nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Behaviour Centred Design: towards an applied science of behaviour change
Venue: Health psychology review

Behaviour change has become a hot topic. We describe a new approach, Behaviour Centred Design (BCD) which encompasses a theory of change, a suite of behavioural determinants and a programme design process. The theory of change is generic, assuming that successful interventions must create a cascade of effects via environments, through brains, to behaviour and hence to the desired impact, such as improved health. Changes in behaviour are viewed as the consequence of a reinforcement learning process involving the targeting of evolved motives and changes to behaviour settings, and are produced by three types of behavioural control mechanism (automatic, motivated and executive) The implications are that interventions must create surprise, revalue behaviour and disrupt performance in target behaviour settings. We then describe a sequence of five steps required to design an intervention to change specific behaviours: Assess, Build, Create, Deliver and Evaluate. The BCD approach has been shown to change hygiene, nutrition and exercise related behaviours and has the advantages of being applicable to product, service or institutional design, as well as being able to incorporate future developments in behaviour science. We therefore argue that BCD can become the foundation for an applied science of behaviour change.
Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Is Strongly Associated With Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
Venue: The American Journal of Gastroenterology

Insulin resistance is central to the development of non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is an early marker of insulin resistance. We hypothesized that a history of GDM would identify women at higher risk of NAFLD in middle age.Women from the multicenter Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) cohort study who delivered =1 birth, were free of diabetes prior to pregnancy(ies) and underwent CT quantification of hepatic steatosis 25 years following cohort entry (Y25: 2010 2011) were included (n=1,115) History of GDM by self report, validated in a subsample by review of antenatal glucose testing, and metabolic risk factors were assessed prospectively. NAFLD was defined by liver attenuation (LA)=40 Hounsfield Units on CT scan after exclusion of other causes of hepatic steatosis.Of 1,115 women meeting selection criteria (57% black, 43% white, median age 25 years at baseline) 124 (11% reported a history of GDM and 75 (7% met the CT definition for NAFLD at year 25. The crude risk of NAFLD at the 25 year visit was significantly higher in women with GDM compared to those without (14 vs. 5.8% OR: 2.56, 95% CI: 1.44 4.55, P<0.01) History of GDM remained associated with NAFLD (OR: 2.29, 95% CI: 1.23 4.27, P=0.01) after adjustment for covariates in multivariable logistic regression. Addition of incident diabetes mellitus (DM) into the final model attenuated the association between GDM and NAFLD (OR: 1.48, 95% CI: 0.73 3.02, P=0.28)  GDM is a risk marker for NAFLD and represents an opportunity to identify women at risk for NAFLD at a young age and may be mediated by the development of incident DM.
Confirmed clinical case of chronic kidney disease of nontraditional causes in agricultural communities in Central America: a case definition for surveillance.
Venue: Revista panamericana de salud publica Pan American journal of public health

Over the last 20 years, many reports have described an excess of cases of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the Pacific coastal area of Central America, mainly affecting male farmworkers and signaling a serious public health problem. Most of these cases are not associated with traditional risk factors for CKD, such as aging, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. This CKD of nontraditional causes (CKDnT) might be linked to environmental and/or occupational exposure or working conditions, limited access to health services, and poverty. In response to a resolution approved by the Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in 2013, PAHO, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Latin American Society of Nephrology and Hypertension (SLANH) organized a consultation process in order to expand knowledge on the epidemic of CKDnT and to develop appropriate surveillance instruments. The Clinical Working Group from SLANH was put in charge of finding a consensus definition of a confirmed clinical case of CKDnT. The resulting definition establishes mandatory criteria and exclusion criteria necessary for classifying a case of CKDnT. The definition includes a combination of universally accepted definitions of CKD and the main clinical manifestations of CKDnT. Based on the best available evidence, the Clinical Working Group also formulated general recommendations about clinical management that apply to any patient with CKDnT. Adhering to the definition of a confirmed clinical case of CKDnT and implementing it appropriately is expected to be a powerful instrument for understanding the prevalence of the epidemic, evaluating the results of interventions, and promoting appropriate advocacy and planning efforts.
Greed and adolescent financial behavior

Financial problems in adolescents have increased over the last decades. We investigated if individual differences in greed relate to financial behavior. Greed is an important motive for economic behavior and refers to the tendency to never be satisfied and to always want more. We developed a short version of the Dispositional Greed Scale (Seuntjens, Zeelenberg, Van de Ven, Breugelmans, 2015) which we then used in a large survey with adolescents (N 3899) Dispositional greed is associated with them having more income, spending more, saving less often, and having debt more often. Identifying what personality characteristics influence financial behavior at a young age is important, as the financial habits that people learn during adolescence persist in adulthood. We find that greed has both positive effects (having a higher income) but also negative effects with the greedy being less likely to save and being more likely to have a debt.
Molecular dynamics simulation of the nonlinear behavior of the CNT reinforced calcium silicate hydrate (C S H) composite

