nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Anthropogenic footprints: litter and microplastic pollution in the Fram Strait

The global change induced decline of sea ice has led to increasing anthropogenic presence in the Arctic Ocean. The Fram Strait is likely to become an important shipping lane as indicated by increasing numbers of fishing vessels and cruise liners in this area. One footprint of anthropogenic activities in the oceans is litter pollution, especially long lived plastic, which is recognised as a global problem of growing concern given annual global production rates of 299 million t. Litter affects >580 marine species primarily by entanglement and ingestion, through which it can also enter food webs. Although recent reports indicate that anthropogenic waste has made it to the remotest parts of our oceans, there is still only limited information about temporal trends and its distribution, especially in polar and deep seas. Still less information is available about the contamination with microplastics, a degradation product of larger fragmented litter items. Mean litter densities from the water surface recorded during ship and helicopter based surveys in the Fram Strait (2012) were 0.0062 items km 1, which is comparable with observations from Antarctica. Despite the notion that plastic floats at the water surface, 50% of municipal waste exceeds the density of seawater and sinks. Repeated camera transects from the seafloor of two stations of the HAUSGARTEN observatory (2500 m depth) showed that litter densities increased from 3,523 in 2002 to 6,566 items km 2 in 2014, comparable to densely populated European seas. There was also an increase in smaller sized items, indicating fragmentation. Differences in litter type and size between the two stations may suggest different pathways of litter to the deep seafloor. For example, the northern station experienced longer periods of sea ice cover, which may explain the higher densities of small sized plastics, released from sea ice upon melting. Microplastic concentrations in two sea ice cores from the FRAM Strait were analysed by FT IR Imaging technology and exceeded those from previous reports in the Arctic by four orders of magnitude. The upper sections of the core contained far more microplastics compared to those in direct contact with the underlying seawater corroborating the assumption that sea ice is a source for microplastic in the Fram Strait. Considering the ever increasing production rates of plastic (ca.4% p.a. and the failure of solid waste management practice, our footprints are likely to become larger unless serious mitigating actions are taken to reduce the amounts of litter entering the oceans.
POLRMT regulates the switch between replication primer formation and gene expression of mammalian mtDNA
Venue: Science Advances

Mitochondrial transcription for replication primer formation has priority over gene expression at low POLRMT levels. Mitochondria are vital in providing cellular energy via their oxidative phosphorylation system, which requires the coordinated expression of genes encoded by both the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA) Transcription of the circular mammalian mtDNA depends on a single mitochondrial RNA polymerase (POLRMT) Although the transcription initiation process is well understood, it is debated whether POLRMT also serves as the primase for the initiation of mtDNA replication. In the nucleus, the RNA polymerases needed for gene expression have no such role. Conditional knockout of Polrmt in the heart results in severe mitochondrial dysfunction causing dilated cardiomyopathy in young mice. We further studied the molecular consequences of different expression levels of POLRMT and found that POLRMT is essential for primer synthesis to initiate mtDNA replication in vivo. Furthermore, transcription initiation for primer formation has priority over gene expression. Surprisingly, mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) exists in an mtDNA free pool in the Polrmt knockout mice. TFAM levels remain unchanged despite strong mtDNA depletion, and TFAM is thus protected from degradation of the AAA+ Lon protease in the absence of POLRMT. Last, we report that mitochondrial transcription elongation factor may compensate for a partial depletion of POLRMT in heterozygous Polrmt knockout mice, indicating a direct regulatory role of this factor in transcription. In conclusion, we present in vivo evidence that POLRMT has a key regulatory role in the replication of mammalian mtDNA and is part of a transcriptional mechanism that provides a switch between primer formation for mtDNA replication and mitochondrial gene expression.
Length heterogeneity at conserved sequence block 2 in human mitochondrial DNA acts as a rheostat for RNA polymerase POLRMT activity
Venue: Nucleic acids research

The guanine (G) tract of conserved sequence block 2 (CSB 2) in human mitochondrial DNA can result in transcription termination due to formation of a hybrid G quadruplex between the nascent RNA and the nontemplate DNA strand. This structure can then influence genome replication, stability and localization. Here we surveyed the frequency of variation in sequence identity and length at CSB 2 amongst human mitochondrial genomes and used in vitro transcription to assess the effects of this length heterogeneity on the activity of the mitochondrial RNA polymerase, POLRMT. In general, increased G tract length correlated with increased termination levels. However, variation in the population favoured CSB 2 sequences which produced efficient termination while particularly weak or strong signals were avoided. For all variants examined, the 3' end of the transcripts mapped to the same downstream sequences and were prevented from terminating by addition of the transcription factor TEFM. We propose that CSB 2 length heterogeneity allows variation in the efficiency of transcription termination without affecting the position of the products or the capacity for regulation by TEFM.
Distributed SLAM system using particle swarm optimized particle filter for mobile robot navigation

