nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Some optimal sampling designs in the presence of polynomial trends

We consider the problem of optimal estimation of a finite population mean in the presence of polynomial trends and suggest different methods of construction of associated optimal sampling designs for various specific combinations of values of the population size N and the sample size n. Particularly for the case of quadratic trend, we give a complete listing of all such existent designs for N< 18 and also give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of such optimal sampling designs when N = nk, k = 2,3,4,6.

Field of study: Mathematics
The effect of an area-based intervention on breastfeeding rates in Victoria, Australia.

Best Start is an area-based early childhood intervention where projects are developed and implemented through a community partnership. A core tenet of the initiative is that implementing projects through a partnership generates greater value than would be expected if projects were undertaken independently by partner members. In this study we examine whether: (1) Best Start is effective in increasing the proportion of infants being fully breastfed at 3 months and 6 months. (2) The quality of community partnerships is a potential mechanism for change.



Best Start was implemented in Victoria, Australia. The study examined breastfeeding rates before and after Best Start in sites with Best Start breastfeeding projects compared to the rest of state. The relationship between partnership quality scores and breastfeeding percentages was also examined. Both analyses controlled for socioeconomic and demographic differences and clustering by area.



Best Start targeted some of the most socially disadvantaged communities in Victoria. In the 3 years of its operation, the rates of fully breastfeeding at 3 months (OR 1.30, 95% CI 1.14-1.47) and 6 months (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.1-1.61) increased in Best Start sites compared to the rest of the state. Quality of partnership scores was positively associated with increased percentages of fully breastfeeding (3 months=OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01-1.06; 6 months=OR 1.03, 95% CI 0.98-1.08).



These results suggest that area-based interventions are effective in increasing percentages of fully breastfeeding. The study also supported the idea that developing quality community partnerships had a positive influence on their success.

Field of study: Medicine, Political science
Cloning, tissue expression and regulation of rat interleukin 1 beta converting enzyme.

Using oligomer primers based on the cDNA sequence of human interleukin 1 beta converting enzyme (ICE), we have employed the RT-PCR method and rat spleen RNA to clone and sequence rat ICE. We report here that the predicted amino acid sequence of rat ICE proenzyme consists of 402 amino acids (p45) and shares 61% and 90% identity, respectively, with human and mouse ICE amino acid sequences. The active site cysteine (Cys284) and 3 or 3 potential processing sites are conserved suggesting that their the rat ICE heterodimer consists of a p22 (Ser104-Asp296) and a p10 (Gly315-His402) subunit or a cryptic processing site creates a smaller heterodimer. Northern blot analysis has revealed a approximately 2.2 kb and a more abundant approximately 1.45 kb ICE transcript both widely expressed in the rat with the highest expression in spleen and intestine and lowest in brain. IL-1 beta mRNA was similarly distributed. Injection of the immunostimulant, lipopolysaccharide (0.2 mg/kg, i.p.), increased rICE mRNA content between 2- to 3-fold in the rat brain with smaller increases measured in testis and spleen. The structural conservation of this enzyme suggests that rat models of inflammation will be useful for evaluating the therapeutic potential of ICE inhibitors in humans.

Field of study: Medicine
Dynamic Checkpoint Placement Algorithms Under Complex Failure Distribution

Checkpointing is a commonly used technique that protects computer system against failures.Former researches often assumed the failure distribution to be Poisson distribution,and thus derived a fixed interval between checkpoints for the optimal solution.But recently published field failure data shows that the above assumption is not realistic.This paper initially studied the applicability of the fixed interval checkpoint method using the field failure data.Then two dynamic checkpoint placement methods are proposed,which dynamically determine the next checkpoint place using the preview failure information.The experiments showed that these methods have met or surpassed the optimal fixed interval checkpoints method.

Field of study: Computer science
Growth of half-metallic CrO2 nanostructures for superconducting spintronic applications

Superconductor-ferromagnet (S-F) hybrids based on half-metallic ferromagnets, such as CrO2, are excellent candidates for superconducting spintronic applications. This is primarily due to their fully spin polarized nature, which produces significantly enhanced long-range triplet proximity effects.. However, reliable production of CrO2-based Josephson junctions (JJs) is challenging, mainly because of the difficulty to control the transparency of the S/F interface. We have grown CrO2 nanowires by chemical vapor deposition on TiO2 substrates combined with selective area growth in trenches defined with amorphous SiOx. This allows us to create lateral JJs, with the nanowire as the weak link. We show that the nature of the growth is highly anisotropic, and that the morphology of the CrO2 nanostructructures changes systematically during the growth process, depending on the width of the trench. The detailed growth study enables us to synthesise multifaceted and highly homogeneous CrO2 wires. These are utilized to fabricate JJs with high S/F interface transparency, leading to large supercurrents. The well-defined geometry of the device allows us to reliably estimate an exceptionally high critical current density Jc = 10^9~Am^{-2} over a distance of 600~nm.

