial cell biology

Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are the macromolecules that transfer activated amino acids from aminoacyl‐tRNA synthetases to the ribosome, where they are used for the mRNA guided synthesis of proteins. Transfer RNAs are ancient molecules, perhaps even predating the existence of the translation machinery. Albeit old, these molecules are tremendously conserved, a characteristic that is well illustrated by the fact that some bacterial tRNAs are efficient and specific substrates of eukaryotic aminoacyl‐tRNA synthetases and ribosomes. Considering their ancient origin and high structural conservation, it is not surprising that tRNAs have been hijacked during evolution for functions outside of translation. These roles beyond translation include synthetic, regulatory and information functions within the cell. Here we provide an overview of the non‐canonical roles of tRNAs and their mimics in bacteria, and discuss some of the common themes that arise when comparing these different functions.
Antipsychotic drug use and associations with neuropsychiatric symptoms in persons with impaired cognition: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in cognitive disorders impair quality of life, increase caregiver stress, and may lead to earlier institutionalization and death. The objective of this study was to investigate the use of antipsychotics among persons with cognitive impairment in home care and residential care, and its associations with NPS and personal characteristics. Methods: Data were collected in the South Savo Hospital District area with 105 000 inhabitants, where 66 of 68 institutions providing long-term residential care and 20 of 21 municipal home care producers joined the study. Nurses recorded the current use of drugs, the activities of daily living (ADL), prevalence of diagnosed dementia, and assessed the cognitive status and the prevalence of recent NPS based on the item list of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI). Results: The study population was 1909 persons with cognitive impairment, and 1188 of them lived in residential care. Antipsychotics were used by 563 (29.5%) persons in the whole study population. In residential care 448 (37.7%) used antipsychotics and the corresponding figure in home care was 115 (15.9%). In the multivariate analysis, the antipsychotic use was associated with living in residential care, benzodiazepine use, and with NPS symptoms agitation/aggression (OR =1.70, 95% CI =1.16–2.48), disinhibition (OR =2.33, 95% CI =1.31–4.15), hallucinations (OR =2.77, 95% CI =1.69–4.55), and delusions (OR =1.71, 95% CI =1.01–2.91). Conclusions: Antipsychotic use was common among persons with cognitive impairment. The results suggest that antipsychotics are commonly used to treat hyperactivity and psychotic symptoms, especially in residential care.
Preliminary assessment of nutritional value of plant-based diets in relation to human nutrients

In this research, we present preliminary nutritional data for traditional vegetables and fruits including their content of mineral elements (calcium, potassium, sodium, zinc, and iron) and antioxidant phenolic compounds levels. Eight vegetables and vegetables were studied. Plant foods Asparagus officinalis DC, Chlorophytum comosum Linn. , Cordia myxa Roxb. , Portulaca oleracia Linn. and Solanum indicum Linn. were collected in Behbehan, south Iran, and also Alocacia indica Sch. , Eulophia ocherata Lindl. and Momordica dioica Roxb. were collected from the south of India. Nutrients were measured with food analytical standard methods. The results of this study provide evidence that these local traditional vegetables, which do not require formal cultivation, could be important contributors to improving the nutritional content of Pune and Behbehan people. Results indicate that 50% of the vegetables have significant energy values ranging from 281.4 to 303.9 kcal/100 g. From this study, it was determined that five vegetables, namely A. officinalis, C. comosum, E. ocherata, P. oleracia and S. indicum, provide mineral concentrations exceeding 2% of the plant dry weight and are much higher than typical mineral concentrations in conventional edible vegetables; they are thus recommended for future commercial cultivation. High levels of antioxidant compounds were noticed in P. oleracia and S. indicum. The three plants S. indicum, A. officinalis and P. oleracia are suitable for high-temperature food processes.
Possibility of potential VWD misdiagnosis or misclassification using LIA technology and due to presence of rheumatoid factor

von Willebrand's disease (VWD) is now recognised to be the most common inherited bleeding disorder and is due to defects and/or deficiencies in von Willebrand factor (VWF). The latex immuno‐assay (LIA) procedure has become a popular VWF:Ag detection methodology because of the ability to automate testing. In this report, we present findings which urge caution when normal LIA results are obtained co‐incident to striking clinical findings strongly suggestive of VWD, or previous laboratory findings consistent with VWD. As illustrated by a relevant case study, normal LIA results may lead to an “incorrect diagnosis” of “not VWD” or to a potential subtype misdiagnosis, should they be accepted without cross‐confirmation using alternative VWF methodologies. Am. J. Hematol. 66:53–56, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Loan Resales, Asset Selection and Borrowing Cost

