nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Politics of Religiously Motivated Lending: An Empirical Analysis of Aid Allocation by the Islamic Development Bank

We investigate whether lending by the Islamic Development Bank mirrors Saudi Arabia's political interests based on religious affinity using panel data for its 56 member countries over the 1970 to 2007 period. Our results indicate that Sunni regime countries receive favorable treatment in terms of loan allocation, as well as Shia majority populated countries in exceptional occasions of conflict with other religious minority groups, while non Muslim countries are the least favored. There is also evidence that lending by the World Bank to the same group of countries and over the same time frame does not respond to the political stance of Saudi Arabia founded on religion. These findings reveal the advantage that Saudi Arabia gains by assuming the leadership of a Regional Development Bank in contrast to coordinating common strategies in a global International Financial Institution with other large shareholders for whom religion might not be essential for political alliances.
Waqf Development: The Islamic Development Bank Experience

In this chapter we briefly present several activities, projects and programs carried out by the Jeddah based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group to strengthen the global waqf sector. These include a range of interventions, such as creating a model law of waqf that is forward looking along with the provision of technical and support services aimed at creating an enabling policy, legal and regulatory environment; undertaking cutting edge research to document and disseminate good practices; building capacity through education and training of human resources; recovering lost waqfs through proper documentation and legal steps; engineering waqfs as part of its developmental operations to provide microfinance; and finally managing a fund to raise resources for asset development using state of the art financial structures. Such initiatives are expected to further intensify, as waqf is fully entrenched in IDB's long term growth strategy.
Prompt gamma ray diagnostics and enhanced hadron therapy using neutron free nuclear reactions

We propose a series of simulations about the potential use of Boron isotopes to trigger neutron free (aneutronic) nuclear reactions in cancer cells through the interaction with an incoming energetic proton beam, thus resulting in the emission of characteristic prompt gamma radiation (429 keV, 718 keV and 1435 keV) Furthermore assuming that the Boron isotopes are absorbed in cancer cells, the three alpha particles produced in each p 11B aneutronic nuclear fusion reactions can potentially result in the enhancement of the biological dose absorbed in the tumor region since these multi MeV alpha particles are stopped inside the single cancer cell, thus allowing to spare the surrounding tissues. Although a similar approach based on the use of 11B nuclei has been proposed in [Yoon et al. Applied Physics Letters 105, 223507 (2014) our work demonstrate, using Monte Carlo simulations, the crucial importance of the use of 10B nuclei (in a solution containing also 11B) for the generation of prompt gamma rays, whic.
Laser initiated primary and secondary nuclear reactions in Boron Nitride
Venue: Scientific reports

Nuclear reactions initiated by laser accelerated particle beams are a promising new approach to many applications, from medical radioisotopes to aneutronic energy production. We present results demonstrating the occurrence of secondary nuclear reactions, initiated by the primary nuclear reaction products, using multicomponent targets composed of either natural boron (B) or natural boron nitride (BN) The primary proton boron reaction (p 11B 3 a 8.7 MeV) is one of the most attractive aneutronic fusion reaction. We report radioactive decay signatures in targets irradiated at the Elfie laser facility by laser accelerated particle beams which we interpret as due to secondary reactions induced by alpha (a) particles produced in the primary reactions. Use of a second nanosecond laser beam, adequately synchronized with the short laser pulse to produce a plasma target, further enhanced the reaction rates. High rates and chains of reactions are essential for most applications.
Removal of pathogen indicators from secondary effluent using slow sand filtration: Optimization approaches