The distributed SLAM system is a value method for mobile robot navigation. But particle impoverishment is inevitably because of the random particles prediction and resampling applied in generic particle filter, especially in SLAM problem that involve a large number of dimensions. In this paper, the distributed particle swarm optimized particle filter was developed to improve the SLAM system. The Quantum behaved particle swarm optimized particle filter was used to replace the local filters in distributed SLAM system. The detailed process of the improved distributed SLAM system was described. And the analysis and prove for the optimized distributed SLAM system was finished. The simulation experiment was finished using the experiment data come from an experiment that taken at Victoria Park. And the experiment results show that the proposed algorithm improved the virtue of the DPF SLAM system in isolate faults and enabled the system has a better tolerance and robustness.
HTS Persistent Current Switch Controlled by AC Magnetic Field
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

High temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets operating in persistent current mode can achieve better field stability as well as reduce loss compared with being powered by an external current source. Persistent current switch (PCS) is essential for HTS magnets to operate in persistent current mode. In this paper, we proposed, fabricated, and tested an ac field controlled HTS PCS. In the PCS, we used the dynamic resistance of a type II superconductor as the source of switching off resistance. An ac magnetic field was applied perpendicular to the surface of a piece of YBCO tape, thus forming the PCS. The performance of the PCS was tested by charging a small superconducting coil under an ac field of different magnitudes and frequencies. The switching off resistance of the PCS in the experiment is less than 0.2 mO, which may be promising for various usages in HTS magnets.
Migrants, Health, and Happiness: Evidence that Health Assessments Travel with Migrants and Predict Well Being
Venue: Economics and human biology

Health assessments correlate with health outcomes and subjective well being. Immigrants offer an opportunity to study persistent social influences on health where the social conditions are not endogenous to individual outcomes. This approach provides a clear direction of causality from social conditions to health, and in a second stage to well being. Natives and immigrants from across the world residing in 30 European countries are studied using survey data. The paper applies within country analysis using both linear regressions and two stage least squares. Natives' and immigrants' individual characteristics have similar predictive power for health, except Muslim immigrants who experience a sizeable health penalty. Average health reports in the immigrant's birth country have a significant association with the immigrant's current health. Almost a quarter of the birth country health variation is brought by the immigrants, while conditioning on socioeconomic characteristics. There is no evidence of the birth country predictive power declining neither as the immigrant spends more time in the residence country nor over the life course. The second stage estimates indicate that a one standard deviation improvement in health predicts higher happiness by 1.72 point or 0.82 of a standard deviation, more than four times the happiness difference of changing employment status from unemployed to employed. Studying life satisfaction yields similar results. Health improvements predict substantial increases in individual happiness.
Identifying mechanisms that underlie links between COMT genotype and aggression in male adolescents with ADHD
Venue: Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines

There is a known strong genetic contribution to aggression in those with ADHD. In a previous investigation of a large population cohort, impaired 'emotional/social cognitive' processing, assessed by questionnaire, was observed to mediate the link between COMT Val158Met and aggression in individuals with ADHD. We set out to replicate and extend this finding in a clinical sample, using task based and physiological assessments of emotional and cognitive processing. Our aim was to test the hypothesis that directly assessed emotional processing mediates the link between COMT Val158Met and aggression in young people with ADHD.  Males aged 10 17 years with ADHD were recruited from UK community clinics (n 194) Research diagnostic interviews (parent and child) were used to assess psychopathology and generate DSM IV Conduct Disorder symptom scores. Participants completed tasks assessing executive function (response inhibition and set shifting) empathy for fear, sadness and happiness, and fear conditioning [measured using skin conductance responses (SCR) to aversive stimuli] Results COMT Val allele carriers showed poorer response inhibition (F 5.27, p .02) and set shifting abilities (F 6.45, p .01) reduced fear empathy (F 4.33, p .04) and reduced autonomic responsiveness (lower SCRs) to the conditioned aversive stimulus (F 11.74, p .001) COMT Val158Met did not predict impairments in recognising others' emotions or affective empathy for happiness or sadness. Mediation analysis revealed that impaired fear related mechanisms indirectly mediated the link between COMT Val158Met and aggression.  Our findings suggest fear mechanisms as possible targets for psychological interventions to disrupt links between genetic risk and aggressive outcomes in ADHD. Our findings also reveal the potential of hypothesis driven approaches for identifying neuropsychological mechanisms that mediate genetic risk effects on behaviour and psychopathology.
Beauty in Mind: The Effects of Physical Attractiveness on Psychological Well Being and Distress