While a number of studies have addressed the motivations for, and interrelationships among loan sales, bank risk and liquidity, little empirical consideration has been given to banks' selection of loans for sale or to how loan resales impact initial loan pricing. The results suggest that shedding lower quality loans features prominently as a motive for secondary loan sales. Furthermore, a strong positive association is revealed between the ex ante probability of loan resales and the primary market loan spread. A change in the probability of loan resales from zero to one hundred percent elicits an increase in the primary loan spread of approximately 100 basis points, causing an adverse effect on borrowers. We conclude that loan resales represent a negative-information event and speculate that some of this negative impact results from the reduced monitoring efforts associated with a loan resale.
Analysis of scattering by a large array of waveguide-fed wide-slot millimeter wave antennas using precorrected-FFT algorithm

An effective numerical technique employing the precorrected-fast Fourier transform (P-FFT) technique based on the method-of-moments (MoM) is presented to study the scattering from wide-slot antennas fed by waveguides with arbitrary terminations. As the Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) functions are used as the basis and testing functions, the magnetic currents with arbitrary slot directions are considered. In addition, the P-FFT technique is employed to accelerate the MoM procedure for a large slot array. The numerical results are obtained and compared with both the traditional MoM results obtained using the entire-domain basis functions and the experiments results, to demonstrate better effectiveness and accuracy of this technique for millimeter wave scattering from arbitrary wide-slot antennas.
Intraocular pressure and ocular perfusion pressure in myopes during 21 min head-down rest.

INTRODUCTION Myopic eyes show structural differences from normal eyes and may respond differently to microgravity, increasing the risk for possible development of ocular hypertension and glaucoma on orbit. In this experiment we used head-down rest (HDR) at an angle of 15 degrees to produce hydrostatic changes similar to acute exposure to microgravity. METHODS There were 65 subjects (129 eyes) who were divided into groups characterized by refraction: emmetropes (N = 46; refraction error between -0.99 D and +0.10 D), low myopes (N = 39; > or = -1.0 D to < -3.0 D), and moderate myopes (N = 44; > or = -3.0 D to < -6.0 D). Each subject was studied resting in a horizontal position and after 1, 6, 11, 16, and 21 min of HDR. Measured variables included systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP, respectively), intraocular pressure (IOP), and ocular perfusion pressure (OPP). RESULTS The mean values of IOP increased significantly in all eyes during HDR, with IOP peaking at 6 min. Compared to emmetropes and low myopes, moderate myopes showed a significantly greater increase in IOP and higher peak values for IOP (18.6, 18.7, and 19.8 mmHg for emmetropes, low, and moderate myopes, respectively). Mean values of OPP in moderate myopes were significantly lower than in emmetropes and low myopes during HDR. Compared with baseline, mean SBP and DBP decreased obviously in emmetropes during HDR, while changes were minimal in the other groups. CONCLUSION Abnormal auto-regulation of ocular blood pressure in myopes of moderate and greater severity may pose a risk factor for developing ocular hypertension and possibly glaucoma when exposed to microgravity. HDR may offer a method of screening candidates for spaceflight for this risk prior to microgravity exposure.
RDP9216 The Evolution of Corporate Financial Structure: 1973–1990

Increases in corporate debt in a variety of countries over the past decade have renewed interest in the relationship between leverage and the macro-economy. In general, the theoretical work on these links has outpaced the empirical research. This paper is an initial attempt to examine changes in corporate financial structure in Australia over the past two decades. It explores the evolution of debt-asset ratios, interest cover ratios, dividend pay-out ratios and the ratio of trade credit to total debt, for a sample of 110 Australian firms, over the years 1973 to 1990. It examines changes in the across firm distribution of the ratios as well as changes in the average ratios. It also examines the relationship between the cyclicality of industry output and earnings on the one hand and the evolution of financial structure on the other.
Chemical castration by a single bilateral intra-testicular injection of chlorhexidine gluconate and cetrimide in bucks

