Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
First-principles calculations of thermal, electrical, and thermoelectric transport properties of semiconductors

The transport properties of semiconductors are key to the performance of many solid-state devices (transistors, data storage, thermoelectric cooling and power generation devices, etc). An understanding of the transport details can lead to material designs with better performances. In recent years simulation tools based on first-principles calculations have been greatly improved, being able to obtain the fundamental ground-state properties of materials (such as band structure and phonon dispersion) accurately. Accordingly, methods have been developed to calculate the transport properties based on an ab initio approach. In this review we focus on the thermal, electrical, and thermoelectric transport properties of semiconductors, which represent the basic transport characteristics of the two degrees of freedom in solids—electronic and lattice degrees of freedom. Starting from the coupled electron-phonon Boltzmann transport equations, we illustrate different scattering mechanisms that change the transport features and review the first-principles approaches that solve the transport equations. We then present the first-principles results on the thermal and electrical transport properties of semiconductors. The discussions are grouped based on different scattering mechanisms including phonon-phonon scattering, phonon scattering by equilibrium electrons, carrier scattering by equilibrium phonons, carrier scattering by polar optical phonons, scatterings due to impurities, alloying and doping, and the phonon drag effect. We show how the first-principles methods allow one to investigate transport properties with unprecedented detail and also offer new insights into the electron and phonon transport. The current status of the simulation is mentioned when appropriate and some of the future directions are also discussed.
Optimal Portfolio Allocation with Statistical Learning ∗

This paper exploits the idea of pretesting to choose between competing portfolio strategies. We propose a strategy that optimally trades off between the risk of going for a false positive strategy choice versus the risk of making a false negative choice. Various different data driven approaches are proposed based on an optimal choice of the pretested certainty equivalent and Sharpe Ratio. Our approach belongs to the class of shrinkage portfolio estimators. However, contrary to previous approaches the shrinkage intensity is continuously updated to incorporate the most recent information in the rolling window forecasting set-up. We show that the bagged pretest estimator performs exceptionally well, especially when combined with adaptive smoothing. The resulting strategy allows for a flexible and smooth switch between the underlying strategies and is shown to outperform the corresponding stand-alone strategies.
Daylight metrics and energy savings

The drive towards sustainable, low-energy buildings has increased the need for simple, yet accurate methods to evaluate whether a ‘daylit’ building meets minimum standards for energy and human comfort performance. Current metrics do not account for the temporal and spatial aspects of daylight, nor of occupants comfort or interventions. This paper reviews the historical basis of current compliance methods for achieving daylit buildings, proposes a technical basis for development of better metrics, and provides two case study examples to stimulate dialogue on how metrics can be applied in a practical, real-world context.
Adiabatic topological quantum computing

Topological quantum computing promises error-resistant quantum computation without active error correction. However, there is a worry that during the process of executing quantum gates by braiding anyons around each other, extra anyonic excitations will be created that will disorder the encoded quantum information. Here, we explore this question in detail by studying adiabatic code deformations on Hamiltonians based on topological codes, notably Kitaev's surface codes and the more recently discovered color codes. We develop protocols that enable universal quantum computing by adiabatic evolution in a way that keeps the energy gap of the system constant with respect to the computation size and introduces only simple local Hamiltonian interactions. This allows one to perform holonomic quantum computing with these topological quantum computing systems. The tools we develop allow one to go beyond numerical simulations and understand these processes analytically.
Physical properties of dental resin nanocomposites

