Scribal practices in contact: two Minaic/Dadanitic mixed texts

NWOPGW-14-43Middle Eastern Studie

The Taymanitic onomasticon

The Taymanitic inscriptions, written in the c. mid-sixth century BCE, largely consist of personal names. While personal names cannot inform us directly on the language or ethnicity of their bearers, name-giving practices do reflect a choice made by the person bestowing it on someone. This article will focus on the personal names of the inscriptions; what they can tell us about their linguistic and cultural background, and how this might inform us on the cultural heritage of the authors of the Taymanitic inscriptions.Middle Eastern Studie

The writing culture of ancient Dadān: A description and quantitative analysis of linguistic variation

The Dadanitic inscriptions were carved in stone between 600 and 100 BCE in the north-west of the Arabian Peninsula. Most of the inscriptions are found in and around the ancient oasis of Dadān, modern-day Al-ʿUlā. The inscriptions display a remarkable amount of variation in both their language and level of execution. This work consists of two parts, part one contains a description and grammatical analysis of the corpus. This part will help contextualize the variation discussed in part two, by giving an overview of common and less common forms of the grammar, but also of the formulaic parts of and writing styles found in the inscriptions. Part two deals exclusively with the variation attested in the corpus, building on the description in part one. It offers a quantitative analysis of the variation in the corpus in an attempt to move beyond impressionistic accounts of its distribution and possible causes. NWO, promoties in de geesteswetenschappen beursMiddle Eastern Studie

Scribal practices in contact: two Minaic/Dadanitic mixed texts

NWOPGW-14-43Middle Eastern Studie

A real-space, rela-time method for the dielectric function

We present an algorithm to calculate the linear response of periodic systems in the time-dependent density functional thoery, using a real-space representation of the electron wave functions and calculating the dynamics in real time. The real-space formulation increases the efficiency for calculating the interaction, and the real-time treatment decreases storage requirements and the allows the entire frequency-dependent response to be calculated at once. We give as examples the dielectric functions of a simple metal, lithium, and an elemental insulator, diamond.Comment: 17 pages, Latex, 5 figure

Many-body diagrammatic expansion in a Kohn-Sham basis: implications for Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory of excited states

We formulate diagrammatic rules for many-body perturbation theory which uses Kohn-Sham (KS) Green's functions as basic propagators. The diagram technique allows to study the properties of the dynamic nonlocal exchange-correlation (xc) kernel $f_{xc}$. We show that the spatial non-locality of $f_{xc}$ is strongly frequency-dependent. In particular, in extended systems the non-locality range diverges at the excitation energies. This divergency is related to the discontinuity of the xc potential.Comment: 4 RevTeX pages including 3 eps figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett; revised version with new reference

Exchange-correlation kernels for excited states in solids

The performance of several common approximations for the exchange-correlation kernel within time-dependent density-functional theory is tested for elementary excitations in the homogeneous electron gas. Although the adiabatic local-density approximation gives a reasonably good account of the plasmon dispersion, systematic errors are pointed out and traced to the neglect of the wavevector dependence. Kernels optimized for atoms are found to perform poorly in extended systems due to an incorrect behavior in the long-wavelength limit, leading to quantitative deviations that significantly exceed the experimental error bars for the plasmon dispersion in the alkali metals.Comment: 7 pages including 5 figures, RevTe

Cigarette smoking is associated with higher thyroid hormone and lower TSH levels:The PREVEND study

PURPOSE: The extent to which smoking is associated with thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4), and free triiodothyronine (FT3) when taking account of clinical variables including alcohol consumption is unclear. We aimed to determine associations of TSH, FT4, and FT3 levels with current smoking. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed in 5766 euthyroid participants (Prevention of Renal and Vascular End-Stage Disease cohort). Current smoking was determined by self-report, categorized as never, former, and current (≤20 and >20 cigarettes per day). Smoke exposure was determined by urinary cotinine. RESULTS: Current smoking of ≤20 and >20 cigarettes per day was associated with lower TSH and higher FT3 levels. FT4 levels were higher in subjects smoking 20 cigarettes per day. In agreement, TSH was inversely, whereas FT4 and FT3 levels were positively associated with urinary cotinine (P 30 g per day conferred higher TSH and lower FT3 levels. CONCLUSIONS: Cigarette smoking is associated with modestly higher FT4 and FT3, and lower TSH levels, partly opposing effects of alcohol consumption