Six apparently healthy Borno white bucks weighing 15± 1.6 kg and aged 1.3± 0.3 years were used for this study. Two and half (2.5) ml Purit® (chlorhexidine gluconate 0.3% B.P W/V and cetrimide 3.0% B.P W/V CAPL Lagos) were injected bilaterally into the caudae of each epididymis following sedation with xylazine hydrochloride. The pre-study scrotal circumference was 20.1±1.5cm; Significant decrease in scrotal circumference (P0.05) between pre-injection semen volume 0.6±2.1ml and 24 hour post-injection semen volume 0.3±1.4cm. Subsequently, only few drops could be collected and from day 20 post- injection, no semen ejaculate could be collected from all the six bucks. Azoospermia was noted from day 16 post-injection with 0% motile cells, 95% dead cells and 25-60% abnormal sperm cells. From this study, Purit® (chlorhexidine gluconate B.P 0.3% W/V and cetrimide B.P 3.0% W/V) can be used as an effective chemical castration agent in small ruminants.
Periodic pattern analysis of non-uniformly sampled stock market data

Periodic pattern detection is an important data mining task that highlights the temporal regularities within the data. It aims at finding if a partial or full pattern has a cyclic repetition in the considered time series or data sequence. Periodicity is found in large number of datasets including meteorological data, transaction count, computer network traffic, power consumption, sunspots, Electrocardiography ECG, biological sequences such as DNA and protein [33]. Periodic pattern analysis not only helps in understanding the behavior of the data but also contributes in predicting the future trends of the data. There are several algorithms reported in the literature for periodicity detection in time series and biological sequences [3,34] but none of these algorithms discuss the non-uniformly sampled data. General assumption in the time series and sequence data is that the consecutive data values are sampled at regular or uniform interval of time. But this assumption hardly holds in real datasets; for example the stock market data analyzed in this paper record various features for each working day. This data has a quite a few missing values for weekly and arbitrary holidays. Although handling this issue is not very complex but requires careful handling. In this paper we analyze the stock market data in detail and show how the periodic pattern analysis may provide the understanding of the data to predict the future trends. Our experimental results show that consideration of missing values in stock market data results in much larger number of interesting results than the trivial periodicity detection approach ignoring the missing values.
Global regulation of gene expression in Escherichia coli

Global transcription responses of Escherichia coli to various stimuli or genetic defects were studied by measuring mRNA levels in about 400 segments of the genome. Measuring mRNA levels was done by analyzing hybridization to DNA dot blots made with overlapping lambda clones spanning the genome of E. coli K-12. Conditions examined included isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) induction, heat shock, osmotic shock, starvation for various nutrients, entrance of cells into the stationary phase of growth, anaerobic growth in a tube, growth in the gnotobiotic mouse gut, and effects of pleiotropic mutations rpoH, himA, topA, and crp. Most mapped genes known to be regulated by a particular situation were successfully detected. In addition, many chromosomal regions containing no previously known regulated genes were discovered that responded to various stimuli. This new method for studying globally regulated genetic systems in E. coli combines detection, cloning, and physical mapping of a battery of coregulated genes in one step.
Prospective application of reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction for diagnosing influenza infections in respiratory samples from a children's hospital

A prospective clinical evaluation of the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RNA PCR) for detection of influenza viruses was carried out with specimens from 342 patients of a children's hospital in The Netherlands. The RNA PCR, carried out directly on the specimens without an organic extraction, showed a sensitivity and specificity which are superior to those of direct immunofluorescence and comparable to those of cell culture combined with immunofluorescence (culture/IF). Negative results can be obtained within 2 days by the RNA PCR but may take up to 14 days by culture/IF. Because culturing is the standard technique for the detection of respiratory viruses, at this moment there are no strong arguments to replace culture/IF with RNA PCR for the detection of influenza A virus.
Agency Costs and Audit Pricing: Evidence on Discretionary Accruals

This paper tests four hypotheses: (1) there is a positive association between the magnitude of discretionary accruals and audit fees, (2) this positive association is stronger for Big 6 auditees than for Non-Big 6 auditees, (3) there is a negative association between family ownership of companies and audit fees, and (4) there is a negative association between the percentage of independent non-executive directors and audit fees. The first two hypotheses are based on the assumption that when managers manipulate accruals to conceal poor performance or postpone earnings to future years, auditors revise upwards their assessments of inherent risk which will result in higher audit fees. More specifically, the second hypothesis is based on the premise that Big 6 auditors have more reputation capital to protect than Non-Big 6 auditors. Hypotheses three and four rely on the assumption that as a result of higher monitoring and lower agency costs associated with family ownership and higher percentage of non-executive directors, auditors assess lower levels of inherent risks and charge lower audit fees. Results using 134 company-year observations from 67 companies provide support for all four hypotheses.
Viral kinetics during antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C and persistently normal ALT levels

The aim of the present study was to compare viral kinetics between patients with chronic hepatitis C and persistently normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and those with elevated ALT levels. Kinetic parameters were derived from nonlinear, least square fitting of serum hepatitis C virus RNA quantifications collected from patients with chronic hepatitis C and persistently normal (n = 20) and elevated (n = 19) ALT levels before and during treatment with 180 μg pegylated interferon α‐2a once weekly plus daily ribavirin. Patients with chronic hepatitis C and persistently normal ALT levels showed a trend to lower pretreatment infected cell loss (δ) (P = .13) but no differences in efficacy of blocking virus production (ϵ) and infected cell loss during treatment (mδ) compared with patients with elevated ALT levels. Differences were significant for ϵ (P = .02) and δ (P = .04) when applying updated “healthy” levels for ALT (0.75 times and 0.63 times upper limit of normal for male and female patients, respectively). A significant reduction of the kinetic parameters ϵ, δ, and mδ was observed in patients with elevated γ‐glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) levels compared with patients with normal GGT levels (P = .02, P = .005, and P = .02, respectively). In conclusion, viral kinetics are similar in patients with chronic hepatitis C and persistently normal ALT levels and those with elevated ALT levels. However, in patients with elevated GGT levels, a major association with reduced efficacy of blocking virus production and lower infected cell loss was observed. These data show that virological response in patients with chronic hepatitis C is less associated with baseline ALT than with GGT levels. (HEPATOLOGY 2004;40:1442–1449.)
Assessment of left ventricular functions with tissue Doppler, strain, and strain rate echocardiography in patients with familial Mediterranean fever

Objective: This study assessed the early changes in regional and global systolic and diastolic myocardial functions in patients with familial Mediterranean fever without any cardiovascular symptoms using tissue Doppler and strain and strain rate echocardiography and compared them to the results of a control group. Methods: This study has a cross-sectional and observational design. FMF patients with normal left ventricular function were included in the study. We excluded patients who had arrhythmia, acquired/congenital heart disease, pericarditis, or acute attack. We compared 45 children with familial Mediterranean fever on colchicine therapy and 45 age- and sex-matched healthy children. Results: The 45 patients with familial Mediterranean fever included 24 (55.3%) girls and 21 (46.7%) boys with a mean age of 11.3±3.7 (range 2-18) years. The mean disease duration was 4.6±2.4 (range 0.5-10) years. In the patient group, the homozygous M694V mutation was the most common (64.4%) mutation. The patients with familial Mediterranean fever had statistically lower longitudinal global strain, radial global strain, and strain rates (-14.44±4.77%, 14.80±6.29%, and 0.59±0.24 s, respectively) than the controls (-17.40±1.79%, 17.53±4.63%, and 0.83±0.51 s) (p<0.05). The circumferential global strain did not differ significantly between the groups. Conclusion: Patients with familial Mediterranean fever who are subclinical from a cardiac aspect might have normal left ventricular function as measured by conventional echocardiography. However, the disease affects their myocardial tissue, and these patients should be followed with conventional, strain, and strain rate echocardiography techniques regularly.
Diffusion of Information Technology Innovations within Retail Banking: An Historical Review

Technological innovation in general and information technology (IT) applications in particular have had a major effect in banking and finance. Following Garbade and Silber (1978), this research reviews the effects on banking organisations with reference to front office or external changes as described by the nature of product and service offerings. Following Morris (1986), Quintas (1991) and Fincham et al. (1994), the research also considers innovations in the back office or internal (operational function) changes brought about to banking organisations. Outstanding IT-based innovations are considered and grouped into four distinct periods: early adoption (1864-1945), specific application (1945-1965), emergence (1965-1980) and diffusion (1980-1995). The research then discusses the potential impact of more recent innovations (i.e., electronic purses, digital cash and Internet banking). As a result, the research provides an historical perspective on the main drivers determining the adoption of technological innovation in retail banking.