Attractive people enjoy many social and economic advantages. Most studies find effects of attractiveness on happiness or life satisfaction, but based on traditional cross sectional approaches. We use a large longitudinal survey consisting of a sample of male and female high school graduates from Wisconsin followed from their late teens to their mid 1960s. The panel construction of the data and the fact that interviews of the siblings of the respondents are available allow us to analyze the effects of physical appearance on psychological well being (human flourishing) and ill being (distress and depression) conditioning on unobserved individual heterogeneity via random effects. We find a significant positive relationship between measures of physical attractiveness (greater facial attractiveness at high school, and lower BMI and greater height in middle age) and a measure of psychological well being, and a significant negative relationship between measures of physical attractiveness and distress/depression. These effects are slightly smaller when we adjust for demographics and mental ability but, with the exception of height, remain significant. Our results suggest that attractiveness impacts psychological well being and depression directly as well as through its effects on other life outcomes.
Problems and Prospects of Poverty Alleviation Programmes in Nigeria

Several poverty alleviation programmes in Nigeria, initiated by both the Government and Non Government Organisations (NGOs) aimed at combating and alleviating poverty, have been found not to be successful. Instead of reducing the incidence of poverty, which is their sole aim, these programmes tend to serve as means for draining the national resources due to the pursuit of parochial interests, as a result fostering corruption and dishonesty. For a successful implementation of these programmes, the government and the implementation agencies must take a more proactive approach and specifically look into the area of poor management and poor accountability, among staff. Also poverty is a multidimensional issue, hence cannot be fought focusing only on one sector of the economy, strategies for poverty reduction must also be multidimensional, focusing on all sectors, as well as, on the emancipation of the poor. Strengthen the existing poverty alleviation strategies and ensuring good management could be one major way towards the effective performance of existing poverty alleviation programmes.
Poverty, Corruption and the Nigerian State: The Path Not Followed

The words "poverty" and "corruption" side by side appear paradoxical especially in a country like Nigeria which parades strategic natural resources some of which appeal to the cupidity of advance industrial economies. Poverty amidst affluence is a manifestation of capitalist relations of production which creates class division in the mode of production. It is little wonder, therefore, that all the strategies adopted in tackling corruption and poverty by successive regimes within the socio economic formation have not yielded appreciable results. Adopting the Marxist political economy analytical tool, this paper posit that poverty and corruption in Nigeria are man made; thus, any genuine drive towards poverty alleviation and corruption reduction must go beyond rhetorics, newspaper and television posturing, to liquidating obsolete production relations which perpetuates poverty and corruption and holds down the levers of progress. Poverty alleviation and corruption extirpation this paper opines, is a historic task of the masses, the class that wallow in poverty. It will be an apt irony, indeed class suicide the paper maintains, to expect the head of a capitalist consortium to eliminate corruption and reduce poverty in a peripheral capitalist economy which adores primitive accumulation. The path not followed is therefore revolutionary liquidate obsolete production relations.  Poverty alleviation, Checkmating corruption, Capitalist production relations, Socio economic formation, historic task of the masses, obsolete production relations.
Food Security Among Hispanic Adults in the United States, 2011 2014

Hispanics made up 17 percent of the U.S. population, or some 55 million people in 2014. In 2014, 14.0 percent of all U.S. households were food insecure, versus 22.4 percent of Hispanic households. Food insecurity varies among Hispanic subpopulations by origin, immigration status, household composition, State, and metro/suburban residence.
Deep learning for computational biology
Venue: Molecular systems biology

Technological advances in genomics and imaging have led to an explosion of molecular and cellular profiling data from large numbers of samples. This rapid increase in biological data dimension and acquisition rate is challenging conventional analysis strategies. Modern machine learning methods, such as deep learning, promise to leverage very large data sets for finding hidden structure within them, and for making accurate predictions. In this review, we discuss applications of this new breed of analysis approaches in regulatory genomics and cellular imaging. We provide background of what deep learning is, and the settings in which it can be successfully applied to derive biological insights. In addition to presenting specific applications and providing tips for practical use, we also highlight possible pitfalls and limitations to guide computational biologists when and how to make the most use of this new technology.
Nationwide Japanese Survey About Deathbed Visions: "My Deceased Mother Took Me to Heaven"
Venue: Journal of pain and symptom management

