Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigation of air-stable Cs2SnI6 films prepared by the modified two-step process for lead-free perovskite solar cells

In recent years, the organic-inorganic perovskite materials have revolutionized the Photovoltaic industry with highly efficient power conversion devices accompanied by a high growth rate. However, these devices experience major environmental and stability issues that hinder their true potential. More recently, a rarely studied perovskite material Cs2SnI6 is gaining enormous attention due to its superior stability and suitable bandgap. In this work, we developed a modified two-step process to prepare uniform Cs2SnI6 films, and the influence of the reaction conditions on the properties is explored. The structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties of the prepared films were investigated using x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, UV–vis spectrometer, photoluminescence, and Hall Effect measurements, respectively. Phase stability and morphology of the films are improved with optimizing the reaction conditions. The results confirm the n-type semiconductor nature of Cs2SnI6 with bandgap ranging from 1.29 eV to 1.42 eV with maximum carrier mobility of 425 cm2 V−1 s−1. The present study will further provide potential research directions in improving the device efficiency of air-stable Cs2SnI6 perovskite solar cells.
Mathematical Modeling of Inositol Trisphosphate Receptor and Calcium Oscillations in Airway Smooth Muscle Cells

Oscillations in cytoplasmic calcium concentration ([Ca]i) in airway smooth muscle cells (ASMC), primarily mediated by repetitive openings and closings of inositol trisphosphate receptor (IP3R) channels situated in the sarcoplasmic reticulum membrane, have been found to be important in generating and maintaining airway contractile force. However, it has been unclear about the mechanisms accounting for such oscillations, especially how the IP3R behaves in living cells to perform its function. In light of the extensive existence of calcium oscillations in many other cell types, although this thesis focuses on modeling calcium oscillations in ASMC due to their importance for the study of pathology of asthma, it also aims to solve some major questions in a wider context: • What is the mechanism for the formation of the repetitive calcium releases? How is the mechanism connected to the dynamics of the IP3R? • How best (or simply) should the IP3R be modeled for performing its function? • Should we care about the channel stochasticity when making model predictions? That is, does the deterministic model (which is easier and faster to solve) have the same predictive power as the stochastic model? In this thesis, by mathematical modeling, our primary achievements are • First, based on a very recent IP3R model and available single-channel data, we developed a new IP3R model by introducing time-dependent interstate transitions, and showed that the time-dependent feature is crucial for a quantitatively reproduction of behaviors and statistical properties of localized calcium events (called calcium puffs). • Second, we showed that the existing 6-state IP3R model could be reduced down to a simple 2-state model without losing its function. This result leads us around full circle of 20 years of detailed studies and modeling of the IP3R, back to an early formulation where the calcium oscillations arise as a fast-slow dynamical system extensively seen in physiological processes. • Third, we compared a stochastic ASMC calcium model and its associated deterministic form, and showed that both of the models successfully predicted the trends of frequency
ETİK İKLİMİN BOYUTLARI VE TÜRLERİ: ETİK ALT İKLİMLERİN BELİRLENMESİ VE ÖRGÜTSEL BAĞLILIĞA ETKİLERİ

