nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Anti diabetic activity of Holothuria thomasi saponin.
Venue: Biomedicine pharmacotherapy Biomedecine pharmacotherapie

Diabetes mellitus represents a global health problem. It characterized by hyperglycemia that induces oxidative stress leading to a generation of free radicals. A wide variety of natural products in plants and other marine animals represent antioxidant activity and other health benefits like those of sea cucumber. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the antidiabetic activity of glycosidic compound saponin derived from the Egyptian sea cucumber, Holothuria thomasi.  Saponin has been extracted from the Egyptian sea cucumber and confirmed by hemolysis, Salkowski tests, FT/IR, UV and GC MS analysis. Eighty white female albino rats were divided into four equal groups. The first two groups of rats; control normal and control normal saponin treated groups. The last two groups which were made diabetic by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin had one diabetic control and the other diabetic group that got 300mg/kg B.wt. of saponin extract after Thirty five days after diabetes induction and lasted for six weeks.  The functional group of saponin extract which established with FT/IR spectroscopy demonstrated the presence of saponin in the extracted materials as shown in the peak of the functional group in relevance to the standard one. The UV spectra revealed that lmax of saponin extract was 282nm which in accordance to the standard saponin. Also, GC MS analysis indicated that the aglycone part of saponin was methyl esters of octadecanoic acid. Saponin extract significantly decreased serum glucose, a amylase activity, adiponectin, IL 6, TNF a concentrations and liver L MDA. However, serum insulin and liver glycogen levels were significantly increased as compared with the diabetic non treated groups. The histopathological results supported that saponin extract markedly reduced the degenerative change in b cells.  This study, therefore, depicts that the Egyptian Holothuria thomasi, sea cucumber saponin as a hypoglycemic agent with the potential to normalize aberrant biochemical parameters and preserved the normal histological architecture of the islets cells of pancreatic tissues.
Constraint robust model predictive control for jump Markov linear systems with additive disturbances
Venue: 2016 European Control Conference (ECC)

This paper proposes an approach to robust model predictive control (MPC) for discrete time jump Markov linear systems (JMLS) considering polytopic constraints on the inputs and states. In a first design step, state feedback controllers, that stabilize the JMLS robustly, are calculated offline by means of a semi definite program (SDP) These controllers are designed to satisfy the constraints and keep the states within disturbance invariant sets (DIS) To reduce the conservatism of the design approach, an SDP formulation in which the controller parameterization is independent of the Lyapunov matrices is employed. The resulting Lyapunov matrices and the DIS are used to formulate quadratic constraints for the first prediction step, that ensure robustness against additive disturbances, stability, constraint satisfaction and recursive feasibility. The stabilizing properties and low computation times of the resulting quadratically constraint quadratic program (QCQP) are illustrated by simulation.
The contingency theory of management accounting and control: 1980 2014

This article reviews the literature on the contingency theory of management accounting since the 1980 review by the author. It traces the expansion of this literature and critically outlines some of the major themes explored over this period. It argues that a mechanistic approach that will develop into a predictive mechanism for the design of optimal control systems is misguided. Rather the existence of management control 'packages' that are continually changing and developing requires studies that follow these changes over time and seek to explain the mechanisms that are observed to be deployed. The 'package' concept has not yet been taken seriously in the design of most empirical studies although this is fundamental to the design of future studies. That is, different elements of control system packages are developed quasi independently by different actors at different times and are only loosely co ordinated. Full coordination is precluded for several reasons, most notably the rapid pace of change and the addition of new or amended systems at a faster rate than the coordination process can develop. It is suggested that the narrow view of contingency that relies on responses to generally applicable questionnaires needs to be replaced by a more tailored approach that takes into account the context of specific organizations.
The use of partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS SEM) in management accounting research: Directions for future theory development

In management accounting research, the capabilities of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS SEM) have only partially been utilized. These yet unexploited capabilities of PLS SEM are a useful tool in the often explorative state of research in management accounting. After reviewing eleven top ranked management accounting journals through the end of 2013, 37 articles in which PLS SEM is used are identified. These articles are analysed based on multiple relevant criteria to determine the progress in this research area, including the reasons for using PLS SEM, the characteristics of the data and the models, and model evaluation and reporting. A special focus is placed on the degree of importance of these analysed criteria for the future development of management accounting research. To ensure continued theoretical development in management accounting, this article also offers recommendations to avoid common pitfalls and provides guidance for the advanced use of PLS SEM in management accounting research.
Integrating corporate sustainability assessment, management accounting, control, and reporting

Much has been written about "why" companies are involved in sustainability issues. However, relatively little research has addressed the integrative "how" question, particularly "how companies can and do integrate sustainability assessment, management accounting, management control, and reporting?" Corporate sustainability, however, requires integrative measurement and management of sustainability issues rather than isolated applications of different tools in the organization. This article reviews literature dealing with links and partial links between sustainability assessment, management accounting, management control, and reporting. The main findings show that the various concepts (performance assessment, management accounting, management control, and reporting) are defined and used in various ways but mainly dealt within an isolated manner. Based on these findings this paper proposes a comprehensive, integrated framework of sustainability assessment, accounting, control and reporting. From a scientific perspective, the proposed framework is a first attempt to integrate these isolated concepts. It can help researchers and practitioners to better understand how the four concepts are related and could be linked to each other to develop an integrated approach.
Partial oxidation of sewage sludge briquettes in a updraft fixed bed.
Venue: Waste management

The fixed bed reaction of sewage sludge briquettes was investigated to evaluate the potential applications to gasification, combustion, or production of biochar as soil ameliorator. The reaction had two distinctive stages: ignition propagation and char oxidation. The ignition front of the sludge briquettes propagated at a lower speed, which significantly increased the stoichiometric ratio of overall combustion reaction and peak temperatures. The ignition front also had irregular shapes due to the channeling effects. During the char oxidation stage, the sludge ash agglomerated because of the slow reaction rate and increased CO2 formation. Because of low energy content in the product gas, the large briquettes were not favorable for syngas production. In addition, the low burning rates and ash agglomeration could cause problems in the operation of a grate type furnace for combustion. However, the char accumulated above the ignition front had similar properties with that from pyrolysis under inert atmosphere. Therefore, the fixed bed reaction under partial oxidation conditions can be applied to produce biochar as soil ameliorator from the sludge briquettes without external heat supply.
Biochar in Land Reclamation, Biosolids Applications and Prescribed Fires

Academic Biochar is a form of stable organic carbon whose application to soils has the potential to sequester large amounts of atmospheric CO2 while improving the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil. However, the optimal rates and methods of biochar application are unknown for many situations. Three experiments were performed to test methods of biochar application to soils as a stand alone amendment, in combination with biosolids as a complementary amendment and in situ through controlled landscape burning. The first was a greenhouse pot study, which involved combining biochar with spoil from an Appalachian surface coal mine to grow trees. Biochar combined with mine soil produced a much higher growth rate for trees, and pure biochar helped tree root growth, suggesting that it might be useful as a broadcasted amendment, as a nursery growing medium or as a backfill in tree planting holes. The second experiment explored methods to combine biochar and biosolids materials to form a granular product. Combining biochar and biosolids before applications reduced windborne losses of biochar as well as the nutrient leachate produced by the biosolids. Drum rolling was found to work best for producing aggregate granules. Wetting pure biochar to 100% gravimetric water content before applications reduced windborne losses from over 50% to under 5% as compared to when it was applied as a dry product. A series of controlled burns were conducted in the third experiment to determine the ideal range of meteorological conditions to produce the highest possible biochar yields in situ. Relative humidity, forest litter moisture and ambient temperature were found to be the governing factors over the tonnage of biochar produced. Up to 3.0 Mg Ha of biochar were produced under ideal conditions by controlled burning. Repeated high yielding burns have the potential accumulate large amounts of biochar in the soil to improve soil properties.
Analysis of Physical and Combustion Characteristics of Briquetting Mechanisms

A briquette is a compressed block of coal dust or other combustible biomass material such as charcoal, sawdust, wood chips, peat, or paper used for fuel and kindling to start a fire. The present study deals with determination of physical and combustion characteristics like length, diameter, mass, density, compressive strength, shearing strength, moisture contents, total ash contents, fixed carbon, volatile matter, gross calorific value of Sawdust briquette. Briquette quality is evaluated mainly by briquette density. Briquette density is very important beginning the viewpoint of manipulation, burning speed, briquette durability, etc. During our studies, theoretical analyses of parameters which have an impact on briquette quality are conducted. The compression test and shear test were conducted using manual compression machine.
Optimal load tracking control of expansion generation with super capacitor in compressed air energy storage system
Venue: 2016 35th Chinese Control Conference (CCC)

A hybrid compressed air energy storage (CAES) system combined with super capacitor has been proposed to meet power demand rapidly and increase the quality of power grid. In order to achieve the generator power tracking rapidly and smoothly, the state feedback linearization controller is designed for the boost converter as the main control part of the super capacitor based on the optimal tracking technology with the exact linearization theory of nonlinear control system. The simulation experiments results show that the optimal tracking controller of the new hybrid air energy storage system with super capacitor energy storage is useful to track the power demand curve of 24 hours somewhere.
Optimal load tracking control of expansion generation with super capacitor in compressed air energy storage system
Venue: CCC 2016

A hybrid compressed air energy storage (CAES) system combined with super capacitor has been proposed to meet power demand rapidly and increase the quality of power grid. In order to achieve the generator power tracking rapidly and smoothly, the state feedback linearization controller is designed for the boost converter as the main control part of the super capacitor based on the optimal tracking technology with the exact linearization theory of nonlinear control system. The simulation experiments results show that the optimal tracking controller of the new hybrid air energy storage system with super capacitor energy storage is useful to track the power demand curve of 24 hours somewhere.
Investigation of annular supersonic inlets with isentropic compression

A technique for designing the supersonic annular inlets with isentropic deceleration surfaces is considered. The contour of an isentropic supersonic nozzle constructed by the method of characteristics for an inviscid gas flow with given uniform parameters at the inlet and at the outlet is used as the basic configuration of the inlet. The reversed flow of a viscous gas is computed with the aid of numerical techniques in the contour under consideration and the real operational characteristics of the obtained inlet of a fixed geometry are determined in the range of the conditions of its application. In the process of computations, the minimum cross sectional sizes are selected, which ensure the inlet start without a detached bow shock at the entrance.
Women and Islam in Bangladesh: Beyond Subjection and Tyranny

Preface and Acknowledgements  Women in  A Reappraisal Mullas, Popular Islam and Misogyny Women as Victims of the Salish: Fatwas, Mullas and the Village Community NGOs and Empowerment of Women: Some Problematic Prognoses Militant Feminism, Islam and Patriarchy: Taslima Nasreen, Ulama and the Polity Conclusions Index
A dynamic multi objective location routing model for relief logistic planning under uncertainty on demand, travel time, and cost parameters

Managers recognize that a strong relation prevails between the location of facilities; the allocation of suppliers, vehicles, and customers to the facilities; and in the design of routes around the facilities. To integrate strategic, tactical, and operational decisions, a multi objective dynamic stochastic programming model is proposed for a humanitarian relief logistics problem where decisions are reached for pre and post disaster. The model features three objectives: minimizing the maximum amount of shortages among the affected areas in all periods, the total travel time, and sum pre and post disaster costs. The first objective pursues fairness expending the best effort to ensure relief commodity delivery to all demand points whereas the two other objectives pursue the efficiency goal. The proposed model is solved as a single objective mixed integer programming model applying the e constraint method. A case study is presented to illustrate the potential applicability of our model for disaster planning of earthquake scenarios in the megacity of Tehran. The findings demonstrate that the proposed model can benefit making decisions on facility location, resource allocation, and routing decisions in cases of disaster relief efforts.
FGF23 Regulates Bone Mineralization in a 1,25(OH)2 D3 and Klotho Independent Manner.
Venue: Journal of bone and mineral research the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research

Fibroblast growth factor 23 (Fgf23) is a bone derived hormone, suppressing phosphate reabsorption and vitamin D hormone (1,25(OH)2 D3 production in the kidney. It has long been an enigma why lack of Fgf23 or of Klotho, the coreceptor for Fgf23, leads to severe impairment in bone mineralization despite the presence of hypercalcemia and hyperphosphatemia. Using Fgf23( or Klotho( mice together with compound mutant mice lacking both Fgf23 or Klotho and a functioning vitamin D receptor, we show that in Klotho( mice the mineralization defect is solely driven by 1,25(OH)2 D3 induced upregulation of the mineralization inhibiting molecules osteopontin and pyrophosphate in bone. In Fgf23( mice, the mineralization defect has two components, a 1,25(OH)2 D3 driven component similar to Klotho( mice and a component driven by lack of Fgf23, causing additional accumulation of osteopontin. We found that FGF23 regulates osteopontin secretion indirectly by suppressing alkaline phosphatase transcription and phosphate production in osteoblastic cells, acting through FGF receptor 3 in a Klotho independent manner. Hence, FGF23 secreted from osteocytes may form an autocrine/paracrine feedback loop for the local fine tuning of bone mineralization.
Direct inhibition of osteoblastic Wnt pathway by fibroblast growth factor 23 contributes to bone loss in chronic kidney disease.
Venue: Kidney international

Bone loss and increased fractures are common complications in chronic kidney disease. Because Wnt pathway activation is essential for normal bone mineralization, we assessed whether Wnt inhibition contributes to high phosphorus induced mineralization defects in uremic rats. By week 20 after 7/8 nephrectomy, rats fed a high phosphorus diet had the expected high serum creatinine, phosphorus, parathyroid hormone, and fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) levels and low serum calcium. There was a 15% reduction in tibial mineral density and a doubling of bone cortical porosity compared to uremic rats fed a normal phosphorus diet. The decreases in tibial mineral density were preceded by time dependent increments in gene expression of bone formation (Osteocalcin and Runx2) and resorption (Cathepsin K) markers, which paralleled elevations in gene expression of the Wnt inhibitors Sfrp1 and Dkk1 in bone. Similar elevations of Wnt inhibitors plus an increased phospho b catenin/b catenin ratio occurred upon exposure of the osteoblast cell line UMR106 01 either to uremic serum or to the combination of parathyroid hormone, FGF23, and soluble Klotho, at levels present in uremic serum. Strikingly, while osteoblast exposure to parathyroid hormone suppressed the expression of Wnt inhibitors, FGF23 directly inhibited the osteoblastic Wnt pathway through a soluble Klotho/MAPK mediated process that required Dkk1 induction. Thus, the induction of Dkk1 by FGF23/soluble Klotho in osteoblasts inactivates Wnt/b catenin signaling. This provides a novel autocrine/paracrine mechanism for the adverse impact of high FGF23 levels on bone in chronic kidney disease.
Changing bone patterns with progression of chronic kidney disease.
Venue: Kidney international

It is commonly held that osteitis fibrosa and mixed uremic osteodystrophy are the predominant forms of renal osteodystrophy in patients with chronic kidney disease. Osteitis fibrosa is a high turnover bone disease resulting mainly from secondary hyperparathyroidism, and mixed uremic osteodystrophy is in addition characterized by a mineralization defect most often attributed to vitamin D deficiency. However, there is ancient and more recent evidence that in early chronic kidney disease stages adynamic bone disease characterized by low bone turnover occurs first, at least in a significant proportion of patients. This could be due to the initial predominance of bone turnover inhibitory conditions such as resistance to the action of parathyroid hormone (PTH) reduced calcitriol levels, sex hormone deficiency, diabetes, and, last but not least, uremic toxins leading to repression of osteocyte Wnt/b catenin signaling and increased expression of Wnt antagonists such as sclerostin, Dickkopf 1, and sFRP4. The development of high turnover bone disease would occur only later on, when serum PTH levels are able to overcome peripheral PTH resistance and the other inhibitory factors of bone formation. Whether FGF23 and Klotho play a direct role in the transition from low to high turnover bone disease or participate only indirectly via regulating PTH secretion remains to be seen.
An improved FastSLAM using resmapling based on particle swarm optimization
Venue: 2016 IEEE 11th Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA)

FastSLAM is well known as a Rao Blackwellised particle filter formulation of simultaneous localization and mapping. The accuracy of conventional FastSLAM degenerates over time due to the particle depletion in resampling phase. In this paper, an improved FastSLAM with resampling based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is proposed to address the problem. Firstly, instead of rejection and replication, PSO is employed in the resampling process for the pose convergence of the particle set. Then, in order to update the proposal distribution and the map, a special framework of FastSLAM is adopted in the proposed method. Finally, the result of computer simulation reveals that the modified method shows smaller error in both robot pose and feature estimations than conventional FastSLAM.
An improved FastSLAM 2.0 algorithm based on FC&ASD PSO
Venue: Robotica

FastSLAM 2.0 is a popular framework which uses a Rao Blackwellized particle filter to solve the simultaneous localization and mapping problem. The sampling process is one of the most important phases in the FastSLAM 2.0 framework. Its estimation accuracy depends heavily on a correct prior knowledge about the control and observation noise statistics (the covariance matrices Q and R) Without the correct prior knowledge about these matrices, the estimation accuracy of the robot path and landmark positions may degrade seriously. However in many applications, the prior knowledge is unknown, or these noises are non stationary. In this paper, these covariance matrices are supposed to be dynamic and denoted as Q t and R t Since there are noises, time adjacent observations are inconsistent with each other. This inconsistency can reflect the real value of the covariance matrices. By the inconsistency, an extra step is introduced to the FastSLAM 2.0 framework. This step makes Q t and R t match with their real value by using a particle swarm optimization method based on fractional calculus and alpha stable distribution (FC&ASD PSO) Both simulation and experimental results show that the proposed algorithm improves the accuracy by the more accurate estimation on the noise covariance matrices.
GA PSO FASTSLAM: A Hybrid Optimization Approach in Improving FastSLAM Performance
Venue: ISDA

FastSLAM algorithm is one of the introduced Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithms for autonomous mobile robot. It decomposes the SLAM problem into one distinct localization problem and a collection of landmarks estimation problems. In recent discovery, FastSLAM suffers particle depletion problem which causes it to degenerate over time in terms of accuracy. In this work, a new hybrid approach is proposed by integrating two soft computing techniques that are genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) into FastSLAM. It is developed to overcome the particle depletion problem occur by improving the FastSLAM accuracy in terms of robot and landmark set position estimation. The experiment is conducted in simulation where the result is evaluated using root mean square error (RMSE) analysis. The experiment result shows that the proposed hybrid approach able to minimize the FastSLAM problem by reducing the degree of error occurs (RMSE value) during robot and landmark set position estimation.