AbstractObjectives: (1) To evaluate and compare the flexural strength, flexural modulus, compressive strength, surface roughness, and gloss for two nanohybrid composites (Herculite XRV Ultra, and Tetric Evo Ceram) and two microhybrid composites (Filtek Z250, and Venus). (2) To evaluate the differences in surface roughness and gloss between the materials. (3) To evaluate the effect of polishing and toothbrushing abrasive on surface roughness and gloss. (4) To assess the relationship between 2D surface roughness and 3D surface roughness parameters.Materials and methods: Compressive strength, Flexural strength, and Flexural Modulus of each material were determined using a universal testing machine (each test n=10). Flexural strength and flexural modulus were evaluated by using a three-point bending test. The results were statistically analyzed, with p? 0.05. Surface roughness and gloss of each material were evaluated by a 2D contact stylus profilometer: before polishing, after polishing, and after abrasive toothbrushing. Three surface roughness parameter were used in this study (Ra, Rt, Rsm). The results were analysed to evaluate the effect of polishing and toothbrushing abrasive by t-test for paired data and Oneway (ANOVA) test, followed by Tukey`s post hoc test, for multiple comparisons. 3D surface roughness measurements (Sa, St, Sds) were recorded using 3D non contact stylus profilometer. 3D surface roughness (Sa) and 2D surface roughness (Ra) for all tested materials were plotted to show the relationship between Sa and Ra after polishing and after brushing.Results: For the mechanical tests, Filtek Z250 exhibited the highest flexural strength (136.71 MPa), flexural modulus (7.9 GPa), and compressive strength (405.33 MPa) among all materials tested, while Tetric Evo Ceram showed the lowest mean values for compressive strength (237.74 MPa) and flexural strength (83.75 MPa). For Surface roughness after polishing, Ra, Rt, aand Rsm of the materials did not differ significantly from each other, whereas after brushing there were significant differences between the materials. Tetric Evo Ceram exhibited the rougher surface after brushing. The gloss results showed significant differences in gloss between the materials tested after polishing and after brushing. Herculite XRV exhibited the highest surface gloss after polishing (74.85) and was the best at retaining the gloss after brushing, whereas Venus recorded the lowest result for gloss after polishing (52.28). However, Filtek Z250 had the lowest gloss retention after brushing. Also the results showed a positive correlation between 3D surface roughness (Sa) and 2D surface roughness (Ra) for all materials tested after polishing: r2=0.9 and after brushing: r2=1. Conclusion: While nanohybrid composites may have certain advantage, such as higher gloss, over microhybrid composite resin, their mechanical properties were not superior to those of the microhybrid composites which were tested.
EVOLUTION OF AN ARTIFICIAL SEAWATER MEDIUM: IMPROVEMENTS IN ENRICHED SEAWATER, ARTIFICIAL WATER OVER THE LAST TWO DECADES

Although most phycologists use natural seawater for culturing marine species, artificial media continue to play important roles in overcoming problems of supply and seasonal variability in the quality of natural seawater and also for experiments involving manipulation of micro‐ and macronutrients. Several artificial media have been developed over the last 90 years; enriched seawater, artificial water (ESAW) is among the more popular recipes. ESAW has the advantage of an ionic balance that is somewhat closer to that of normal seawater. The original paper compared the growth of 83 strains of microalgae in natural seawater (ESNW) versus ESAW and determined that 23% grew more poorly in the artificial water. Since 1980, however, the composition of ESAW, as used by the original authors, has changed considerably. In particular, the added forms of phosphate, iron, and silicate have been changed and the trace metal mixture has been altered to include nickel, molybdenum, and selenium. We tested whether these changes improved the ability of the artificial medium to grow previously difficult to grow phytoplankton species. To test this, we selected eight species that had been shown to grow better in ESNW than in ESAW and compared their growth again, using the currently used recipe with all the above modifications. For all but one species (Apedinella spinifera), growth rate and final yield was no different between the media but in one case (Emiliania huxleyi) was slightly higher in ESAW. No differences in cell morphology or volume were found in any case. We conclude that changes to the enrichment portion of the recipe have significantly improved this artificial seawater medium and that it can be used to grow an even wider range of coastal and open ocean species.
Some Immunological Aspects of Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection among Iraqi Patients

Background: Hepatitis B virus HBV infection is a serious public health problem in Iraq, and HBV is a major cause of acute & chronic hepatitis. Objectives: The main target of this study is to estimate and evaluate the role of Interleukin -1α and IL-8, in addition of the T helper cells CD4 + and cytotoxic – T-cells CD 8 + in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) compared with acute hepatitis B patients and apparently healthy individuals. Patients and methods: This study was conducted from May 2010 to October 2010 in teaching laboratories of Medical City. involved 60 patients, (30) patients with acute HBV infection (22 male , 8 female) and (30) patients with chronic HBV infection (21 male, 9 female) referred to gastroenterology and hepatology teaching hospital & medical consultant department of Baghdad Teaching hospital ,compared with 20 apparently healthy individuals. Enzyme linked Immunosorbent assay technique (ELISA) was performed to estimate (IL1α and IL-8) in 60 patients compared with (20) healthy control group . T cells (CD4 ) and T (CD8 ) cells were estimated by using indirect immunofluorescent assay ( IFA ) . Results: The most incidence of HBV infection in males is more than in females with significant differences p = 0.0001. The mean level of (IL1α and IL-8) increases in patients with (CHB) with significant differences compared with acute & healthy control groups (P = 0.001). The ratio of CD4 + / CD 8 + T cells was significantly decreased (P= 0.0001) in CHB patients compared with acute hepatitis B patients, and healthy control group. Conclusions: The result of this study indicates that the cytokines (IL-1α –IL8) play an important role in the pathogenesis of chronic HBV infection. Also this study confirms that T (CD4 ) cells and T (CD 8 ) cells play an important role in host defense against HBV.
Classes for the Masses (Extended Abstract)