Field of study: Physics
Deposition and diagenesis of Clinton ironstones (Silurian) in the Appalachian Foreland Basin of Pennsylvania

Clinton ironstones (mid-Silurian) on the southeastern margin of the Appalachian Foreland Basin in central Pennsylvania consist largely of skeletal grainstone storm beds whose skeletal fragments are extensively impregnated and replaced by ferric oxide. Other forms of iron mineralization consist of ooids, superficial ooids, cavity fillings and cements composed of ferric oxide and/or chamositic clay, and two generations of iron-rich carbonate spar. True oolite is rare. Small proportions of ferruginized grains are present in coarse lags at tops of some small-scale, 1- to 5-m coarsening-upward sequences, which are the record of mid-shelf shoals from which the skeletal grainstone storm beds were derived. Ooids and superficial ooids are likely to have formed in dysaerobic conditions where the pycnocline of a highly stratified sea intersected shoal flanks. Ferrous iron from anaerobic deeper waters precipitated on quartz and skeletal fragment nuclei in weakly reducing conditions with episodic gentle agitation. Several stages of early diagenetic ferruginization affected skeletal grainstone storm beds and sequence-capping coarse lags: chamositic clay precipitated in pores and cavities of skeletal fragments, within quartz sand adjacent to crinoid ossicles, and as bed-parallel connectors of large skeletal fragments. As diagenesis progressed with further burial, many skeletal fragments were extensively replaced by ferric oxide, most chamositic clay altered to ferric oxide, other chamositic clay matured from berthierine to chamosite, and clusters of bladed specularite replaced parts of primary grains and secondary carbonate cements. Paleomagnetic and fluid-inclusion analysis indicates that many late diagenetic changes took place at elevated temperatures during deen burial, in an early phase of the Alleghanian orogeny.

Field of study: Geology
Rapid Curing Epoxy Resin and Its Application in Carbon Fibre Composite Fabricated Using Vartm Moulding

A rapid curing resin system made from the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A epoxy, modified imidazole and modified aliphatic amine was developed. The curing behaviour and following characteristic of the resin were evaluated by differential scanning calorimetric and rheological analysis, respectively. Carbon fibre-reinforced polymer composite (CFRP) laminates using this resin system were manufactured through vacuum-assisted resin transfer moulding (VARTM) under short-term curing schedule. Subsequently, studies were performed on the processing quality, mechanical properties and heat resistance of the composites. The effects of post-cure duration on the interfacial bonding and the properties of the composites were investigated. The results showed that the curing time of a CFRP laminate using the studied resin under 120 °C could be controlled within 13 min with more than 95% curing degree and few defects. There were variations of the mechanical and thermal properties of the composites with different post-cure durations. The optimum properties were obtained after a post-cure process of 60 min, and extended post-cure treatment were detrimental. The corresponding mechanism was discussed from the viewpoint of interfacial bonding between carbon fibre and epoxy matrix.

Field of study: Materials science
A hybrid simulation approach to predict cooling energy demand for public housing in Hong Kong

The residential sector accounts for a significant and increasing portion of the national energy use. Cooling energy reduction in the public housing sector is one of the key success factors for sustainable building development measures especially in the sub-tropics. This study proposes a hybrid EnergyPlus (EP) — artificial neural network (ANN) model, which is more flexible and time-efficient than the conventional cooling energy simulation methods, for simulating the cooling energy consumption in the Hong Kong public housing sector and evaluates the cooling energy impacts related to building materials, window sizes, indoor-outdoor temperature variations and apartment sizes. The results show that climate changes and temperature set-points have the greatest impact on cooling energy use (−19.9% to 24.1%), followed by flat size combinations (−13.4% to 27.9%). The proposed model can be a useful tool for policymakers to establish sustainable public housing development plans in Hong Kong.

Field of study: Engineering
Quantum theory of light propagation in a fluctuating laser-active medium

The basic equations are derived which describe the propagation of an electromagnetic field in a fluctuating laser-active medium. The well-known methods of Langevinequations and master-equation for a few discrete modes are generalized to meet also the case of a radiation field with continuous spectrum. The medium is described by two-level atoms which are embedded in a merely passive solid matrix and homogeneously distributed over space. They have an inversion which is kept constant by an externally applied pump. The atomic line may be homogeneously or inhomogeneously broadened. We obtain a complete set of partial differential equations for the field operators with damping terms and fluctuating forces homogeneously distributed over the material. The telegraph equation with a fluctuating force occurs as a special case. After the exact elimination of the atomic variables we obtain a nonlinear field equation for the radiation field alone. By means of a pseudo-Hamiltonian and by a simple one-dimensional example we show that in a certain sense there exists a close formal analogy between the present theory and the theory of an interacting Bose gas. The characteristic differences between the two theories are also discussed. We find, that there occurs a phase transition of the radiation field because above a certain threshold of the pump the photons condense into a single mode and establish an “offdiagonal-long-range order”. The amplitude fluctuations and the phase fluctuations, which restore the broken phase symmetry, are calculated in detail. A new condition for the occurrence of undamped spiking (pulse formation) for a continuum of modes is derived.