Anahtar Kelimeler: Etik, Etik İklim, Etik Alt İklim, Örgüt İklimi, Örgütsel Bağlılık, JEL Kodları: M14, L22 Günümüz iş dünyasında yaşanan gelişmeler dikkate alındığında etik iklimin örgütsel bağlılık üzerindeki etkilerini incelemek oldukça önemlidir. Bu bakımdan çalışmanın amacı, Victor ve Cullen tarafından geliştirilen etik iklim tipolojisinin benzer örgütsel yapılarda farklılaşmasını ve olası kümelerin bağımlı değişken olarak seçilen örgütsel bağlılık üzerinde etkisini incelemektir. Bu doğrultuda, özel bankalarda çalışan beyaz yakalı personelden anket yöntemiyle veri toplanmıştır. Araştırma bulguları, örneklemin tipolojideki kuramsal ve deneysel farklılıklara ilişkin uluslararası ve ulusal yazınla uyumlu dört faktörlü bir yapı gösterdiğini ortaya koymaktadır. Dört faktörlü yapının farklılaşmasını tespit etmek üzere kümeleme analizi uygulanmış ve bu yapıda iki farklı etik alt iklim kümesinin (profesyonel iklim, pragmatik iklim) varlığı tespit edilmiştir. Son olarak, etik alt iklimlerin örgütsel bağlılık üzerindeki etkileri incelenmiş, profesyonel iklimin örgütsel bağlılık üzerinde pozitif bir etkiye sahip olduğu, pragmatik iklimin ise örgütsel bağlılığı açıklayamadığı ortaya konmuştur.
A new hybrid conjugate gradient algorithm for unconstrained optimization with inexact line search

Many researchers are interested for developed and improved the conjugate gradient method for solving large scale unconstrained optimization problems. In this work a new parameter will be presented as a convex combination between RMIL and MMWU. The suggestion method always produces a descent search direction at each iteration. Under Strong Wolfe Powell (SWP) line search conditions, the global convergence of the proposed method is established. The preliminary numerical comparisons with some others CG methods have shown that this new method is efficient and robust in solving all given problems.
Ministry and Worship with Children among Churches of Christ in the United States: A Quantitative and Qualitative Investigation

Why do congregations have separate children’s worship instead of intergenerational worship? What connections do such practices have with the presence and work of a children’s minister? Is separate worship with children more common in certain kinds of congregations within Churches of Christ? In a mixed-methods study, we found trends between congregational demographics and worship practices. Our qualitative research revealed that children’s ministers often consider worship choices to be rooted in pragmatic decisions and not theological imperatives.
NRSF–mediated repression of neuronal genes in developing brain persists in the absence of NRSF-Sin3 interaction

Repression of target genes by the transcriptional repressor neuronal restrictive silencing factor (NRSF)/repressor element 1 silencing transcription factor (REST) contributes to enduring plasticity in the developing brain. However, the cofactor(s) interacting with NRSF to enable target gene repressor are not well understood, and may vary among neuronal populations and brain regions as well as with different contexts. Here we employed the novel designer drug mS-11 to block the interactions of the cofactor Sin3 with NRSF. We tested if NRSF-Sin3 interaction is required for repression of NRSF target genes in developing hypothalamus after activity-dependent modulation of NRSF function. In the hypothalamus in vitro, blocking glutamatergic neurotransmission robustly increased NRSF binding to the target gene Crh, resulting in its repression. Blocking the binding of NRSF to the chromatin with decoy NRSE-oligodeoxynucleotides abrogated this repression. In contrast, mS-11 at several concentrations did not impede Crh repression. NRSF-mediated repression may underlie disease processes such as the onset of epilepsy. Therefore, identifying small-molecule antagonists of NRSF is crucial for the development of disease-preventing or modifying interventions.
Snowpack disrupts relationship between young water fraction and isotope amplitude ratio; approximately one fifth of mountain streamflow less than one year old

Previous “fraction of young water” (Fyw) estimates based on relative annual isotopic amplitudes in precipitation (Ap) and streamflow (As) produced low Fyw values in mountain catchments, which is contrary to extensive research that reports rapid water transmission in mountains. This study investigated this discrepancy by testing the effect of snow accumulation on the model that underpins the Fyw method. A Monte‐Carlo analysis of simulations for 20,000 randomly‐generated catchment model configurations used 10 years of precipitation inputs for the Upper Elbow River catchment in the Rocky Mountains (Alberta, Canada) to model discharge with and without snowpack storage of winter precipitation. Neither direct nor modified precipitation input produced a 1:1 relationship between As/Ap and Fyw, undermining the applicability of the original Fyw method in mountain watersheds with large seasonal snow accumulation. With snowpack‐modified input a given As/Ap ratio corresponds to a range of Fyw values, which can still provide semi‐quantitative information. In the small (435 km2) Elbow River catchment a Fyw range of 7–23% supports previous findings of rapid transmission in mountain catchments. Further analysis showed that the improved discharge prediction (Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency > 0.9) correlates with higher Fyw values and demonstrated that the interannual shifts in δ18O can be used to estimate of new water (<1 year) fraction in winter streamflow, and the estimate of 20% for the Elbow River further supports rapid transmission in mountain catchments.
Age estimation in bowhead whales using tympanic bulla histology and baleen isotopes