Type classes are an immensely popular and productive feature of Haskell. They have since been adopted in, and adapted to, numerous other languages, including theorem provers. We show that type classes have a natural and efficient representation in . NET that paves the way for the extension of F#, C# and other . NET languages with type classes. Our encoding is type preserving and promises easy and safe cross-language inter-operation. We have extended the open source C# compiler and language service, Roslyn, with pervasive support for type classes and have prototyped a more minimalist design for F#.
Zooplankton growth, diet and reproductive success compared in simultaneous diatom- and flagellate-microzooplankton-dominated plankton blooms

Development of mesozooplankton biomass, feeding activity and reproductive success of the copepod Calanus helgolandicus were compared in blooms of natural plankton in 7 mesocosms on the west coast of Norway between 28 August and 28 September 1996. Nutrient content and turbu- lence in enclosures of 27 m 3 natural sea water were manipulated in situ in order to generate blooms dominated by diatoms and flagellate-microzooplankton respectively. The diatom-dominated meso- cosms reached the highest algal biomasses. Calanus helgolandicus generally preferred non-diatom food, such as ciliates and metazoans, and showed similar ingestion rates in both systems. The female body-carbon-specific nauplii production was highest (10.6% d -1 ) during a flagellate-microzooplank- ton bloom, before it dropped to ca 1.7% d -1 during a bloom of Dictyocha speculum. In the diatom- dominated water it dropped to as low as 0.1%, and was always < 5.2% d -1 . The total standing stock of calanoid copepods increased about 2.6 times more in the flagellate-microzooplankton-dominated mesocosms. The drop in reproductive success in diatom-dominated water was recorded when feed- ing rates were high, and ciliates and other prey made up a substantial part of the diet. This suggests that either all prey, including the ciliates, were of poor quality and/or that inhibitory components may be an important factor during diatom blooms, even when significant amounts of alternative prey are available. Our results also suggest that blooms of the silicoflagellate D. speculum may affect copepod reproduction negatively in the sea.
High Order Tensor Forms of Growth Curve Models

In this paper, we first study the linear regression model and obtain a norm-minimized estimator of the parameter vector by using the g-inverse and the singular value decomposition of matrix X. We then investigate the growth curve model (GCM) and extend the GCM to a generalized GCM (GGCM) by using high order tensors. The parameter estimations in GGCMs are also achieved in this way.
An Algorithm for Single-Item Capacitated Economic Lot Sizing with Piecewise Linear Production Costs and General Holding Costs

We consider the Capacitated Economic Lot Size Problem with piecewise linear production costs and general holding costs, which is an NP-hard problem but solvable in pseudo-polynomial time. A straightforward dynamic programming approach to this problem results in an O(n2cd) algorithm, where n is the number of periods, and d and c are the average demand and the average production capacity over the n periods, respectively. However, we present a dynamic programming procedure with complexity O(n2qd), where q is the average number of pieces required to represent the production cost functions. In particular, this means that problems in which the production functions consist of a fixed set-up cost plus a linear variable cost are solved in O(n2d) time. Hence, the running time of our algorithm is only linearly dependent on the magnitude of the data. This result also holds if extensions such as backlogging and startup costs are considered. Moreover, computational experiments indicate that the algorithm is capable of solving quite large problem instances within a reasonable amount of time. For example, the average time needed to solve test instances with 96 periods, 8 pieces in every production cost function, and average demand of 100 units is approximately 40 seconds on a SUN SPARC 5 workstation.
A Metamaterial Backed Dipole Antenna for High Gain Directional Communications

The enhanced radiation performance of a dipole antenna backed by the split ring resonator-continuous wire pair array working in the H┴ excitation scenario is presented in this paper. The H┴ excitation scenario of the metamaterial is used to get zero reflection phase resulting in enhanced gain performance. The two layer meta-structure along with the dipole is fabricated on a low cost substrate of dielectric constant 4.4 and height 1mm. The reflection and transmission characteristics of the metamaterial structure and its effect on the radiation performance of the dipole antenna are presented in this paper.
Managerial Ownership and Firm Performance in German Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

This paper studies the effect of managerial ownership on performance and the determinants of managerial ownership for small and medium-sized private companies. We use a panel of around 1300 firms in the German business-related service sector for the years 1997-2000. Managerial ownership up to around 80 per cent has a positive impact on firm performance (incentive effect); for higher shares the effect becomes negative (entrenchment effect). Moreover, risk-aversion of managers and signalling of firm quality leads to a non-linear relationship between managerial ownership and the risk exposure of a firm. The determinants of performance and ownership are estimated simultaneously.
Iodine chemistry in the troposphere and its effect on ozone