Field of study: Physics
Sand spherules interpreted as crustacean feeding pellets from an Eocene shore environment (Western Carpathians — Slovakia)

Sand spherules from Eocene shallow-marine deposits are identified as crab (Brachyura) feeding pellets. Several points support this interpretation: (i) microscopic study of these structures shows the absence of fine-grained matrix; (ii) spatial distribution within shallow water deposits (foreshore to upper shoreface) is interpreted on the basis of well sorted, fine-grained sandstones and sedimentary structures, such as a low-angle wedge-shaped tabular type cross-bedded units, ripples, sand bars, and intercalated storm layers of coarser material, with trace fossils identified as belonging to the archetypal Skolithos to Cruziana ichnofacies and (iii) the sand spherules have a bimodal size distribution and all these structures have a regular spherical shape. Another argument that implies biogenic origin of spherules and supports the interpretation of them as fossil feeding pellets of crabs is their association with other crustacean trace fossils (Ophiomorpha) and the occurrence of identical structures interpreted as fossil feeding pellets associated with a comparable trace fossil assemblage from Miocene shallow water deposits in southwest Japan. The recognition of crustacean sandstone spherules in the sedimentary record is a good indicator of the shoreline palaeoenvironment.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
Steady state CFD modeling of airflow, heat transfer and moisture loss in a commercial potato cold store

Storage loss beyond permissible limit is one of the most important problems in Indian potato cold stores, which has been hindering further growth of this industry. The losses in the stored potatoes have a direct relation to the intricate coupled transport phenomena of heat, mass and momentum transfer therein. Therefore, airflow, heat transfer and moisture loss was investigated in a potato cold store of commercial scale under steady state condition using the computational fluid dynamics technique. The developed CFD model was a two-dimensional simplification of the cold store. Heat and mass transfer at the cooling coils were not modeled, instead temperature and relative humidity in the air space were specified based on measured values. The model was validated in a commercial scale cold store and was found to be capable of predicting the air velocity as well as product temperature with an average accuracy of 19.5% and 0.5 °C, respectively and also the simulated average total moisture loss was found to be only 0.61% water (w.b.) higher than the experimental one for a storage period of 6 months. The main deficiencies of the airflow pattern which resulted in wide variations in temperature and moisture loss within the stored commodity can be investigated. The model located the probable zones of hot and cold spots, excessive product dehydration and moisture condensation within the storage facility, which might lead to qualitative and quantitative deterioration in stored product. This modeling tool could very well be applied to incorporate necessary design improvements with a view to improve the airflow distribution and heat transfer in order to limit the storage losses within the permissible limit.

Field of study: Engineering
An experimental study of competition teaching mode in elective table tennis teaching.

Through an elective table tennis teaching experiment in which competition teaching was implemented as the primary mode throughout various stages divided according to the levels of students in elective table tennis classes 2010 and 2011 of Zengcheng College of South China Normal University, the authors found that applying teaching under competition teaching mode can effectively promote the subjectivity of teacher teaching and student learning, boost the development of students' knowledge, skills and comprehensive abilities and the cultivation of their moral feelings, and significantly improve table tennis teaching effect.

Field of study: Education
Knowing your place and commanding space: de/constructions of gendered embodiment in mixed-sex karate

Feminists have long acknowledged that gendered divisions in access to spaces of leisure, and how women and men physically take up that space, reproduce gender inequality. This article will explore how karate practitioners participate in the space of mixed-sex karate practice and how such uses of space de/construct gendered embodiments and a gender hierarchy. Data presented are drawn from nine months of ethnographic emersion within three karate clubs and 15 photo-elicitation interviews with karate participants from the three clubs. The findings of this paper suggest that whilst women often occupied spaces of expertise within the karate hall, gendered distinctions in uses of space emerged in the more subtle ways in which women and men used their voice, responded to the tacit and smelt dilemmas of sweat, and moved their bodies across physical space. This research highlights both the potential of physical leisure practice to ‘undo’ conventional gendered embodiments that particularly restrict women’s intentionality in the world, and the power of spatially attuned research to illuminate the minute ways in which unequal gender relations are naturalised, legitimised and done.

