nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Augmentation cystoplasty in children without preoperative mechanical bowel preparation.

To retrospectively assess early postoperative complications in augmentation cystoplasty without preoperative mechanical bowel preparation (MBP).



Between May 1987 and May 2006, 162 cystoplasties were performed in 158 children. The segments used were: sigmoid colon (81.5%), ileum (13%), and ileocecum (5.5%). The mean age was 8.65 years (range 2.1-22.7 years). No preoperative MBP of any kind was used in any of the patients and all of them received antibiotics preoperatively and postoperatively.



No intraoperative complications related to the procedure were reported. The mean hospital stay was 9.48 days (range 4-30 days). The mean time to intake of oral fluids was 94.77 h (range 48-288 h). Postoperative complications occurred in 9.87%: urinary fistula was the most common (2.4%); only 3 patients presented wound infection (1.85%); 5 patients required reoperative surgery (hemoperitoneum, patch necrosis and 3 cases of urinary peritonitis); 1 patient presented an intra-abdominal abscess that resolved with antibiotic treatment.



Preoperative MBP can be omitted in children that require augmentation cystoplasty without an increased risk of infectious or anastomotic complications. Further prospective, randomized clinical trials should be carried out in order to validate our findings in the pediatric population.

Field of study: Medicine
Concentration imaging measurements in turbulent concentric-jet flows

Raman scattering images were used to determine the CH 4 concentration in nonreacting concentric-jet flows. The flow consists of a central CH 4 jet and a concentric air jet separated by a bluff body. Three jet velocity ratios were studied under isothermal conditions. At high momentum-flux ratios, the CH 4 jet penetrates the recirculation zone formed by the airflow behind the bluff body. At low momentum ratios, the jet is stagnated and fuel is dispersed into the recirculation zone

Field of study: Physics
Insulation Failure Mechanism of Immersion Silver Finished Printed Circuit Board Under NaCl Solution

Various kinds of contaminants depositing on printed circuit board (PCB) assembly in electronic products, such as the airborne dust and the process residues, can aggravate the condensation on the PCB surface and increase the ion concentration of the water film on the PCB, which further degrades the insulation of the PCB based on electrochemical migration (ECM). This paper investigates the insulation failure mechanism of immersion silver (ImAg) finished PCB under sodium chloride (NaCl) solution. A Y-pattern PCB was adopted to simulate the ECM failure of the PCB under different concentrations of NaCl solution by water drop tests. Through the on-line monitoring of the surface insulation resistance of PCB, as well as the dendrite morphology and the compositions detection at different reaction stages and different locations between two parallel electrodes, the similarities and differences of the insulation failure characteristics and mechanism of ImAg finished PCB under various concentrations of NaCl solution were analyzed. The effect of chloridion on ECM was discussed by combining the electrochemical theory.

Field of study: Materials science
Measuring the working alliance in advisor-advisee relationships in graduate school.

Drawing from the working alliance literature, the authors constructed the Advisory Working Alliance Inventory (AWAI) to measure the graduate advising relationship from the student's perspective. Two hundred eighty-one counseling psychology doctoral students participated in the 1st study (79% response rate). Three factors (Rapport, Apprenticeship, and Identification-Individuation) were extracted by factor analysis. The AWAI showed very good internal consistency reliability. Scale validity was supported by positive correlations between the AWAI and measures of advisee research self-efficacy and attitudes toward research, as well as the perceived expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness of the advisor. Forty-one students participated in the 2nd study, in which the AWAI demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability over a 2-week interval. Implications of the advising working alliance are discussed for doctoral training and areas for future research are provided.