Primary aim was to clarify the prevalence and factors associated with the occurrence of deathbed visions, explore associations among deathbed visions, a good death, and family depression. Additional aim was to explore the emotional reaction, perception, and preferred clinical practice regarding deathbed visions from the view of bereaved family members.  A nationwide questionnaire survey was conducted involving 3964 family members of cancer patients who died at hospitals, palliative care units, and home.  A total of 2827 responses (71% were obtained, and finally 2221 responses were analyzed. Deathbed visions were reported in 21% (95% CIs, 19 23; n 463) Deathbed visions were significantly more likely to be observed in older patients, female patients, female family members, family members other than spouses, more religious families, and families who believed that the soul survives the body after death. Good death scores for the patients were not significantly different between the families who reported that the patients had experienced deathbed visions and those who did not, whereas depression was more frequently observed in the former than latter, with marginal significance (20 vs. 16% respectively, adjusted P 0.068) Although 35% of the respondents agreed that deathbed visions were hallucinations, 38% agreed that such visions were a natural and transpersonal phenomenon in the dying process; 81% regarded it as necessary or very necessary for clinicians to share the phenomenon neutrally, not automatically labeling them as medically abnormal.  Deathbed vision is not an uncommon phenomenon. Clinicians should not automatically regard such visions as an abnormal phenomenon to be medically treated and rather provide an individualized approach.
End of life experiences and deathbed phenomena as reported by Brazilian healthcare professionals in different healthcare settings
Venue: Palliative and Supportive Care

The objectives of the present study were to describe and compare the characteristics and reports of end of life experiences (ELEs) by healthcare professionals at different institutions and to investigate the influence of religious beliefs on these reports.  A multicenter study was carried out in Brazil that included six nursing homes (NHs) a cancer hospital (ONC) and a palliative care (PC) unit. Sociodemographic data, ELE reports (Fenwick's questionnaire) religiosity (the Duke Religion Index) spirituality (the Spirituality Self Rating Scale) and mental health (the DASS 21 questionnaire) were assessed. The analysis was performed using ANOVA and chi square tests in order to compare ELE perceptions in these different settings.  A total of 133 healthcare professionals (46 ONC, 36 PC, and 51 NH) were interviewed, 70% of whom recounted at least one ELE report in the previous five years. The most common ELEs were "visions of dead relatives collecting the dying person" (88.2% "a desire to mend family rifts" (84.9% and "visions of dead relatives near the bed providing emotional comfort" (80.6% Most healthcare professionals (70 80% believed that these experiences had a spiritual significance and were not due to biological effects. Comparison among settings revealed that those working in the PC unit had more reports, a greater openness about the issue, and more interest in training. Individual religious beliefs had no influence on perception of ELEs.  Our study revealed that ELE reports are not uncommon in clinical practice and seem to be little influenced by religious or spiritual beliefs. Although strongly reported in all settings, palliative care professionals tend to be more open to this issue and have a stronger perception of ELEs.
How can Google Trends and sentiment analysis of TripAdvisor and Facebook predict visitor numbers to the United Kingdom and Canada from 2010 2015?

Internet search data and sentiment analysis are becoming standard prediction methodologies and have been used to predict everything from the stock market to cinema box office revenues, they have been seen as separate tools to carry out analysis. This paper attempts to bridge the gap in the existing research by using search and sentiment analysis to predict future visitor numbers to the UK and Canada. Sentiment analysis using the OL and HGI lexicons will be performed on hotel reviews for the UK and Canada scraped from TripAdvisor and comments extracted from hotel Facebook pages over a five year period. This data will be matched with Google Trends data. It also aims to establish the best way to combine the data and using regression analysis. Some promising results are achieved by using multiple regression with Google TripAdvisor and Facebook data achieving over twice the correlation with visitor numbers than the highest scoring individual variable.
Yelp Dataset Challenge: Review Rating Prediction
Venue: ArXiv

Review websites, such as TripAdvisor and Yelp, allow users to post online reviews for various businesses, products and services, and have been recently shown to have a significant influence on consumer shopping behaviour. An online review typically consists of free form text and a star rating out of 5. The problem of predicting a user's star rating for a product, given the user's text review for that product, is called Review Rating Prediction and has lately become a popular, albeit hard, problem in machine learning. In this paper, we treat Review Rating Prediction as a multi class classification problem, and build sixteen different prediction models by combining four feature extraction methods, (i) unigrams, (ii) bigrams, (iii) trigrams and (iv) Latent Semantic Indexing, with four machine learning algorithms, (i) logistic regression, (ii) Naive Bayes classification, (iii) perceptrons, and (iv) linear Support Vector Classification. We analyse the performance of each of these sixteen models to come up with the best model for predicting the ratings from reviews. We use the dataset provided by Yelp for training and testing the models.