In many arid regions, the reuse of wastewater is an economic option for crop irrigation. To avoid health risks for consumers, pathogens must be eliminated prior to application. Slow sand filtration (SSF) represents an effective low tech treatment technology for pathogen removal from water. To further improve the time space yield of SSF, innovative filter configurations were investigated regarding the removal of the pathogen indicators Escherichia coli enterococci, Clostridium perfringens spores, somatic and F specific RNA coliphages as well as heterotrophic bacteria. A standard filter N a recirculating filter R a static cascade N N and a rotating cascade C were tested at high and low hydraulic loading rates, two recirculation rates and two rotation frequencies. Results showed that only C and N N concurrently complied with European standards for E. coli and enterococci, achieving mean log removal of 2.7 4.7 and 2.1 2.4, respectively. The best performance was reached by C with weekly rotation; N N may be a promising, technically simpler alternative. The crucial role of biological removal mechanisms for E. coli and enterococci elimination was indicated by (i) the increased efficiency of the standard SSF N after 1 1/2 years of operation and (ii) the positive impact of several Schmutzdecke layers. C. perfringens spore removal performance was good for all SSFs. Considerable sorption of spores was indicated by decreased efficiency in N and C at long operation times. Somatic coliphages were reduced to concentrations close to the detection limit, while F specific RNA coliphage removal was ~1.1 log. Removal of heterotrophic bacteria was generally limited.
Current and emerging treatment strategies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Venue: Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most common form of muscular dystrophy in childhood. It is caused by mutations of the DMD gene, leading to progressive muscle weakness, loss of independent ambulation by early teens, and premature death due to cardiorespiratory complications. The diagnosis can usually be made after careful review of the history and examination of affected boys presenting with developmental delay, proximal weakness, and elevated serum creatine kinase, plus confirmation by muscle biopsy or genetic testing. Precise characterization of the DMD mutation is important for genetic counseling and individualized treatment. Current standard of care includes the use of corticosteroids to prolong ambulation and to delay the onset of secondary complications. Early use of cardioprotective agents, noninvasive positive pressure ventilation, and other supportive strategies has improved the life expectancy and health related quality of life for many young adults with DMD. New emerging treatment includes viral mediated microdystrophin gene replacement, exon skipping to restore the reading frame, and nonsense suppression therapy to allow translation and production of a modified dystrophin protein. Other potential therapeutic targets involve upregulation of compensatory proteins, reduction of the inflammatory cascade, and enhancement of muscle regeneration. So far, data from DMD clinical trials have shown limited success in delaying disease progression; unforeseen obstacles included immune response against the generated mini dystrophin, inconsistent evidence of dystrophin production in muscle biopsies, and failure to demonstrate a significant improvement in the primary outcome measure, as defined by the 6 minute walk test in some studies. The long term safety and efficacy of emerging treatments will depend on the selection of appropriate clinical end points and sensitive biomarkers to detect meaningful changes in disease progression. Correction of the underlying mutations using new gene editing technologies and corticosteroid analogs with better safety profiles offers renewed hope for many individuals with DMD and their families.
A new keypoint based copy move forgery detection for small smooth regions
Venue: Multimedia Tools and Applications

Copy move forgery is one of the most common types of image forgeries, where a region from one part of an image is copied and pasted onto another part, thereby concealing the image content in the latter region. Keypoint based copy move forgery detection approaches extract image feature points and use local visual features, rather than image blocks, to identify duplicated regions. Keypoint based approaches exhibit remarkable performance with respect to computational cost, memory requirement, and robustness. But unfortunately, they usually do not work well if smooth background areas are used to hide small objects, as image keypoints cannot be extracted effectively from those areas. It is a challenging work to design a keypoint based method for detecting forgeries involving small smooth regions. In this paper, we propose a new keypoint based copy move forgery detection for small smooth regions. Firstly, the original tampered image is segmented into nonoverlapping and irregular superpixels, and the superpixels are classified into smooth, texture and strong texture based on local information entropy. Secondly, the stable image keypoints are extracted from each superpixel, including smooth, texture and strong texture ones, by utilizing the superpixel content based adaptive feature points detector. Thirdly, the local visual features, namely exponent moments magnitudes, are constructed for each image keypoint, and the best bin first and reversed generalized 2 nearest neighbor algorithm are utilized to find rapidly the matching image keypoints. Finally, the falsely matched image keypoints are removed by customizing the random sample consensus, and the duplicated regions are localized by using zero mean normalized cross correlation measure. Extensive experimental results show that the newly proposed scheme can achieve much better detection results for copy move forgery images under various challenging conditions, such as geometric transforms, JPEG compression, and additive white Gaussian noise, compared with the existing state of the art copy move forgery detection methods.
The Effects of Issue Salience, Elite Influence, and Policy Content on Public Opinion

When do citizens rely on party cues, and when do they incorporate policy relevant information into their political attitudes? Recent research suggests that members of the public, when they possess some policy relevant information, use that information as much as they use party cues when forming political attitudes. We aim to advance this research by specifying conditions that motivate people to use content over cues and vice versa. Specifically, we believe that increased issue salience motivates people to go beyond heuristics and engage in the systematic processing of policy relevant information. Using data from a survey experiment that isolates the effects of policy relevant information, party cues, and issue salience, we find that people are more likely to incorporate policy relevant information when thinking about hydraulic fracturing (fracking) a relatively high salience issue. When thinking about storm water management, a relatively low salience issue, people are more likely to rely on party cues.
Public Opinion and Framing Effects of Argentine Foreign Policy Toward Brazil: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Urban Centers in Argentina