Abstract. Despite the potential influence of iodine chemistry on the oxidizing capacity of the troposphere, reactive iodine distributions and their impact on tropospheric ozone remain almost unexplored aspects of the global atmosphere. Here we present a comprehensive global modelling experiment aimed at estimating lower and upper limits of the inorganic iodine burden and its impact on tropospheric ozone. Two sets of simulations without and with the photolysis of IxOy oxides (i.e. I2O2, I2O3 and I2O4) were conducted to define the range of inorganic iodine loading, partitioning and impact in the troposphere. Our results show that the most abundant daytime iodine species throughout the middle to upper troposphere is atomic iodine, with an annual average tropical abundance of (0.15–0.55) pptv. We propose the existence of a "tropical ring of atomic iodine" that peaks in the tropical upper troposphere (~11–14 km) at the equator and extends to the sub-tropics (30° N–30° S). Annual average daytime I / IO ratios larger than 3 are modelled within the tropics, reaching ratios up to ~20 during vigorous uplift events within strong convective regions. We calculate that the integrated contribution of catalytic iodine reactions to the total rate of tropospheric ozone loss (IOx Loss) is 2–5 times larger than the combined bromine and chlorine cycles. When IxOy photolysis is included, IOx Loss represents an upper limit of approximately 27, 14 and 27% of the tropical annual ozone loss for the marine boundary layer (MBL), free troposphere (FT) and upper troposphere (UT), respectively, while the lower limit throughout the tropical troposphere is ~9%. Our results indicate that iodine is the second strongest ozone-depleting family throughout the global marine UT and in the tropical MBL. We suggest that (i) iodine sources and its chemistry need to be included in global tropospheric chemistry models, (ii) experimental programs designed to quantify the iodine budget in the troposphere should include a strategy for the measurement of atomic I, and (iii) laboratory programs are needed to characterize the photochemistry of higher iodine oxides to determine their atmospheric fate since they can potentially dominate halogen-catalysed ozone destruction in the troposphere.
Suspended Sediment Concentration Estimation from Landsat Imagery along the Lower Missouri and Middle Mississippi Rivers Using an Extreme Learning Machine

Monitoring and quantifying suspended sediment concentration (SSC) along major fluvial systems such as the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers provide crucial information for biological processes, hydraulic infrastructure, and navigation. Traditional monitoring based on in situ measurements lack the spatial coverage necessary for detailed analysis. This study developed a method for quantifying SSC based on Landsat imagery and corresponding SSC data obtained from United States Geological Survey monitoring stations from 1982 to present. The presented methodology first uses feature fusion based on canonical correlation analysis to extract pertinent spectral information, and then trains a predictive reflectance–SSC model using a feed-forward neural network (FFNN), a cascade forward neural network (CFNN), and an extreme learning machine (ELM). The trained models are then used to predict SSC along the Missouri–Mississippi River system. Results demonstrated that the ELM-based technique generated R2 > 0.9 for Landsat 4–5, Landsat 7, and Landsat 8 sensors and accurately predicted both relatively high and low SSC displaying little to no overfitting. The ELM model was then applied to Landsat images producing quantitative SSC maps. This study demonstrates the benefit of ELM over traditional modeling methods for the prediction of SSC based on satellite data and its potential to improve sediment transport and monitoring along large fluvial systems.
Activity spaces: Measures of social exclusion?

The paper provides a first investigation of the suitability of different measures of activity space size to identify persons at risk of social exclusion. This would be a new departure for the measurement of social exclusion which so far has relied either on aggregate measures of locations or cross-sections data of individuals. The size of a person’s activity space can only be estimated with information reflecting a longer time horizon. In this paper the six-week travel diary survey (Mobidrive) is used, which was conducted in the two German cities in 1999. About 90% of all local trips were coded for 300 respondents (about 45000 trips). The paper develops three possible measurement approaches of increasing complexity (confidence ellipse, kernel density estimates, minimum spanning trees). The analysis revealed that the main driver of the size of the activity spaces is the overall number of unique locations visited by the respondents and, to a lesser extent, their socio-demographic characteristics. In particular, the groups most often considered to be at risk of social exclusion (female, lower income, elderly) did not show significantly different activity spaces.
Traces of Matrix Products

Given two noncommuting matrices, A and B, it is well known that AB and BA have the same trace. This extends to cyclic permutations of products of A's and B's. It is shown here that for 2× 2 matrices A and B, whose elements are independent random variables with standard normal distributions, the probability that T r(ABAB) > T r(A 2 B 2 ) is exactly 1 p 2 .
Infant and adolescent deaths due to home accidents in Istanbul >øVWDQEX OGDHY

Ozet Adolescent and infant deaths due to home accidents pose an important social problem and can be prevented significantly by appropriate measures. The aims of this study about adolescent and infant deaths under the age of 18 due to home accidents are assessment of risk factors and proposals for protective measures. Four hundred and fourteen autopsy reports (Applied by Mortuary Section, Council of Forensic Medicine, Istanbul - Turkey, 1996 -2000) were reviewed as well as scene investigation data and information from eyewitnesses for those aims. Determination of risk factors, appropriate education, as well as legal regalements for manufacturers of household articles may reduce the number of infant and adolescent deaths due to home accidents significantly.