Silicate Hydrate (C S H) which is the major constituent of the cement at the nanoscale, is responsible for the strength and fracture properties of concrete. This research is dedicated to the numerical study of enhanced mechanical properties of C S H reinforced by embedding carbon nanotube (CNT) in its molecular structure. Series of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations indicate that the tensile strength of CNT reinforced C S H is substantially enhanced along the direction of CNT as compared to the pure C S H. The results of tensile loading reveal that CNT can efficiently bridge the two sides of cracked C S H. In addition, CNTs can severely intensify the "transversely isotropic" response of the CNT reinforced C S H. Furthermore, the pull out behavior of CNT reveals that the force displacement response can be estimated by a bilinear model, which can later be used for simulation of cohesive crack propagation and multiscale simulation of crack bridging at macro scale specimen of CNT reinforced cement.
Balancing strength and toughness of calcium silicate hydrate via random nanovoids and particle inclusions: Atomistic modeling and statistical analysis

As the most widely used manufactured material on Earth, concrete poses serious societal and environmental concerns which call for innovative strategies to develop greener concrete with improved strength and toughness, properties that are exclusive in man made materials. Herein, we focus on calcium silicate hydrate (C S H) the major binding phase of all Portland cement concretes, and study how engineering its nanovoids and portlandite particle inclusions can impart a balance of strength, toughness and stiffness. By performing an extensive +600 molecular dynamics simulations coupled with statistical analysis tools, our results provide new evidence of ductile fracture mechanisms in C S H reminiscent of crystalline alloys and ductile metals decoding the interplay between the crack growth, nanovoid/particle inclusions, and stoichiometry, which dictates the crystalline versus amorphous nature of the underlying matrix. We found that introduction of voids and portlandite particles can significantly increase toughness and ductility, specially in C S H with more amorphous matrices, mainly owing to competing mechanisms of crack deflection, voids coalescence, internal necking, accommodation, and geometry alteration of individual voids/particles, which together regulate toughness versus strength. Furthermore, utilizing a comprehensive global sensitivity analysis on random configuration property relations, we show that the mean diameter of voids/particles is the most critical statistical parameter influencing the mechanical properties of C S H, irrespective of stoichiometry or crystalline or amorphous nature of the matrix. This study provides new fundamental insights, design guidelines, and de novo strategies to turn the brittle C S H into a ductile material, impacting modern engineering of strong and tough concrete infrastructures and potentially other complex brittle materials.
Elastic behavior of porous media with spherical nanovoids

This study is devoted to the effective elastic properties of nanoporous media containing spherical nanovoids. Nanocomposites materials are strongly dependent on their nanometric characteristic lengths. This size effect cannot be directly modeled using the classical homogenization schemes based on the Eshelby inclusion problem. However recent studies have extended the continuum mechanics and well known micromechanical models to the nanoscale. In this paper, it is shown that these models can be replaced in a unified framework using the morphologically representative pattern based approach of Stolz and Zaoui (1991) and therefore can be generalized to more complex microstructures. Following this approach, new bounds and estimates are derived. Two particular cases are treated: (i) the case of an ellipsoidal spatial distribution of the voids, (ii) the case of a biporous material containing both spherical nanovoids and randomly oriented spheroidal microvoids. The second case is typical of the microstructure of the irradiated uranium dioxide (UO2) Thereby, the associated result could be used for determining the poro elastic properties of these doubly voided materials.
Technical Relevance of Epoxy/Clay Nanocomposite with Organically Modified Montmorillonite: A Review

This review covers almost all known categories of compounds used for nanoclay surface modification with special emphasis on organic modification of layered silicate montmorillonite. Commonly used organic modifiers include quaternary ammonium ions, quaternary phosphonium ions, and amino acids. Dispersion of organomodified nanoclays in epoxy is particularly focused upon in this article. Epoxy based materials are used as convenient matrices for montmorillonite dispersion since years due to superior properties of resulting polymeric nanocomposites, such as mechanical strength, electrical conductivity, flammability, and thermal stability. Owing to their high performance epoxy nanocomposites have endless applications in aerospace, automotives, construction, electrical, adhesives, and coating industries.
The Computational Properties of a Simplified Cortical Column Model
Venue: PLoS computational biology