Tympanic bullae and baleen plates from bowhead whales of the Western Arctic population were examined. Growth layer groups (GLGs) in the involucrum of the tympanic bone were used to estimate age of the whales, and compared to stable isotope signatures along transects of baleen plates and the involucrum. The involucrum of the tympanic bone consists of three regions that form in utero, during nursing in the first year, and during the first decades of life, respectively. Life history events, such as annual migration, are recorded in the bowhead tympanic bulla. It is likely that bone growth in the bowhead tympanic occurs during periods of high food intake, while slow or arrested growth occurs during periods of low food intake. Comparisons between numbers of GLGs in the tympanic, number of isotopic oscillations in a baleen plate, length of the baleen plate, and total whale length show correlation coefficients as high as 0.97. The tympanic GLG method is particularly useful for estimating the age of whales up to 20 yr old.
Performance measurement of a lean product development process

Over the past few years, organizations have faced pressure from stakeholders to implement lean principles in their product development processes. However, the existing methods are not capable of measuring the benefits of adopting lean initiatives in the product development process. This research aims to develop a performance measurement model that can measure the effects of implementing lean in the engineering process. Engineering effort is analyzed in order to identify hidden wastes (e.g. inventory in the form of information about product specifications or engineering errors) in the engineering process. The model has been implemented in a civil design process of an engineering consultant company to validate the general applicability of the new model. The implementation of the model provides visibility on the waste hidden in the engineering process and quantifies that waste. The most significant contribution of this research is the development of new performance metrics and a decomposition chart. Finally, performance metrics are properly linked and the model treats lean as a holistic system, quantitatively measuring performance at different organizational levels.
Estonian Case Inflection Made Simple

According to Word and Paradigm Morphology (Matthews, 1974; Blevins, 2016), the word is the basic cognitive unit over which paradigmatic analogy operates to predict form and meaning of novel forms. Baayen et al. (2019b, 2018) introduced a computational formalization of word and paradigm morphology which makes it possible to model the production and comprehension of complex words without requiring exponents, morphemes, inflectional classes, and separate treatment of regular and irregular morphology. This computational model, Linear Discriminative Learning (LDL), makes use of simple matrix algebra to move from words’ forms to meanings (comprehension) and from words’ meanings to their forms (production). In Baayen et al. (2018), we showed that LDL makes accurate predictions for Latin verb conjugations. The present study reports results for noun declension in Estonian. Consistent with previous findings, the model’s predictions for comprehension and production are highly accurate. Importantly, the model achieves this high accuracy without being informed about stems, exponents, and inflectional classes. The speech errors produced by the model look like errors that native speakers might make. When the model is trained on incomplete paradigms, comprehension accuracy for unseen forms is hardly affected, but production accuracy decreases, reflecting the well-known asymmetry between comprehension and production. Unseen principal parts (i.e., nominative, genitive, and partitive singulars) are particularly difficult to produce, possibly due to their more distinctive forms. Removing principal parts from training, however, does not affect accuracy for other case forms. Model performance does not degrade either when the training data includes the alternative forms that are ubiquitous in Estonian. These results are consistent with the claim of Blevins (2008) that Estonian number and case inflection is organized in a way that facilitates the deduction of full paradigms from only a small number of forms.
Lotus