Field of study: Psychology
MAP Decoding of Variable Length Codes With Self-Synchronization Strings

Maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) decoding of Huffman-equivalent variable-length codes (VLCs) has two undesired features. One is the high decoding complexity, and the other is the discrepancy between the objective of MAP decoding and the Levenshtein distance which is commonly used as the performance metric. In this correspondence, improvement over these two issues is targeted through extracting self-synchronization information in VLC coded sequence and incorporating it into MAP decoding. It shown that self-synchronization strings (SSSs) are concatenation of Huffman codewords and can be readily found. Occurrence probabilities of SSSs are then analyzed. By using this self-synchronization information, MAP decoding is split into multiple decoding of short data segments so that both decoding performance improvement and complexity reduction are obtained. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Field of study: Engineering
The effect of spines of a Devonian productide brachiopod on durophagous predation

Spines may serve a number of different functions in brachiopods. This study examines the hypothesis that spines aided survival in spinose brachiopods by increasing effective size and thus allowing the brachiopods to enter a size refuge from durophagous predators at an earlier stage in development. We tested this hypothesis by comparing two similar strophomenates, Devonoproductus walcotti and Douvillina arcuata, which mainly differ in that De. walcotti has spines and Do. arcuata has no spines. Examination of repair scar frequencies of the two species at different size classes demonstrated that De. walcotti had a peak and subsequent decline in repair scar frequency at a smaller body size than Do. arcuata, indicating that De. walcotti entered a size refuge from predators at an earlier stage than Do. arcuata. This is the first study to test and document an example of productide spine functioning as a defense against crushing predators.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
The functional linkage among the "ZSL"-spinal dorsal horn-SN.

Electrical stimulation of the Zusanli point (ZSL) and solitary tract nucleus (SN) as well as microelectrode recording from the laminae III-V of the lumbar spinal dorsal horn have been used on the pentobarbital anesthetized rats, finding and identifying 57 spinal neurons responding to the stimulations of both ZSL and SN. Among them, 34 responded antidromically to SN; the others responded orthodromically to SN. Among them, the low-threshold mechano-receptive (LTM) neurons and wide-dynamic-range (WDR) neurons were 50 percent respectively. The results indicate that (i) a single spinal dorsal horn neuron receives somatic afferent input and then conveys it to the visceral sensory nucleus-SN; (ii) some spinal dorsal horn neurons receive, in turn, innervation from the SN; (iii) the convergence and integration between somatic and visceral sensory inputs might occur in the spinal dorsal horn neurons and/or SN.

Field of study: Chemistry
Research and application progress on microwave synthesis of nanometer zinc oxide

The preparation methods of nanometer zinc oxide which has special shape and properties under microwave radiation and its crystal growth mechanism are introduced. The nanometer zinc oxide synthesized by microwave radiation has excellent performance when it is applied in catalytic synthesis of organics and photocatalysis decomposition of organic pollutants. The microwave technology application prospects in field of preparation nanometer zinc oxide is outlined briefly.

Field of study: Chemistry, Environmental science
[Association study of the SCN1 gene polymorphism and effective dose of lamotrigine].

An association between a polymorphism of the SCN1 gene, a therapeutical target of lamotrigine, and an effective dose (a blood plasma concentration) of the drug in patients with epilepsy has been studied. Fifty patients with different forms of epilepsy have been genotyped for the SCN1 IVS5N+5 G>A polymorphism using polymerase chain reaction. The distribution of allelic variants was as follows: 23 patients had the mutant homozygous genotype (V/V), 20 - the heterozygous genotype Wt/V and 7 were homozygous for the wild allele (Wt/Wt). Mean lamotrigine doses were 85,7+/-7,4 mg/day for carriers of the Wt/Wt genotype, 113,75+/-7,13 mg/day for the Wt/V genotype and 142,4+/-15,43 mg/day for the V/V genotype. Peak plasma concentrations corresponded to effective doses were 0,6+/-0,065 mg/ml for Wt/Wt, 0,96+/-0,1 mg/ml for V/V and 0,72+/-0,1 mg/ml for Wt/V. The hypothesis on the association between the SCN1 IVS5N+5 G>A polymorphism and the effective dose (concentration) of lamotrigine was confirmed. The significantly higher frequency of the SCN1A mutation in the group of patients with epilepsy compared to the control group of Caucasians (45,5 and 21,3%, respectively) implies that this polymorphism may contribute to the pathogenesis of epilepsy.