Studies about the relationship between public opinion and foreign policy are rare in Latin America as civic participation in these issues is a recent phenomenon. The following research explores the general perception of Argentine citizens about the orientation of foreign policy towards Brazil. Also, it explores the effects of information and its influence on citizens. In particular, it studies the psychotropic and socio tropic attitudes of Argentinians about foreign policy toward Brazil. Based on a survey experiment, the research evaluates the impact of economic and political information (framing effects) on the public's opinion of foreign policy (dependent variable) The experimental treatment was designed in an ordinal model by providing different pieces of information. The experiment also introduces 'Citizen Perception' as a covariate generated from a summation index with the scores of two variables (Preference for the actions of Argentina toward Brazil and the Position of Brazil in a charted preference of potential investor countries) The results show that the previous ideological bias is very significant and that the effects of information reinforce it. The work was run as part of a survey conducted by the Instituto PASCAL Universidad Nacional de San Martin, in Argentina's major urban centres during 2015.
Hybrid of Polyoxometalate Based Ionic Salt and N Doped Carbon toward Reductant Free Aerobic Hydroxylation of Benzene to Phenol

A novel carbon based hybrid is composed of N doped ordered mesoporous carbon (NC) and polyoxometalate (POM) based ionic salt (IL POM) constructing the first efficient non noble metal heterogeneous catalyst for reductant free hydroxylation of benzene to phenol with molecular oxygen. Enhanced activity and reusability were achieved and were even better than the previous noble metal involved system. The newly task specifically designed dicationic ionic liquid tethered with the nitrile group contributed to the high efficiency and heterogeneous property. Systematic structure activity analysis revealed that the superior activity for this difficult reaction came from the simultaneous activation of benzene by NC and O2 by V species of IL POM. This work suggests a new green reaction pathway toward heterogeneous aerobic hydroxylation of the Csp2 H bond in p conjugated aromatic molecules.
Contribution of Antarctica to past and future sea level rise
Venue: Nature

Polar temperatures over the last several million years have, at times, been slightly warmer than today, yet global mean sea level has been 6 9 metres higher as recently as the Last Interglacial (130,000 to 115,000 years ago) and possibly higher during the Pliocene epoch (about three million years ago) In both cases the Antarctic ice sheet has been implicated as the primary contributor, hinting at its future vulnerability. Here we use a model coupling ice sheet and climate dynamics including previously underappreciated processes linking atmospheric warming with hydrofracturing of buttressing ice shelves and structural collapse of marine terminating ice cliffs that is calibrated against Pliocene and Last Interglacial sea level estimates and applied to future greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Antarctica has the potential to contribute more than a metre of sea level rise by 2100 and more than 15 metres by 2500, if emissions continue unabated. In this case atmospheric warming will soon become the dominant driver of ice loss, but prolonged ocean warming will delay its recovery for thousands of years.
Increasing the amount of usual rehabilitation improves activity after stroke: a systematic review.
Venue: Journal of physiotherapy

In people receiving rehabilitation aimed at reducing activity limitations of the lower and/or upper limb after stroke, does adding extra rehabilitation (of the same content as the usual rehabilitation) improve activity? What is the amount of extra rehabilitation that needs to be provided to achieve a beneficial effect? DESIGN Systematic review with meta analysis of randomised trials.  Adults aged 18 years or older that had a diagnosis of stroke.  Extra rehabilitation with the same content as usual rehabilitation aimed at reducing activity limitations of the lower and/or upper limb.  Activity measured as lower or upper limb ability.  A total of 14 studies, comprising 15 comparisons, met the inclusion criteria. Pooling data from all the included studies showed that extra rehabilitation improved activity immediately after the intervention period (SMD=0.39, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.71, I(2)=66% When only studies with a large increase in rehabilitation 100% were included, the effect was greater (SMD 0.59, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.94, I(2)=44% There was a trend towards a positive relationship (r=0.53, p=0.09) between extra rehabilitation and improved activity. The turning point on the ROC curve of false versus true benefit (AUC=0.88, p=0.04) indicated that at least an extra 240% of rehabilitation was needed for significant likelihood that extra rehabilitation would improve activity.  Increasing the amount of usual rehabilitation aimed at reducing activity limitations improves activity in people after stroke. The amount of extra rehabilitation that needs to be provided to achieve a beneficial effect is large.
Homocysteine lowering for stroke prevention: Unravelling the complexity of the evidence
Venue: International journal of stroke official journal of the International Stroke Society