Machine learning is at the heart of many services provided by data centers. To improve the performance of machine learning, several parameter (gradient) synchronization methods have been proposed in the literature. These synchronization algorithms have different communication characteristics and accordingly place different demands on the network architecture. However, traditional data-center networks cannot easily meet these demands. Therefore, we analyze the communication profiles associated with several common synchronization algorithms and propose a machine learning--oriented network architecture to match their characteristics. The proposed design, named Lotus, because it looks like a lotus flower, is a hybrid optical/electrical architecture based on arrayed waveguide grating routers (AWGRs). In Lotus, a complete bipartite graph is used within the group to improve bisection bandwidth and scalability. Each pair of groups is connected by an optical link, and AWGRs between adjacent groups enhance path diversity and network reliability. We also present an efficient routing algorithm to make full use of the path diversity of Lotus, which leads to a further increase in network performance. Simulation results show that the network performance of Lotus is better than Dragonfly and 3D-Torus under realistic traffic patterns for different synchronization algorithms.
Effects of Environmental Pollution on Fish: A Short Review

Abstract Environmental contaminants, such as heavy metals and pesticides, are the most important toxic compounds of aquatic habitats. Heavy metals enter the aquatic environments via natural and anthropogenic pathways while the only source of pesticides is the anthropogenic usage of different types of pesticides including fungicide, insecticide and herbicide. Fish larvae and fingerlings are the most vulnerable life stages of fish which could be severely affected by pesticides as non-target organisms as well as by heavy metal pollution. The most important tissues affected by these pollutants are the gill, kidney and liver. Histopathological alterations of these vital organs could affect the survival rate, biological activities, osmoregulation, reproduction, buoyancy, etc., which finally could lead to failures in stock recruitment and population changes.
Healing transgender women of color in Los Angeles: A transgender-centric delivery of Seeking Safety.

Background: Transgender women of Color experience disproportionate rates of HIV, depression, and anxiety, and high rates of substance use, attempted suicide, and interpersonal verbal, physical, and sexual violence and assault. However, there are few interventions targeting transgender women of Color that address overlapping health and mental health challenges. Aims: There are two aims/research questions: (1) what are the elements of a transgender-centric model for delivering evidence based interventions and practices? , and (2) does Seeking Safety improve substance use and mental health outcomes for transgender women of Color? Methods: We present a case study of the delivery process of Seeking Safety by Special Service for Groups/Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (SSG/APAIT), and analyze baseline and three month post program participant data (n = 81). Results: The transgender-centric model of intervention delivery consisted of multiple steps, also integrating the structural disadvantages experienced by transgender women of Color. Comparing baseline and three months after completion showed significant decrease in reported alcohol use, depression, and severe anxiety. Discussion: Transgender-centric approaches may lead to programs that significantly improve co-occurring substance use and mental health for transgender women of Color. We recommend that organizations aiming to existing programs include feedback from members of the communities that the adapted programs aim to help, and in addition, train community members to deliver the programs. The statistical results indicate that Seeking Safety, a trauma-based program with a short program delivery timeline, may show longer term effects on substance use and mental health. We recommend that programs targeting substance use and mental health for transgender women of Color should be combined with services that address disadvantage (i.e., lack of access to housing, income/employment, health care).
A Dual-Polarized Planar Antenna Array Differentially-Fed by Orthomode Transducer

This article presents a new design of a differentially fed substrate integrated planar antenna array with dual-polarization. Compared with the traditional dual-polarized antenna arrays, the proposed array antenna has the advantages of simple configuration, high cross-polarization discrimination (XPD), and high gain. The <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2\times 2$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-element subarray design with a via-loaded crossover structure is used, which reduces the complexity of the array antenna. The operation bandwidth is improved by generating three resonances in the subarray. An <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$8\times 8$ </tex-math></inline-formula> antenna array is designed, prototyped, and tested to exemplify its potential applications in large dual-polarized antenna arrays. A planar orthomode transducer is used to achieve differential excitation for the antenna array. The measured results show that the proposed antenna array has an impedance bandwidth of 19.2–20.7 GHz for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$|S_{11}|< -10$ </tex-math></inline-formula> dB and port isolation higher than 20 dB. The array antenna exhibits a high XPD of 43 dB and a flat gain of about 22.2 dBi within the bandwidth.
Time-of-Year Variation in Intraocular Pressure