Field of study: Medicine, Psychology
Persistence of Carbofuran in Soil and its Translocation into Sugarcane

Soil incorporation of carbofuran @ 1kg and 2 kg a.i./ha resulted into deposits of 0.534 to 1.692 ppm and 1.251 to 2.487 ppm, respectively. The half-life values varied from 16.83 to 33.93 days and 16.35 to 30.62 days and total persistence (below detectable level) from 86.52 to 208.68 days and 83.69 to 208.95 days, respectively. The translocated residues in cane juice, cane tops and cane spindle were detected in traces but was below maximum residue limit (MRL) of 0.1 ppm. Hence, the consumption of cane parts by animal/human could be considered safe.

Field of study: Biology
Resultados de la categorización de una muestra de pacientes con diagnóstico de egreso de esquizofrenia

La esquizofrenia es una enfermedad que afecta aproximadamente al 1% de la poblacion mundial. Es una de las enfermedades psiquiatricas mas debilitantes con un alto costo economico, social, familiar y personal. En Costa Rica, la esquizofrenia constituye la primera causa de internamiento entre los desordenes psiquiatricos en el Hospital Nacional Psiquiatrico. El presente estudio analiza el diagnostico preliminar de los primeros 120 pacientes incluidos en el proyecto sobre la Genetica de la Esquizofrenia. Al comparar el diagnostico del entrevistador, el diagnostico final por consenso y el diagnostico del ultimo egreso hospitalario se encontraron diferencias en alrededor del 40% de los sujetos en el estudio. Se encontro un relativo sub-registro de la sintomatologia afectiva en los diagnosticos de egreso con el consecuente sobre-diagnostico de los trastornos esquizofrenicos en los hospitales nacionales. El trastorno esquizoafectivo fue uno de los diagnosticos con menor concordancia. Las diferencias diagnosticas encontradas pueden ser parcialmente explicadas por el uso de pautas diagnosticas diferentes y/o una mayor rigurosidad diagnostica utilizada en investigacion que no es necesaria en la clinica. Sin embargo, la concurrencia de diferentes sintomas en las enfermedades psiquiatricas severas y las limitaciones impuestas por la categorizacion diagnostica, obliga al psiquiatra a encasillar al paciente en una categoria que puede no representar completamente la enfermedad de ese paciente. El contar con marcadores biologicos en un futuro podria servir para clasificar estos sindromes en entidades diagnosticas mas precisas, a explicar la fisiopatologia de estas enfermedades y mejorar el tratamiento.

Field of study: Mathematics
Disabled or Disadvantaged: Why the Question?

to behavior, performance, and etiology. He points out that behavioral descriptions of the two groups often reveal a surprising amount of overlap, with hyperactivity, short attention span, emotional lability, apparent lack of motivation, and difficulties with Standard English in its written and spoken forms representing the most salient difficulty areas for both. Herrick’s observations would probably receive widespread support from teachers of mildly disabled and disadvantaged children. However, a case can probably be made that children with

Field of study: Education
Effect of Oat β-Glucan Supplementation on Chronic Kidney Disease: A Feasibility Study.

Dietary supplementation with grains containing high β-glucan fiber has been shown to attenuate the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and vascular calcification in animal models. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of consuming an oat β-glucan supplement and to assess its effects on certain uremic toxins and markers of mineral metabolism in patients with CKD.



