Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structural, electronic, elastic, thermodynamical and thermoelectric properties of TMN (TM = Co, Ni)

We have analyzed the structural, electronic, elastic, thermodynamical and thermoelectric (TE) properties of TMN (TM = Co, Ni) by using density functional theory (DFT) based on the generalized gradient approximation and semi-classical Boltzmann transport theory. The present TMN are found stable in the zinc blende structure with nonmagnetic configuration and have shown metallic behavior. Based on the analysis of the elastic constants and their derived parameters, these compounds are predicted to be ductile behavior, mechanically and thermodynamically stable. The effect of temperature on thermodynamical parameters such as lattice parameter, specific heat (C v ), entropy and thermal expansion coefficient (α) has been studied using quasi-harmonic approximation (QHA) in the range of temperature 0–800 K. The obtained results from QHA show that the TMN maintains their mechanical stability under temperature. The TE properties such as Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, electronic thermal conductivity, power factor and figure of merit are calculated. It is found that these properties decreased with an increase in temperature, and at the temperature of 300 K, the TMN exhibits a high Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity and power factor. The calculated values of the figure of merit are 0.75 and 0.797 for CoN and NiN at 300K, respectively, making them promising materials for thermoelectric applications.
Anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge with switchgrass: Experimental and kinetic evaluation

ABSTRACT Sewage sludge removal via anaerobic digestion provides energy production in addition to waste minimization. Several strategies, such as anaerobic co-digestion, were developed to increase energy production from sewage sludge by improving C/N balance. In this study, anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge with an energy crop, namely switchgrass, was evaluated. As a result of studies implemented at different mixing ratios, maximum methane production was measured as 272.06 mLCH4/gVS at the mixing ratio of 0.4:0.6 (sewage sludge:switchgrass). According to modified kinetic models used for interpretation of synergetic and/or antagonistic effects, anaerobic co-digestion has a synergetic effect on biogas production from both biomass.
A Simplified Limit Equilibrium Model for Calculating Limit Support Pressure on Shallow Shield Tunnel face

Shield tunnel excavation face may collapse if the applied support pressure is not enough. Based on an elaborated failure mode of shallow shield tunnel face, the least limit support pressure to maintain stability is analysed by using the limit equilibrium method. The calculated limit support pressure decreases nonlinearly with the increase of friction angle, decreases linearly with the increase of cohesion, and decreases with the ratio of buried depth to tunnel diameter. By comparing the calculated results with existing tests, the theoretical model was shown to be reasonably predict the limit support pressure of tunnel excavation face in sand under drained condition and in clay under undrained condition.
The Gender Effects of COVID-19 on Equity Analysts

We use the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment to study the effects of childcare and household duties on sell-side analysts. The richness of this setting allows us to compare female and male analysts while requiring them to perform the same tasks. We find that female analysts' forecast accuracy declined more than male analysts, especially when schools were closed and among analysts who were more likely to have young children, inexperienced, were likely busier before the pandemic, and lived in southern states. Female analysts also reduced the timeliness of their forecasts and resorted to more heuristic forecasts. The stock market was aware of this and became less responsive to female analysts' forecasts. However, female analysts did not reduce their coverage or updating frequency relative to male analysts. We also find the above widening gender gap was temporary and became statistically insignificant by May/June 2020. Overall, our results show that the pandemic impacted female analysts more than males through the quality of their forecasts but not the quantity.
Sustainable institutional investment in the COVID-19 pandemic

This article examines institutions’ investment strategies towards environmental and social (E&S) stocks in the first quarter of 2020, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Backed with both institutional- and firm-level analyses, we find that institutional investors shift towards stocks with higher E&S performance. The high E&S portfolios exhibit lower risk and return characteristics, outperforming (underperforming) their peers on market-down (-up) days. Further analysis shows this shift towards E&S is not a permanent transition, rather it reversed with the market rebound in the second quarter, thereby suggesting that the underlying driver of institutional E&S investment strategy in the pandemic is downside-risk protection. JEL Classification: G01, G12, G23, M14
Role of Event Marketing in Developing Brand Trust and Brand Loyalty: With Special Reference to the Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Sri Lanka

Event marketing appears to be an innovative technique used by mobile telecommunication companies in order to influence their customers towards a brand relationship. Evidence from literature revealed that the impact of event marketing in creating consumer brand trust and brand loyalty is inconclusive. Further, the relationship between brand trust and brand loyalty is influenced by consumer gender and brand commitment. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify the significance of event marketing on creating consumer brand trust and brand loyalty with a varied impact by consumer brand commitment and gender in the Mobile Telecommunication industry of Sri Lanka. The study adopted a survey method in order to collect data. The study collected data from three hundred and forty-three (343) respondent using a self-administrative questioner. The relationship between event marketing and brand loyalty was significant and the study identified that event marketing could result in creating both brand trust and brand loyalty. Further, brand trust partially mediates the impact of event marketing on brand loyalty. Moreover, the study supported moderating effect of consumer gender and brand commitment on the relationship between brand trust and brand loyalty. The study reveals the importance of event marketing in creating brand trust and brand loyalty of mobile customers, and the need of taking gender composition and brand commitment among their consumers in such attempts. The research findings contribute to the relationship marketing literature by providing new insights into event marketing-on of the relationship marketing tools.
Revisiting Intertemporal Elasticity of Substitution in a Sticky Price Model