The mammalian neocortex has a repetitious, laminar structure and performs functions integral to higher cognitive processes, including sensory perception, memory, and coordinated motor output. What computations does this circuitry subserve that link these unique structural elements to their function? Potjans and Diesmann (2014) parameterized a four layer, two cell type (i.e. excitatory and inhibitory) model of a cortical column with homogeneous populations and cell type dependent connection probabilities. We implement a version of their model using a displacement integro partial differential equation (DiPDE) population density model. This approach, exact in the limit of large homogeneous populations, provides a fast numerical method to solve equations describing the full probability density distribution of neuronal membrane potentials. It lends itself to quickly analyzing the mean response properties of population scale firing rate dynamics. We use this strategy to examine the input output relationship of the Potjans and Diesmann cortical column model to understand its computational properties. When inputs are constrained to jointly and equally target excitatory and inhibitory neurons, we find a large linear regime where the effect of a multi layer input signal can be reduced to a linear combination of component signals. One of these, a simple subtractive operation, can act as an error signal passed between hierarchical processing stages.
Binding interactions between lysozyme and injectable hydrogels derived from albumin pH/thermo responsive poly(amino urethane) conjugates in aqueous solution.
Venue: Colloids and surfaces. B, Biointerfaces

Injectable hydrogels are alternative materials for drug and protein delivery in biomedical applications, which can potentially eliminate the need of surgical implantation in the treatment procedures. Prior to administration, such hydrogels, in a liquid state, must demonstrate good interactions with the incorporated molecules to maintain the sustain release of active agents and to avoid unappreciative burst release. The injectable hydrogels derived from BSA pH/temperature responsive poly(amino urethane) conjugates have been reported to demonstrated good sustainability for delivery of lysozyme, both in vitro and in vivo. However, the interactions between such conjugates and the loading lysozyme were not fully understood. In this present work, we reported the binding interactions between the studied complex systems, BSA pH/temperature responsive poly(amino urethane) conjugates (CONJ1 and CONJ2) and lysozyme. Fluorescence spectroscopy in a combination with thermodynamic analysis exhibited that the binding between the conjugates and lysozyme occurred through static quenching and the binding interactions in the complexes were mainly van der Waals forces and hydrogen bonds. The binding constants (KA) determined at 300, 308 and 318K of CONJ1 to lysozyme were 7.96x10(4) 6.45x10(4) and 3.20x10(4)M( 1) respectively and those of CONJ2 to lysozyme were 2.63x10(4) 2.53x10(4) and 1.19x10(4)M( 1) respectively. FTIR analysis showed that the complexes between the conjugates and lysozyme demonstrated sufficiently small deviation in the conformational structures from the native lysozyme. In addition, the morphology revealed by TEM and AFM imaging portrayed the behavior of complex formation in such a way that the conjugates, before complex formation, displayed the core shell structures. After the complex formation, a number of lysozyme particles were noticeably entrapped as if they penetrated into the preformed core shell conjugates.
Drug delivery and controlled release from biocompatible metal organic frameworks using mechanical amorphization.
Venue: Journal of materials chemistry. B

We have used a family of Zr based metal organic frameworks (MOFs) with different functionalized (bromo, nitro and amino) and extended linkers for drug delivery. We loaded the materials with the fluorescent model molecule calcein and the anticancer drug a cyano 4 hydroxycinnamic acid (a CHC) and consequently performed a mechanical amorphization process to attempt to control the delivery of guest molecules. Our analysis revealed that the loading values of both molecules were higher for the MOFs containing unfunctionalized linkers. Confocal microscopy showed that all the materials were able to penetrate into cells, and the therapeutic effect of a CHC on HeLa cells was enhanced when loaded (20 wt% into the MOF with the longest linker. On one hand, calcein release required up to 3 days from the crystalline form for all the materials. On the other hand, the amorphous counterparts containing the bromo and nitro functional groups released only a fraction of the total loaded amount, and in the case of the amino MOF a slow and progressive release was successfully achieved for 15 days. In the case of the materials loaded with a CHC, no difference was observed between the crystalline and amorphous form of the materials. These results highlight the necessity of a balance between the pore size of the materials and the size of the guest molecules to accomplish a successful and efficient sustained release using this mechanical ball milling process. Additionally, the endocytic pathway used by cells to internalize these MOFs may lead to diverse final cellular locations and consequently, different therapeutic effects. Understanding these cellular mechanisms will drive the design of more effective MOFs for drug delivery applications.
Smart Approach for In Situ One Step Encapsulation and Controlled Delivery of a Chemotherapeutic Drug using Metal Organic Framework Drug Composites in Aqueous Media.
Venue: Chemphyschem a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry

Controlled release of an anticancer drug, doxorubicin (dox) from metal organic framework (MOF) drug composites is demonstrated under different external stimuli. 1,3,5 Benzenetricarboxylic acid (H3 BTC) is used as an organic ligand, and iron acetate and zinc nitrate are used as metal sources to synthesize Fe BTC and Zn BTC MOFs, which are known to be biocompatible. The in situ formation of MOF drug composites demonstrates high drug loading capacity compared to conventional methods. The present methodology is devoid of any extra steps for loading the drug after synthesis. Moreover, the drug loading is also independent of pore size of the MOF as the drug molecules are embedded inside the MOF during their in situ formation. The drug release was monitored under external stimuli including change to acidic pH and the presence of biocompatible liposomes for a period of more than 72 h. Steady state fluorescence spectroscopy is used to monitor the drug release as a function of time and confocal laser scanning microscopy is used to unravel the post release fate of doxorubicin in the presence of liposomes. It is found that drug release rate is higher for the Zn BTC dox composite than for the Fe BTC dox composite. This is attributed to the stronger binding between dox and Fe BTC than that between dox and Zn BTC. This study highlights a novel approach for the preparation of MOF drug composites in an aqueous medium for future biomedical applications.
Online Anomaly Detection Under Markov Statistics With Controllable Type I Error
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing

We study anomaly detection for fast streaming temporal data with real time Type I error, i.e. false alarm rate, controllability; and propose a computationally highly efficient online algorithm, which closely achieves a specified false alarm rate while maximizing the detection power. Regardless of whether the source is stationary or nonstationary, the proposed algorithm sequentially receives a time series and learns the nominal attributes in the online setting under possibly varying Markov statistics. Then, an anomaly is declared at a time instance, if the observations are statistically sufficiently deviant. Moreover, the proposed algorithm is remarkably versatile since it does not require parameter tuning to match the desired rates even in the case of strong nonstationarity. The presented study is the first to provide the online implementation of Neyman Pearson (NP) characterization for the problem such that the NP optimality, i.e. maximum detection power at a specified false alarm rate, is nearly achieved in a truly online manner. In this regard, the proposed algorithm is highly novel and appropriate especially for the applications requiring sequential data processing at large scales/high rates due to its parameter tuning free computational efficient design with the practical NP constraints under stationary or non stationary source statistics.
Landscape biology of western white pine: implications for conservation of a widely distributed five needle pine at its southern range limit

Throughout much of the range of western white pine, Pinus monticola Dougl. timber harvesting, fire exclusion and the presence of Cronartium ribicola J. C. Fisch. the white pine blister rust (WPBR) pathogen, have led to negative population and genetic consequences. To address these interactions, we examined population dynamics and genetic diversity in 10 populations of western white pine in upper montane forests of the Lake Tahoe Basin. We documented negative population trends for three of the 10 populations. These populations exhibited low estimated growth rates (l) moderate to high incidences of WPBR and mountain pine beetle (MPB) and high levels of mortality. In contrast, seven populations appear to be stable (l 1.0) with low to moderate disease and insect incidence, and evidence for genetic resistance to WPBR. Genetic diversity (HE) for a set of 160 single nucleotide polymorphisms was in the range of 0.245 0.272 across populations, and population specific estimates of FST ranged from 0.0062 to 0.0244. Allele frequency of the Cr2 gene, which confers complete resistance to C. ribicola in western white pine, was low, averaging 0.009 for all populations sampled. However, a low frequency of pollen receptors (i.e. susceptible maternal parents pollinated by a local resistant parent) was found in nine of 10 populations. A moderate and negative relationship was found between the frequency of pollen receptors in a population and the incidence of WPBR (r2 0.32) In the context of an introduced pathogen, climate driven outbreaks of MPB, fire exclusion, and prolonged drought, conservation and management strategies are warranted for this species in the Lake Tahoe Basin and likely other locations in California. These strategies include gene conservation of western white pine, WPBR resistance screening, and forest restoration treatments.
The Cellular Automaton Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

When investigating theories at the tiniest conceivable scales in nature, almost all researchers today revert to the quantum language, accepting the verdict from the Copenhagen doctrine that the only way to describe what is going on will always involve states in Hilbert space, controlled by operator equations. Returning to classical, that is, non quantum mechanical, descriptions will be forever impossible, unless one accepts some extremely contrived theoretical constructions that may or may not reproduce the quantum mechanical phenomena observed in experiments. Dissatisfied, this author investigated how one can look at things differently. This book is an overview of older material, but also contains many new observations and calculations. Quantum mechanics is looked upon as a tool, not as a theory. Examples are displayed of models that are classical in essence, but can be analysed by the use of quantum techniques, and we argue that even the Standard Model, together with gravitational interactions, might be viewed as a quantum mechanical approach to analyse a system that could be classical at its core. We explain how such thoughts can conceivably be reconciled with Bell's theorem, and how the usual objections voiced against the notion of `superdeterminism' can be overcome, at least in principle. Our proposal would eradicate the collapse problem and the measurement problem. Even the existence of an "arrow of time" can perhaps be explained in a more elegant way than usual. Discussions added in v3: the role of the gravitational force, a mathematical physics definition of free will, and an unconventional view on the arrow of time, amongst others.