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Traditional data storage formats and databases often introduce complexities and inefficiencies that hinder rapid iteration and adaptability. To address these challenges, we introduce ParquetDB, a Python-based database framework that leverages the Parquet file format's optimized columnar storage. ParquetDB offers efficient serialization and deserialization, native support for complex and nested data types, reduced dependency on indexing through predicate pushdown filtering, and enhanced portability due to its file-based storage system. Benchmarks show that ParquetDB outperforms traditional databases like SQLite and MongoDB in managing large volumes of data, especially when using data formats compatible with PyArrow. We validate ParquetDB's practical utility by applying it to the Alexandria 3D Materials Database, efficiently handling approximately 4.8 million complex and nested records. By addressing the inherent limitations of existing data storage systems and continuously evolving to meet future demands, ParquetDB has the potential to significantly streamline data management processes and accelerate research development in data-driven fields., Comment: 41 pages, 12 figures

The MechElastic Python package evaluates the mechanical and elastic properties of bulk and 2D materials using the elastic coefficient matrix ($C_{ij}$) obtained from any ab-initio density-functional theory (DFT) code. The current version of this package reads the output of VASP, ABINIT, and Quantum Espresso codes (but it can be easily generalized to any other DFT code) and performs the appropriate post-processing of elastic constants as per the requirement of the user. This program can also detect the input structure's crystal symmetry and test the mechanical stability of all crystal classes using the Born-Huang criteria. Various useful material-specific properties such as elastic moduli, longitudinal and transverse elastic wave velocities, Debye temperature, elastic anisotropy, 2D layer modulus, hardness, Pugh's ratio, Cauchy's pressure, Kleinman parameter, and Lame's coefficients, can be estimated using this program. Another existing feature of this program is to employ the ELATE package [J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 28, 275201 (2016)] and plot the spatial variation of several elastic properties such as Poisson's ratio, linear compressibility, shear modulus, and Young's modulus in three dimensions. Further, the MechElastic package can plot the equation of state (EOS) curves for energy and pressure for a variety of EOS models such as Murnaghan, Birch, Birch-Murnaghan, and Vinet, by reading the inputted energy/pressure versus volume data obtained via numerical calculations or experiments. This package is particularly useful for the high-throughput analysis of elastic and mechanical properties of materials.