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Précis: In this study conducted in Chicago, IL, intraocular pressure (IOP) level was found to have a subtle, but measurable, annual pattern. Reasonable evidence is presented for a time-of-year variation in IOP. Adequate numbers of subjects must be studied to detect this small variation. Purpose: The aim was to investigate the relationship between IOP and time of year. Methods: During a separate investigation, patients from 2011 to 2018 (dataset A, N=3041) in an urban, academic facility in Chicago, IL received an examination that included Goldmann applanation tonometry. Regression analyses assessed the relationship between time of year and IOP. Two additional datasets, 1 collected in a similar manner during 1999 and 2002 (dataset B, N=3261) and another consisting of all first visits during 2012 and 2017 (dataset C, N=69,858), were used to confirm and further investigate trends. Results: For dataset A, peak mean IOP occurred in December/January (15.7±3.7/15.7±3.8 mm Hg) and lowest in September (14.5±3.1 mm Hg). The analysis suggested conventional quarterly analysis (January to March, etc.) can conceal time-of-year relationships because of inadequate statistical power and timing of IOP variation. Multiple linear regression analysis, with a November-to-October reordering, detected an annual, downward IOP trend (P<0.0001). Analysis of dataset B confirmed this trend (P<0.001). Fourier analysis on datasets A and B combined supported a 12-month IOP cycle for right/left eyes (P=0.01/P=0.005) and dataset C provided stronger evidence for an annual periodicity (P<0.0001). Harmonics analysis of dataset C showed a repeating pattern where IOP trended downward around April, and then back upward around October. Conclusions: This analysis strongly supports a demonstrable annual, cyclical IOP pattern with a trough to peak variation of ≈1 mm Hg, which has a seasonal relationship.
Catalase Test Protocol

The catalase test is used to detect the presence of the enzyme catalase in bacteria. Catalase serves to neutralize the bactericidal effects of hydrogen peroxide. Its concentration in bacteria has been correlated with pathogenicity. This enzymatic test is essential in the scheme of identification for gram-positive organisms and certain gram-negative organisms. It is a primary test used in the differentiation of staphylococci and streptococci.
Pursuing STEM Careers: Perspectives of Senior High School Students

This qualitative descriptive research explored the perspectives of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) senior high school students in a public secondary school in Zambales, Philippines on their reasons why they enrolled in STEM and their intent to pursue relevant career. A total of 20 Grade 12 students were purposively selected as participants of the research. The participants were interviewed using a validated structured interview guide. The recorded interviews were individually transcribed to arrive at an extended text. The extended texts were reviewed to generate themes and significant statements. The paper found out that senior high school students are generally interested in the field related to biology. The alignment to the preferred course in college is the primary reason of the participants for enrolling in STEM. Almost all the students wanted to pursue STEM-related careers after their university graduation. Further, personal aspiration is the main reason for the participants to pursue STEM-related professions. The study recommends that senior high schools may design various activities during the career week. These activities may include possible career paths in STEM-related courses, students' career and motivation, and their career aptitude. Teachers may also infuse innovative pedagogies for better STEM instruction. For the students to have more interest in science, it is recommended that STEM teachers undergo retooling or pursue advanced studies. Senior high schools may conduct career guidance seminars for the students to guide them on what strands they should take. The Department of Education (DepEd) may support the implementation of different programs regarding students’ career preparation. This program will help the students to be more aware on what career path they wanted to pursue, and to avoid pressures from peers. Schools may advocate a collaborative, authentic and goal-oriented learning environment with respect to the demand of Industrial Revolution 4.0.