This is a 20-week, nonrandomized, single-center, pretest-posttest study. Twenty-eight subjects with CKD stages 3-4 were enrolled. The mean age was 67.6 ± 8.9 years, and the mean estimated glomerular filtration rate was 35 ± 14 mL/min/1.73 m2. Subjects received a dietary supplement containing 3 g of oat β-glucan per day for 12 weeks. The 4-week period before the start of the intervention was used as a baseline comparison for each subject. The primary outcome was pre-post supplement changes in plasma levels of two uremic toxins: trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) and asymmetric dimethylarginine. Secondary outcomes were pre-post supplement changes in serum calcium, phosphorus, and Klotho levels. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to test the differences in outcomes over the three-month-long intervention.



Serum levels of TMAO decreased by a median of -17% (interquartile range: -46%, 7%) at the end of the intervention. A nonstatistically significant change was observed for asymmetric dimethylarginine (median -0.6% [-12%, 20%]) and serum Klotho (median -3% [-8%, 7%]). There were no changes in serum levels of calcium and phosphorus. One month after discontinuation of β-glucan therapy, TMAO levels increased by a median of 16% (-12%, 36%) but remained slightly below the pretreatment levels. Eight subjects experienced side effects and discontinued the treatment.



A diet supplemented with β-glucan is safe and potentially efficacious in lowering serum concentrations of TMAO in patients with CKD. Larger trials with longer follow-up times are needed to determine whether such reductions translate into clinical benefits.

Field of study: Medicine
A similarity query system for road traffic data based on a NoSQL document store

Model road traffic data as traffic matrices.Propose a traffic similarity query processing method based on singular value decompositions (SVDs) of traffic matrices.Implement the proposed system on a NoSQL document to handle large amount of road traffic data.Utilize an incremental computation of SVD for traffic matrices.Use real-world traffic datasets for justifying the performance of the proposed system. Advancements in sensing and communication technologies are enabling intelligent transportation systems (ITS) to easily acquire large volumes of road traffic big data. Querying road traffic data is a crucial task for providing citizens with more insightful information on traffic conditions. In this paper, we have developed a similarity query system for road traffic big data, called SigTrac, that runs on top of an existing MongoDB document store. The SigTrac system represents road traffic sensor data having spatio-temporal characteristics into traffic matrices and stores them into a MongoDB NoSQL document store by exploiting map-reduce operations of MongoDB. In addition, SigTrac efficiently processes similarity queries for traffic data with singular value decomposition (SVD)-based and incremental SVD-based algorithms. Our experimental studies with real traffic data demonstrate the efficiency of SiqTrac for similarity query processing for road traffic big data.

Field of study: Computer science, Engineering
Triggering of Suicidal Erythrocyte Death by Zosuquidar

The P-glycoprotein inhibitor zosuquidar (LY335979) is clinically used to augment the effect of cytostatic drugs on suicidal tumor cell death or apoptosis. The present study explored whether the substance is cytotoxic to erythrocytes. Upon injury, erythrocytes may undergo suicidal cell death or eryptosis, which is characterized by cell shrinkage and translocation of cell membrane phosphatidylserine to the erythrocyte surface. Signaling of eryptosis include increase of cytosolic Ca2+-activity ([Ca2+]i), oxidative stress and activation of several kinases, such as p38 kinase and protein kinase C.  Phosphatidylserine abundance at the erythrocyte surface was quantified from binding of FITC-labelled annexin-V, cell volume from forward scatter, [Ca2+]i from Fluo3-fluorescence, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) from 2′,7′-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCFDA) fluorescence.  A 48 h treatment of human erythrocytes with zosuquidar significantly increased the percentage of annexin-V-binding cells (2 and 4 µg/ml), significantly decreased forward scatter (4 µg/ml), significantly increased [Ca2+]i (4 µg/ml), but did not significantly modify ROS. The up-regulation of annexin-V-binding following zosuquidar (4 µg/ml) treatment was significantly blunted by removal of extracellular Ca2+, by presence of p38 kinase inhibitor SB203580 (2 µM) and by presence of protein kinase C inhibitor calphostin (100 nM).  Exposure of erythrocytes to zosuquidar triggers suicidal erythrocyte death with erythrocyte shrinkage and erythrocyte membrane scrambling, an effect involving Ca2+ entry and requiring activity of SB203580 and calphostin sensitive kinases.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry
Late Quaternary tectonic movements and sea-level changes at Timor and Atauro Island