Macroeconomic models typically assume additively separable preferences where consumption enters the utility function in a logarithmic form. This restriction implies that consumption growth is highly sensitive to movements in real interest rates, which in turn implies an unrealistically steep demand curve and intertemporal trade-off. We re-estimate the stylized New Keynesian Model with US data using King-Plosser-Rebelo (1988) preferences with and without habits and show that the equilibrium real interest rate elasticity of output is in the range of 0.05 - 0.20 in the US. Such low real interest rate elasticity is better in line with the empirical consumption Euler equation literature and implies relatively weak transmission of monetary policy to output and inflation.
Impact of Cultural Values on Impulsive Buying Behavior in Fast Moving Consumer Goods in Sri Lanka – Concept Paper

The cosmetic industry is one of the fastest-growing and essential industries in the world as well as in Sri Lanka. Usage of chemical base cosmetics causes environmental and health issues. Meanwhile, there is a number of organic and natural cosmetic products are available in the Sri Lankan market which is not harmful to health and the environment. This issue closely related to consumer behaviour. The objective of the study attempted to gain knowledge about the influence of Consumer Attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control towards Purchase Intention of organic and natural cosmetics. This research was exploratory type research with a quantitative perspective and the population of the study consisted of above 15 years old consumers of Colombo District. To achieve the goals of this research, the data were collected from a convenience sample of 200 consumers who are lived in the Colombo District. The respondents provided the data by means of a close-ended questionnaire. Multiple regression was used for testing the hypotheses. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS19 Software. This study empirically examines that Consumer Attitudes (CA), Subjective Norm (SN), Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC), Consumers’ Past Experiences (PE) the independent variable and Purchase Intention for Organic and Natural Cosmetic Products (PIOC) as the dependent variable. While all four variables are significantly predicted purchase intention for organic and natural cosmetic products. And consumer attitude is the best predictor of PIOC. The results of this study also suggest that retailers can develop effective marketing strategies emphasizing ecological beauty, product safety, and affordable prices to increase consumers’ intentions to buy organic and natural cosmetic products.
Impact of Electronic Word of Mouth on Consumer Purchase Intention in Fast Food Industry: A Conceptual Review with Special Reference to Facebook Users

Electronic Word of Mouth (EWOM) communication bears the opinion of customers in getting through with their decision-making process. However, social media has brought a new perspective to EWOM, enabling users to communicate with their existing network on the internet. As for social media, Facebook is the most prominent as it is the most engaging platform compared to the other social media platforms. As it is proven by the descriptive statistical review, Facebook word of mouth is found to be significant in the context of food and beverage. Hence, the current study has opted to find out the impact of EWOM on the Consumer Purchase Intention in the Fast-Food Industry among Facebook users. The fast-food industry is one of the most competitive industries in the world, which indicates that even though there is a negative EWOM towards fast food, the industry sales have grown. Therefore, it can be argued that there isn’t any impact on the negative EWOM on the purchase intention of fast food which anyway contradicts previous scholar’s findings pertaining to EWOM. Hence this is a notable research area. The review is based on the theoretical rationale and supportive empirical findings, whilst empirical evidence is presented to support the arguments. The paper concludes with research propositions to examine how EWOM makes an impact on the purchase intention of the consumer in the context of the fast-food industry. As there was not a clear notion on the behaviour of the EWOM created in the Facebook environment in shaping the purchase intention, this study would direct the researchers to conduct future studies with clear, theoretical and empirical rationale.
Mapping of electrodermal activity (EDA) during outdoor community-level mobility tasks in individuals with lower-limb amputation

Introduction Balance confidence and perception of task challenge is an important construct to measure in rehabilitation of people with lower-limb amputation (LLA). Measurement of electrodermal activity (EDA) captures physiological arousal responses reflecting an individual’s perceived challenge in a task. This study explores the feasibility of the use of EDA during outdoor walking tasks to capture task-specific physiological arousal changes associated with perception of challenge in people with amputation. Objective To develop and demonstrate feasibility of a portable EDA/GPS system mapping physiological arousal while challenging walking balance outdoors in individuals with LLA and controls. Methods Sixteen people (eight with LLA and eight age-/sex-matched controls) completed an outdoor walking course in the community (3 laps). A battery-powered portable device was developed containing EDA/GPS sensors with data logged on a microcontroller. Phasic EDA response was extracted from EDA signal to explore the physiological arousal response to walking tasks. Results Physiological arousal demonstrated task-specific modulation with ascending stairs without a handrail showing higher levels of phasic EDA than walking on a paved incline (p = 0.01) or a gravel decline (p = 0.01) in people with LLA. While evidence of habituation over repeated trials was shown in controls with lap 1 of walking down a gravel decline showing higher levels of phasic EDA than lap 3 (p = 0.01). Phasic EDA maps, representative of arousal levels throughout the walking course, showed individual-specific response. Conclusion Mapping of EDA during outdoor walking is feasible. Modulation of physiological arousal between outdoor walking tasks and over repeated trials is suggestive of clinical utility. Further research is warranted to explore how EDA may be incorporated into assessment of response to outdoor walking amongst individuals following LLA.
Investigating contributors to performance evaluations in small groups: Task competence, speaking time, physical expressiveness, and likability

This study compared the impacts of actual individual task competence, speaking time and physical expressiveness as indicators of verbal and nonverbal communication behavior, and likability on performance evaluations in a group task. 164 participants who were assigned to 41 groups first solved a problem individually and later solved it as a team. After the group interaction, participants’ performance was evaluated by both their team members and qualified external observers. We found that these performance evaluations were significantly affected not only by task competence but even more by speaking time and nonverbal physical expressiveness. Likability also explained additional variance in performance evaluations. The implications of these findings are discussed for both the people being evaluated and the people doing the evaluating.
Symptoms, antibody levels and vaccination attitude after asymptomatic to moderate COVID-19 infection in 200 healthcare workers

Aim: In Germany, the willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19 is rather low among medical staff. We collected data on symptoms, antibody titers and vaccination readiness from clinic employees at a municipal clinic who had already been through a COVID-19 infection (asymptomatic to moderate). We also examined the antibody titers for their possible importance as an individual decision-making aid with regard to vaccination. Method: 200 employees of our municipal clinics were included in the study. COVID-19 antibody determination was performed using an ELISA (EUROIMMUN™, PerkinElmer, Inc. Company). The participants were given an anonymous questionnaire containing anthropometrical issues, symptoms of the infection and questions concerning the vaccination decision. Finally, the antibody levels were reported to the participants and the attitude towards a vaccination was reevaluated. Results: In all 200 participants who had already gone through a COVID-19 infection, 75 employees were in favor of a vaccination (37.5%), 96 were opposed to vaccination (48%), and 29 were undecided (14.5%). In the different occupational groups, the positive trend in terms of willingness to be vaccinated was highest among physicians and is least among nurses. The antibody results showed considerable variation in titer levels and therefore did not correlate with disease severity in asymptomatic to moderately ill persons. We also observed a pro-vaccination trend with increasing age of the participants. The specifically-asked symptom of cutaneous hyperesthesia during COVID-19 infection occurred in 5% of the participants. Conclusion: In medical personnel who had already suffered from a COVID-19 infection, the willingness to receive a vaccination tends to be highest among physicians, and lowest in nurses, and increases with age. For the vast majority of those affected, knowledge of the antibody titers only reinforces the vaccination decision made beforehand and thus does not contribute to a change in vaccination decision. The specifically-requested symptom of cutaneous hyperesthesia during COVID-19 infection was unexpectedly frequent.
Echocardiographic view and feature selection for the estimation of the response to CRT

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an implant-based therapy applied to patients with a specific heart failure (HF) profile. The identification of patients that may benefit from CRT is a challenging task and the application of current guidelines still induce a non-responder rate of about 30%. Several studies have shown that the assessment of left ventricular (LV) mechanics by speckle tracking echocardiography can provide useful information for CRT patient selection. A comprehensive evaluation of LV mechanics is normally performed using three different echocardioraphic views: 4, 3 or 2-chamber views. The aim of this study is to estimate the relative importance of strain-based features extracted from these three views, for the estimation of CRT response. Several features were extracted from the longitudinal strain curves of 130 patients and different methods of feature selection (out-of-bag random forest, wrapping and filtering) have been applied. Results show that more than 50% of the 20 most important features are calculated from the 4-chamber view. Although features from the 2- and 3-chamber views are less represented in the most important features, some of the former have been identified to provide complementary information. A thorough analysis and interpretation of the most informative features is also provided, as a first step towards the construction of a machine-learning chain for an improved selection of CRT candidates.
First body of evidence suggesting a role of a tankyrase-binding motif (TBM) of vinculin (VCL) in epithelial cells

Background Adherens junctions (AJ) are involved in cancer, infections and neurodegeneration. Still, their composition has not been completely disclosed. Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) catalyze the synthesis of poly(ADP-ribose) (PAR) as a posttranslational modification. Four PARPs synthesize PAR, namely PARP-1/2 and Tankyrase-1/2 (TNKS). In the epithelial belt, AJ are accompanied by a PAR belt and a subcortical F-actin ring. F-actin depolymerization alters the AJ and PAR belts while PARP inhibitors prevent the assembly of the AJ belt and cortical actin. We wondered which PARP synthesizes the belt and which is the PARylation target protein. Vinculin (VCL) participates in the anchorage of F-actin to the AJ, regulating its functions, and colocalized with the PAR belt. TNKS has been formerly involved in the assembly of epithelial cell junctions. Hypothesis TNKS poly(ADP-ribosylates) (PARylates) epithelial belt VCL, affecting its functions in AJ, including cell shape maintenance. Materials and Methods Tankyrase-binding motif (TBM) sequences in hVCL gene were identified and VCL sequences from various vertebrates, Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans were aligned and compared. Plasma membrane-associated PAR was tested by immunocytofluorescence (ICF) and subcellular fractionation in Vero cells while TNKS role in this structure and cell junction assembly was evaluated using specific inhibitors. The identity of the PARylated proteins was tested by affinity precipitation with PAR-binding reagent followed by western blots. Finally, MCF-7 human breast cancer epithelial cells were subjected to transfection with Tol2-plasmids, carrying a dicistronic expression sequence including Gallus gallus wt VCL (Tol-2-GgVCL), or the same VCL gene with a point mutation in TBM-II (Tol2-GgVCL/*TBM) under the control of a β-actin promoter, plus green fluorescent protein following an internal ribosome entry site (IRES-GFP) to allow the identification of transfected cells without modifying the transfected protein of interest. Results and discussion In this work, some of the hypothesis predictions have been tested. We have demonstrated that: (1) VCL TBMs were conserved in vertebrate evolution while absent in C. elegans; (2) TNKS inhibitors disrupted the PAR belt synthesis, while PAR and an endogenous TNKS pool were associated to the plasma membrane; (3) a VCL pool was covalently PARylated; (4) transfection of MCF-7 cells leading to overexpression of Gg-VCL/*TBM induced mesenchymal-like cell shape changes. This last point deserves further investigation, bypassing the limits of our transient transfection and overexpression system. In fact, a 5th testable prediction would be that a single point mutation in VCL TBM-II under endogenous expression control would induce an epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). To check this, a CRISPR/Cas9 substitution approach followed by migration, invasion, gene expression and chemo-resistance assays should be performed.
A meta-analysis of transcriptomic profiles of Huntington’s disease patients

Description of robust transcriptomic alterations in Huntington's disease is essential to identify targets for biochemical studies and drug development. We analysed publicly available transcriptome data from the brain and blood of 220 HD patients and 241 healthy controls and identified 737 and 661 genes with robustly altered mRNA levels in the brain and blood of HD patients, respectively. In the brain, a subnetwork of 320 genes strongly correlated with HD and was enriched in transport-related genes. Bioinformatical analysis of this subnetwork highlighted CDC42, PAK1, YWHAH, NFY, DLX1, HMGN3, and PRMT3. Moreover, we found that CREB1 can regulate 78.0% of genes whose mRNA levels correlated with HD in the blood of patients. Alterations in protein transport, metabolism, transcriptional regulation, and CDC42-mediated functions are likely central features of HD. Further our data substantiate the role of transcriptional regulators that have not been reported in the context of HD (e.g. DLX1, HMGN3 and PRMT3) and strongly suggest dysregulation of NFY and its target genes across tissues. A large proportion of the identified genes such as CDC42 were also altered in Parkinson's (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The observed dysregulation of CDC42 and YWHAH in samples from HD, AD and PD patients indicates that those genes and their upstream regulators may be interesting therapeutic targets.
Manipulating Interword and Interletter Spacing in Cursive Script: An Eye Movements Investigation of Reading Persian

Persian is an Indo-Iranian language that features a derivation of Arabic cursive script, where most letters within words are connectable to adjacent letters with ligatures. Two experiments are reported where the properties of Persian script were utilized to investigate the effects of reducing interword spacing and increasing the interletter distance (ligature) within a word. Experiment 1 revealed that decreasing interword spacing while extending interletter ligature by the same amount was detrimental to reading speed. Experiment 2 largely replicated these findings. The experiments show that providing the readers with inaccurate word boundary information is detrimental to reading rate. This was achieved by reducing the interword space that follows letters that do not connect to the next letter in Experiment 1, and replacing the interword space with ligature that connected the words in Experiment 2. In both experiments, readers were able to comprehend the text read, despite the considerable costs to reading rates in the experimental conditions.