Elevated levels of total homocysteine impair endothelial dysfunction and increase thrombosis. Homocysteine is causal in animal models, and in human studies, elevated total homocysteine is significantly associated with carotid atherosclerosis, lacunar infarction, and markedly increased risk of stroke in atrial fibrillation. Because two of the early large trials of B vitamin therapy (Vitamin Intervention for Stroke Prevention and the Norwegian Vitamin Study) did not show any reduction of stroke, and the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation 2 trial was mistakenly interpreted as not showing a reduction of stroke (because the authors could not think of a biological difference between stroke and myocardial infarction) there has been widespread pessimism regarding treatment to lower total homocysteine for stroke prevention. However, the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation 2 trial, the French trial of folic acid and omega three oils, the Vitamins to Prevent Stroke subgroup excluding antiplatelet therapy all showed a significant reduction of stroke.  with impaired renal function. In the Diabetic Intervention with Vitamins in Nephropathy trial, B vitamins including cyanocobalamin were harmful, and in a Vitamin Intervention for Stroke Prevention subgroup excluding participants who received B12 injections and those with impaired renal function, there was a statistically significant reduction of stroke/myocardial infarction/vascular death. In 2015, the China Stroke Primary Prevention Trial (CSPPT) in over 20,000 participants followed for 5 years, showed a significant reduction of stroke with folic acid in a setting where folate fortification has not been implemented. In the setting of folate fortification, the main causes of elevated total homocysteine are renal failure and metabolic B12 deficiency; the latter is very common among stroke patients (30% over age 71) and frequently missed. Serum B12 and total homocysteine should be checked routinely in stroke patients and elevated total homocysteine should be treated.
Towards a realistic model for failure propagation in interdependent networks
Venue: 2016 International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC)

Modern networks are becoming increasingly interdependent. As a prominent example, the smart grid is an electrical grid controlled through a communications network, which in turn is powered by the electrical grid. Such interdependencies create new vulnerabilities and make these networks more susceptible to failures. In particular, failures can easily spread across these networks due to their interdependencies, possibly causing cascade effects with a devastating impact on their functionalities. In this paper we focus on the interdependence between the power grid and the communications network, and propose a novel realistic model, HINT (Heterogeneous Interdependent NeTworks) to study the evolution of cascading failures. Our model takes into account the heterogeneity of such networks as well as their complex interdependencies. We compare HINT with previously proposed models both on synthetic and real network topologies. Experimental results show that existing models oversimplify the failure evolution and network functionality requirements, resulting in severe underestimations of the cascading failures.
Linking Education and Business across Geography of Erasmus +Improving Relationships between Vocational Training and Job Market

A multitude of studies have demonstrated that entrepreneurial competence is not only required to start an enterprise but it is a key lifelong learning competence relevant for the labour market. The recent communications of the European Commission however underlines the need for more entrepreneurs hip education in Europe. The following paper describes a novel approach to training of entrepreneu rial skills, which has been developed by the European funded project Linking Education and Business (LEB) (www.oai.ie/linking education business.php) The project team, which consists of VET scho ols and enterprises, focuses on the new dynamics of society, which is demanding not only individuals with critical thinking and ethics training to contribute to sustainable development, but also with strong capabilities to survive in an increasingly demanding job market. The gap between the labor market and the education system generates controversy among experts about how to fix it, being necessary to try to solve the above deficiencies and respond to the new challenges of the production system in a new economic and social contexts.  Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Balaguer, P. A. (2016) "Linking Education and Business across Geography of Erasmus Improving Relationships between Vocational Training and Job Market" Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 73 84.
ACRyLIQ: Leveraging DBpedia for Adaptive Crowdsourcing in Linked Data Quality Assessment
Venue: EKAW

Crowdsourcing has emerged as a powerful paradigm for quality assessment and improvement of Linked Data. A major challenge of employing crowdsourcing, for quality assessment in Linked Data, is the cold start problem: how to estimate the reliability of crowd workers and assign the most reliable workers to tasks? We address this challenge by proposing a novel approach for generating test questions from DBpedia based on the topics associated with quality assessment tasks. These test questions are used to estimate the reliability of the new workers. Subsequently, the tasks are dynamically assigned to reliable workers to help improve the accuracy of collected responses. Our proposed approach, ACRyLIQ, is evaluated using workers hired from Amazon Mechanical Turk, on two real world Linked Data datasets. We validate the proposed approach in terms of accuracy and compare it against the baseline approach of reliability estimate using gold standard task. The results demonstrate that our proposed approach achieves high accuracy without using gold standard task.