Flights of raised coral terraces on the north coast of East Timor and at Atauro Island, north of Timor, are described stratigraphically and dated by Th 230 -U 234 determinations. The exposures at southern Atauro enable detailed reconstruction of the history of transgressions and regressions, especially for the period 140,000 to 105,000 yr B.P. Sea-level changes identified in Barbados and New Guinea are closely confirmed. The Atauro uplift rate is 0.47 m/1,000 yr, as estimated from the highest position of shallow-water coral faunas in the reef, which is dated as 120,000 old. The extrapolated rate is used to estimate ages of higher reefs; these ages correlate quite well with periods of major glacio-eustatic rise indicated by the O 18 record of Pacific cores back to 700,000 yr B.P. Reefs from three sites along the north coast of Timor have been dated within the 84,000, 105,000, and 120,000 yr B.P. high sea-level periods and indicate uplift at 0.5 m/1,000 yr. A 120,000-yr-old reef from a fourth north Timor site, near Dili, indicates much slower uplift, about 0.03 m/1,000 yr.

Field of study: Geology
Multiple $SU(3)$ algebras in shell model and \\ interacting boson model

Rotational $SU(3)$ algebraic symmetry continues to generate new results in the shell model (SM). Interestingly, it is possible to have multiple $SU(3)$ algebras for nucleons occupying an oscillator shell $\eta$. Several different aspects of the multiple $SU(3)$ algebras are investigated using shell model and also deformed shell model based on Hartree-Fock single particle states with nucleons in $sdg$ orbits giving four $SU(3)$ algebras. Results show that one of the $SU(3)$ algebra generates prolate shapes, one oblate shape and the other two also generate prolate shape but one of them gives quiet small quadrupole moments for low-lying levels. These are inferred by using the standard form for the electric quadrupole transition operator and using quadrupole moments and $B(E2)$ values in the ground $K=0^+$ band in three different examples. Multiple $SU(3)$ algebras extend to interacting boson model and using $sdg$IBM, the structure of the four $SU(3)$ algebras in this model are studied by coherent state analysis and asymptotic formulas for $E2$ matrix elements. The results from $sdg$IBM further support the conclusions from the $sdg$ shell model examples.

Field of study: Physics
Efficient access of mobile flows to heterogeneous networks under flash crowds

Future wireless networks need to offer orders of magnitude more capacity to address the predicted growth in mobile traffic demand. Operators to enhance the capacity of cellular networks are increasingly using WiFi to offload traffic from their core networks. This paper deals with the efficient and flexible management of a heterogeneous networking environment offering wireless access to multimode terminals. This wireless access is evaluated under disruptive usage scenarios, such as flash crowds, which can mean unwanted severe congestion on a specific operator network whilst the remaining available capacity from other access technologies is not being used. To address these issues, we propose a scalable network assisted distributed solution that is administered by centralized policies, and an embedded reputation system, by which initially selfish operators are encouraged to cooperate under the threat of churn. Our solution after detecting a congested technology, including within its wired backhaul, automatically offloads and balances the flows amongst the access resources from all the existing technologies, following some quality metrics. Our results show that the smart integration of access networks can yield an additional wireless quality for mobile flows up to thirty eight percent beyond that feasible from the best effort standalone operation of each wireless access technology. It is also evidenced that backhaul constraints are conveniently reflected on the way the flow access to wireless media is granted. Finally, we have analyzed the sensitivity of the handover decision algorithm running in each terminal agent to consecutive flash crowds, as well as its centralized feature that controls the connection quality offered by a heterogeneous access infrastructure owned by distinct operators.

Field of study: Computer science