Field of study: Sociology
InSb nanowires for multispectral infrared detection

InSb nanowire (NW) arrays fabricated by a top-down etching process were investigated for multispectral infrared photodetection. A 2.5 ?m thick film of InSb was grown on Si (100) by molecular beam epitaxy using an AlSb buffer layer to alleviate defects associated with lattice mismatch strain, as confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. Using a Ti mask patterned by electron beam lithography, InSb NW arrays with diameters ranging from 300 to 1300 nm (100 nm steps) and pitches ranging from 1000 nm to 3500 (500 nm steps) were reactive ion etched from the thin film. For each 100 nm increase in NW diameter, the peak absorptance wavelength, as measured by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, increased by 0.53???0.2 ?m. The ability of InSb nanowires to produce highly tunable absorptance from 1.61 to 6.86 ?m was demonstrated.

Field of study: Materials science
o-Quinones formed in plant extracts. Their reaction with bovine serum albumin.

1. The reactions between chlorogenoquinone, the o-quinone formed during the oxidation of chlorogenic acid, and bovine serum albumin depend on the ratio of reactants. 2. When the serum albumin is in excess, oxygen is not absorbed and the products are colourless. This reaction probably involves the thiol group of bovine serum albumin; it does not occur with bovine serum albumin which has been treated with p-chloromercuribenzoate, iodoacetamide or Ellman's reagent. 3. When bovine serum albumin reacts with excess of chlorogenoquinone, oxygen is absorbed and the products are red. The red colour is probably formed by reaction of the lysine in-amino groups of bovine serum albumin, as it is prevented by treating the protein with formaldehyde, succinic anhydride or O-methylisourea. 4. Bovine serum albumin modified by a 1.5-fold (BSA-Q) and a fivefold (BSA-Q2) excess of chlorogenoquinone were separated by chromatography on DEAE-Sephadex A-50, and some of their properties observed. 5. Reaction of BSA-Q2 with fluorodinitrobenzene suggests that the terminal alpha-amino group, as well as lysine in-amino groups, are combined with chlorogenoquinone.

Field of study: Biology, Computer science
Effect of flaxseed supplementation on markers of inflammation and endothelial function: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

The rationale for the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of flaxseed supplementation on important adhesion molecules and inflammatory cytokines in adults.



We conducted searches of published literature in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases from inception until May 2019. All randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which investigated the effects of flaxseed supplementation on the circulating concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), vascular cell adhesion protein 1 (VCAM-1), E-selectin, and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) were included in our analysis. Results were summarized using weighted mean differences (WMDs) by random-effects model.



Forty eligible RCTs, including 2520 participants were identified. The results of the meta-analysis revealed flaxseed supplementation reduced the concentrations of CRP (WMD = -0.387 mg/L; 95% CI: -0.653, -0.121, p = 0.004), IL-6 (WMD = -0.154 pg/Ml; 95% CI: -0.299, -0.010, p = 0.036), and VCAM-1 (WMD = -22.809 ng/ml; 95% CI: -41.498, -4.120, p = 0.017) but had no significant effect on TNF-α (WMD = -0.077 pg/mL; 95% CI: -0.317, 0.163, p = 0.530), ICAM-1 (WMD = -8.610 ng/ml; 95% CI: -21.936, 4.716, p = 0.205), and E-selectin (WMD = -1.427 ng/ml; 95% CI: -4.074, 1.22, p = 0.291).



These findings showed that flaxseed supplementation may improve some circulating concentrations of specific adhesion molecules and inflammatory cytokines. However, well-designed trials are needed to confirm the range of non-significant and/or equivocal findings.

Field of study: Medicine
Geobiology of a lower Cambrian carbonate platform, Pedroche Formation, Ossa Morena Zone, Spain

The Cambrian Pedroche Formation comprises a mixed siliciclastic–carbonate succession recording subtidal deposition on a marine platform. Carbonate carbon isotope chemostratigraphy confirms previous biostratigraphic assignment of the Pedroche Formation to the Atdabanian regional stage of Siberia, correlative to Cambrian Series 2. At the outcrop scale, thrombolitic facies comprise ~ 60% of carbonate-normalized stratigraphy and coated-grains another ~ 10%. Petrographic point counts reveal that skeletons contribute at most 20% to thrombolitic inter-reef and reef-flank lithologies; on average, archaeocyath clasts make up 68% of skeletal materials. In contrast, petrographic point counts show that skeletons comprise a negligible volume of biohermal and biostromal thrombolite, associated nodular carbonate facies, and ooid, oncoid and peloid grainstone facies. As such, archaeocyathan reefal bioconstructions represent a specific and limited locus of skeletal carbonate production and deposition. Consistent with data from coeval, globally dispersed lower Cambrian successions, our analysis of the Pedroche Formation supports the view that lower Cambrian carbonates have more in common with earlier, Neoproterozoic deposits than with younger carbonates dominated by skeletal production and accumulation.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography