Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phonons and crystal-field excitations in highly correlated materials probed by optical spectroscopy

The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part describes the development of a new program for doing cluster-model configuration-interaction calculations within the Racah-Wigner algebra, which enables a highly accurate analysis of the optical spectra of transition-metal oxides. The application of the Racah-Wigner algebra and the related Wigner-Eckart theorem reduces the computational effort compared with the creation/annihilation algebra and makes the knowledge of the Slater determinants no longer necessary. The advantages of the Racah-Wigner algebra becomes important, if the size of the calculated cluster is more and more increased, e.g. for double-cluster calculations because the number of Slater determinants scales drastically with increasing cluster size. Furthermore we can analyze the dependence of the results of the cluster model calculation on the ionic multiplets. In order to use the Racah-Wigner algebra one has to represent the contributions to the Hamiltonian as spherical tensor operators. A general expression for the matrix elements of the crystal-field operator within the Racah-Wigner algebra was derived, which is valid for arbitrary configurations. In addition to the crystal-field operator we give a general expression for the matrix elements of the covalency operator within the widely-used Slater-Koster tight-binding approximation using Sobel'man's parentage scheme. Although this description is not as fast and elegant as the Racah-Wigner algebra, we do not need to know the Slater determinants and conserve the ionic multiplet dependence as well. Furthermore, the program enables the investigation of the 4s shell and the ligand crystal-field splitting contribution to the optical spectra. The optical conductivity is calculated within the Kubo-Greenwood model. The second part includes the investigation of energetically low-lying excitations in several transition-metal compounds. We start with the analysis of crystal-field excitations in the transition-metal oxyhalide VOCl and perform a detailed group-theoretical analysis combined with a full multiplet cluster-model configuration-interaction. In the following a detailed temperature-dependent analysis of the phonon spectra of the hexagonal multiferroic compounds YMnO3 and YMn0.7Ga0. 3O3 was done in order to investigate the spin-lattice interaction and their probable contribution to the occurrence of ferroelectricity in combination with antiferromagnetism in these compounds. Furthermore, the spin-lattice interaction in the monoclinic multiferroic MnWO4 was analyzed, by means of a generalized Drude-Lorentz model. Subsequently, a detailed phonon analysis of the monoclinic BiB3O6 was done, due to the outstanding nonlinear optical properties of this compound. At the end of the thesis optical studies of the anomalous antiferromagnetic metallic oxide CaCrO3 were presented. This metallic oxide shows an exception from the rule, that in transition-metal oxides ferromagnetism typically coexists with metallic conductivity, whereas insulators usually exhibit antiferromagnetism.
Pre-sowing seed bio-priming in okra (Abelmoschus Esculentus L.)

Bio-priming is a process of biological seed treatment that refers to combination of seed hydration and inoculation of seed with beneficial organism to protect seed. It is an ecological approach using selected fungal antagonists against the soil and seed-borne pathogens. Biological seed treatments provide an alternative to chemical control. Seed priming as one of the most important developments to help rapid and uniform germination and emergence of seeds, and to increase seed tolerance to adverse environmental conditions. Seed priming is now a widely used commercial process that accelerates the germination rate and improves seedling uniformity in many crops. Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kollam during 2017-18, conducted On farm testing on pre-sowing seed bio-priming in okra and the trial was conducted with twelve treatments and three replications. The main objective of the experiment was to assess the effect of different bio agents in seed germination, growth , yield and disease incidence in okra. Response of different okra varieties towards seed bio priming was also noted. Pre-sowing biopriming of okra seeds with Psuedomonas at the rate of 8 g per liter was found to increase seed germination percentage, plant height, number of nodes per plant and number of branches per plant in okra. It was also found to increase number of pods per plant, pod length, diameter and pod weight. Bio priming of okra seeds with Psuedomonas increased total vegetable yield per plant and also resulted in lower pest and disease incidence in okra. Lowest vegetable yield per plant, pod yield , pod weight were reported from untreated okra seeds. Among different okra varieties tested, seed bio-priming of variety Arka Anamika gave better growth , highest yield and less disease incidence.
Genetic characterization of farmed and wild populations of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus Burchell, 1822) using the random amplified polymorphic marker

The genetic characterization of Clarias gariepinus was conducted in this study. Thirty (30) C. gariepinus specimens were collected, fifteen (15) each from the wild and farms in northeastern Nigeria for their genetic relatedness and diversity using the RAPD markers. DNA extraction from the blood sample was performed using the Gene Jet Genomic DNA Purification Kit. Five primers were used in employing PCR and amplified 402 RAPD bands from the four strains of Clarias gariepinus. Three hundred and six (76.12%) bands were polymorphic while 86 (21.39%) were monomorphic. The percentage of polymorphism obtained from farmed and wild populations ranged from 58 (47.3%) to 69 (75.9%), respectively. The polymorphic bands per loci within the populations ranged from 67.9% to 82.0%. The mean numbers of inbreeding coefficient (FIS) were 0.083 and 0.053 in the farmed and wild populations. Gene diversity values within farmed and wild populations (Ht) were 0.4522 and 0.4018. The mean genetic differentiation (FST) ranged between (0.203) in the farmed and 0.129 in the wild populations. The analysis of molecular variance revealed that there was 96% of genetic variance within the population and 4% among the population. The genetic identity and distance of four populations were 0.9490 and 0.1038, respectively. The phylogenetic measure has shown that the four strains were divided into two clusters at approximately 0.089 similarity levels. The result indicated a significant level of genetic variation and minimal dendrogram separation in Clarias gariepinus in northeastern Nigeria. Conclusively, this information will be a useful tool for the genetic and breeding program of Clarias gariepinus.
Designing E-Learning Environments in Higher Education to Match Technological Trends

This chapter briefly examines the impact of prevailing technological trends on student learning and considers the potential role of e-learning technology in establishing learning environments favourable to higher education. The author identifies the noticeable decline in student competence, language/communication skill, and research ability as an outcome of emerging social media trend. Research indicates that current trends may pose a challenge to academia in the long run. The concluding strategies are suggested for establishing e-learning environments that facilitate improvement in student ability within higher education: 1) incorporating student-centric approach within higher institutions, 2) encouraging culture change among lecturers to create a more e-learning environment, 3) student goal-setting approach in e-learning design, 4) adopting online student portfolios for feedback, 5) implementing a learning strategy using digital media to enforce a learning culture.
Alfvén wave heating of a high-beta plasma

Note: Proc. 3rd Int. Congress on waves and instabilities in Plasmas, Palaiseau, France, Paper 10A6 (1977) Reference CRPP-CONF-1977-012 Record created on 2008-05-13, modified on 2017-05-12
Acupuncture point injection with placental extract improves pain and quality of life in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome

Context: Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) can seriously affect the quality of patient lives due to chronic widespread pain. One of treatment strategies for the management of FMS is complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments including acupuncture. A new acupuncture therapy, acupuncture point injection (API) that combines acupuncture and medication is recently used in China and Korea to accomplish more effective therapeutic outcomes. Yet, there is no attempt to investigate the effect of API with placental extract on the treatment of FMS. Objective: This study evaluated the effectiveness of API with placental extract on pain reduction and life quality in patients with FMS. Methods: This is a retrospective study analyzing medical records. Setting: Clinical setting. Participants: Participants were 64 patients at the clinic being treated for FMS, at an average age of 46 having symptom duration from 6 months to 2 years. Intervention: Placental extract was weekly injected into acupuncture points GB21, SI11, SI13, SI14, Ex-HN15, and BL13 for five weeks to the participants. Outcome measures: The primary outcome, pain, was measured on a VAS scale. Secondary outcomes, sleep disorder and daily workable hours without break, were evaluated using questionnaire. Results: After APIs with placental extract for five weeks, pain and sleep discomfort were substantially decreased. Patients also displayed elongated productive times which denote workable hours to maintain daily activity without pain-evoked break after the API treatment. Conclusion: We suggest that API with placental extracts is a safe and promising treatment for FMS. A larger follow-up trial is needed to determine more definitely the efficacy of API with placental extract.
Simplified Interview for Negative and Positive Symptoms (SNAPSI)
and the PANSS-6 scale – Polish language adaptation and application

Purpose: The treatment of schizophrenia requires regular assessment of the patient’s mental state. The quantitative assessment of the severity of schizophrenia symptoms is performed using clinical scales, most often the PANSS scale. However, the scale is rarely used in everyday clinical work as the assessment itself is very time-consuming. A Simplified Interview for Negative and Positive Symptoms (SNAPSI) and the PANSS-6 scale have been proposed as practical methods to facilitate the quantitative assessment of the patient’s mental state. The aim of the article is to present both of those tools and their adaptation to the Polish language. Views: The PANSS-6 scale consists of six items taken from the PANSS scale, which assess delusions, hallucinatory behaviour, conceptual disorganization, passivity/apathy, social withdrawal, blunted affect, lack of spontaneity and a fluent conversation. Among the advantages of PANSS-6 are scalability, high correlation with full PANSS assessment results and sensitivity to changes in the patient’s mental state during antipsychotic treatment. SNAPSI is a semi-structured interview which enables the assessment of the PANSS-6 scale, the assessment of selected items of the Brief Psychiatric Assessment Scale (BPRS), and the Brief Negative Symptoms Scale (BNSS), as well as the assessment of the overall severity of symptoms with the General Clinical Impression (CGI) scale. It takes between 15 to 25 minutes. Conclusions: Both tools have been adapted to Polish, in accordance with the recommendations regarding the adaptation of scales and clinical tests to other languages. They are being disseminated publicly through a website and can be used free of charge in medical and non-commercial scientific research.
Recent Advances in Video Action Recognition with 3D Convolutions

SUMMARY The performance of video action recognition has improved signiﬁcantly in recent decades. Current recognition approaches mainly utilize convolutional neural networks to acquire video feature representations. In addition to the spatial information of video frames, temporal information such as motions and changes is important for recognizing videos. Therefore, the use of convolutions in a spatiotemporal three-dimensional (3D) space for representing spatiotemporal features has garnered signiﬁcant attention. Herein, we introduce recent advances in 3D convolutions for video action recognition.
Vaccination against Tuberculosis: Beyond BCG

Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a major health problem causing enormous morbidity worldwide despite introduction of effective and affordable chemotherapy more than 50 years ago. Among adults of most economically productive age groups and people affected with HIV TB, tuberculosis remains a leading killer, and even cured TB cases can be left with lifetime post TB sequelae, thus substantially reducing their quality of life. M. tuberculosis has shown extraordinary capabilities to subvert and resist bactericidal response of their infected host. These capabilities have enabled the bacillus to colonize about one third of the world’s population of which 1.5 million people die annually. Further development of drug resistant strains poses a serious problem for the TB control programs. These alarming facts and figures call for an urgent concern to focus our efforts against tuberculosis. However, with the currently existing case finding and treatment policies, it seems far way to eliminate the deadly pathogen in near future. With many concentrated efforts to tackle this infection, we still look for the ‘magic bullet’ which can defeat this ‘Captain of death’. There is a need for an effective vaccine to strengthen our fight in elimination of this challenging disease. Thus, the need of the situation is to tackle the disease through vaccination programme. For a nation of the size of India, therapy and prevention needs to go side by side to be able to achieve the ambitious goals of achieving tuberculosis elimination by 2025. Thus, in the present review an attempt has been made to review the status and efforts underway for vaccine development against tuberculosis and discussed the limitations of vaccines.
A Revisit on Idiosyncratic Volatility Puzzle: Evidence from Sri Lanka

The inconclusive inferences on empirical findings on idiosyncratic volatility have created a substantive puzzle in the asset pricing literature.The purpose of this study is to analyze the long debated idiosyncratic volatility puzzle from a South Asian market point of view. Using 214 non-financial firms listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange over a period of 163 months from September 2004 to March 2018, this study documents that idiosyncratic volatility has a positive and statistically significant impact on average stock returns in Sri Lanka. Moreover, the empirical results confirm that idiosyncratic volatility is high with small stocks which are exposed to lower level of profits and investments. Thus, it is still questionable as to why there is a high demand for small stocks in the market. More importantly, the findings of current study on profitability and investment yield striking evidence on idiosyncratic volatility of stocks which is a marked departure from previous studies of its kind.
How people with type two diabetes in England learn about digital health technologies, and what are the barriers to access and motivators for use? A qualitative study

BackgroundType 2 Diabetes (T2D) is a common chronic disease, with socially patterned incidence and severity. Digital self-care interventions have the potential to reduce health disparities, by providing personalised low-cost reusable resources that can increase access to health interventions. However, if under-served groups are unable to access or use digital technologies, digital health interventions might make no difference, or worse, exacerbate health inequity. Study aimsTo gain insights into how and why people with T2D access and use web-based self-care technology and how experiences vary between individuals and social groups.MethodsA purposive sample of people with experience of using a web-based intervention to help them self-care for T2D were recruited through diabetes and community groups. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in person and over the phone. Data were analysed thematically.ResultsA diverse sample of 21 participants were interviewed. Health care practitioners were not viewed as a good source of information about Digital Health Technology (DHT) that could support T2D. Instead participants relied on their digital skills and social networks to learn about what DHT are available and helpful. The main barriers to accessing and using DHT described by the participants were availability of DHT from the NHS, cost and technical proficiency. However, some participants described how they were able to draw on social resources such as their social networks and social status to overcome these barriers. Participants were motivated to use DHT because they provided self-care support, a feeling of control over T2D, and personalised advice or feedback. The selection of technology was also guided by participants’ preferences and what they valued in relation to technology and self-care support, and these in turn were influenced by age and gender.ConclusionThis research indicates that low levels of digital skills and high cost of digital health interventions can create barriers to the access and use of DHT to support the self-care of T2D. However, social networks and social status can be leveraged to overcome some of these challenges. If digital interventions are to decrease rather than exacerbate health inequalities, these barriers and facilitators to access and use must be considered when interventions are developed and implemented.
Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure in Maize and Forage Grasses Intercropping under No-Tillage

The objective was to undertake the visual evaluation of soil structure in maize and forage grasses intercropping under no-tillage. The experiment was carried out in a rural property located in North Paraná State, Brazil, where there were five parallel areas with the following treatments: maize + Urochloa brizantha cv. Marandu (T1), maize + Urochloa brizantha cv. Piatã (T2), maize + Urochloa brizantha cv. Xaraés (T3), maize + Urochloa ruziziensis (T4), and non-intercropping maize (T5). Seeds of forage grasses were sown in April 5, 2018 and sampling was carried out in December, 30, 2018. Samples of 0.10 m width, 0.20 m length, and 0.25 m thickness were collected from five random locations of each experimental area and, for the visual evaluation of soil structural quality, a soil evaluation (VESS) chart was used so that visual scores were attributed to each sample. Treatments 1 and 5 received the highest scores, while treatment 3 had the lowest score and showed good structural quality and great root presence. At the superficial layer, treatment 2 had the lowest score (0.8) among treatments. For the subsuperficial layer, the scores obtained were higher than those found for the superficial layer: T3 had the lowest mean (1.5) and was significantly similar to T4 that presented a mean score of 1.7. Except for T1, which showed a similar score to non-intercropping maize (T5), the forage grasses had better visual scores. The visual evaluation of soil structure indicated that maize and forage grasses intercropping improves soil structural quality.
Clinical course and characteristics of Corona Virus Disease 2019 in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou: A Retrospective study

Abstract Background: The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (Corona Virus Disease 2019) on January 30th, this study aimed to investigate the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of Corona Virus Disease 2019 in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou, and evaluate scientific basis for disease control and prevention. Methods: A total of 30 patients had been admitted to hospital from Jan 22 to Feb 22, 2020, all of them were laboratory confirmed SARS-Cov-2. Demographic, epidemiological, clinical, laboratory data were collected from Hospital information system and Epidemiological investigation reports. All data was performed by descriptive analysis, Chi-square test or non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test, as appropriate. Two sided p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: 30 patients were enrolled, the median age was 44.5 years (IQR 33.8-52.3) and 17 (56.7%) patients were female, 14 (46.7%) patients were native and had no exposure to Hubei Province. At the time of study submission, only one patient had not been discharged and no patients died during the study. The median hospital stay was 16.0 days (IQR 12.5-20.5) and the median course of disease was 20.5 days (IQR 17.0-23.3). The most common symptoms were fever (66.7%), dry cough (26.7%), and pharyngalgia (23.3%) on first admission. Most patients were generally illness or more mild, but 10 (33.3%) patients received oxygen therapy and 14 (46.7%) patients received hormone therapy during their hospitalization. Almost half of patients showed mild lymphocytopenia and 40% patients had elevated concentrations of CRP in the early stages of COVID-19. ﻿Conclusions: Among the 30 patients were confirmed with SARA-Cov-2 infection in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou, most of them had clinical presentation of respiratory tract infection, but the median course of disease was more than 2 weeks. Further systematic prospective studies about COVID-19 should be urgently needed.
Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV in Iran: Situation Analysis of the Pilot Phase

Background The reproductive health and Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programs in Iran were integrated as a pilot project in September 2014.This study aims to provide a comprehensive evaluation and situation analysis of the PMTCT programme in Iran.Methods Pilot phase of PMTCT was launched in early September 2014 in selected centers including 170 health centers and 40 hospitals affiliated to medical universities of 16 provinces of Iran. In each medical university, a researcher-made checklist was administered to all newly-diagnosed HIV-positive pregnant women by the AIDS expert. Data was analyzed using SPSS 19 software.Results Overall, 69.4% of eligible pregnant women were enrolled in the pilot phase. From 134 reactive cases, 76 (56.7%) were confirmed as HIV positive. In 10 (13.2%) of HIV positive pregnant women, consumption of ARV was irregular. Also, 82.5% had CD4 count more than 350 after treatment with an average of 55.5% increase in the number of CD4 in comparison to the baseline, and 84.8% had viral load suppression (<200 copies/ml). Counseling and testing was done for the husbands of 75% of the women, and resulted in the identification of 15 (39.5%) new HIV cases among husbands. of tested individuals, 23 (60.5%) males already knew their HIV status and were registered HIV patients. HIV was diagnosed in one (1.5%) newborn.Conclusion Implementation of rapid HIV testing and PMTCT in Iran is strength in the national HIV control program. To eliminate MTCT, it is necessary to understand and overcome barriers and challenges the program faced in the pilot phase.