nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
SU-E-T-185: Time-Dependent Calibration Correction for EBT Film Dosimetry.

The aim of this study is to simplify EBT film-based dosimetry calibration. In addition, two different approaches are proposed for film and scanner non-uniformity reduction.



EBT films, EBT3 and EBT2 were exposed under a calibration plan using 6X flattening-filter-free (FFF) photon beams. In method 1, pre-irradiation scans were carried out and subtracted from post-irradiation scans to calculate net-optical density (net OD), removing non-uniformity from both scanner and film. In method 2, two unexposed films were independently scanned for each irradiated film scan and subtracted from post-irradiation scans. Calibration curves were then generated using the calibration plan dose and the film net OD values. Finally, a set of time-dependent correction factors were derived from the calibration curves. The per-batch average correction factors were applied in order to test the feasibility of using a per-batch generic calibration curve. All converted film doses were verified against the planned dose. The scanner light effect on the film dose was estimated by measuring the changes in mean pixel value.



Up to 7% pixel value change was noted four days after exposure. A correction was necessary if a generic calibration curve was utilized. The method to remove non-uniformity using the pre-exposure film (method 1) was more stable than using two unexposed films (method 2). The batch average correction factors reduced calibration curve differences to less than 0.6%. The dose effect from each scan was minimal (∼0.1 cGy).



It is feasible to use one generic calibration curve per film batch with a time-dependent correction factor table without compromising overall EBT film dosimetry accuracy. This method may alleviate the current practice of the typical labor intensive film-based dosimetry for patient specific QA as well as physics commissioning tasks.

Field of study: Medicine, Physics
Cloning and high level expression of a synthetic gene for human basic fibroblast growth factor.

A gene encoding human basic fibroblast growth factor has been chemically synthesized, cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli as a biologically active protein. The 465 bp gene was assembled by enzymatic ligation of 6 pairs of oligonucleotides and cloned in the expression vector pLCII downstream from the strong PL promoter. This promoter directed the synthesis of a fusion protein between a 31 amino acids fragment of the lambda phage cII protein and bFGF. A four amino acid recognition sequence for the site-specific protease fXa was introduced in the plasmid construct and this allowed cleavage of the fusion protein at the boundary between cII and bFGF. bFGF was purified close to homogeneity using a Heparin-Sepharose column and Mono S cation exchange chromatography. The use of the pLCII expression system resulted in the accumulation of 20 to 25 mg of purified bFGF per l of bacterial culture. The recombinant bFGF was mitogenic for mouse 3T3 fibroblasts and the dose-response curve was similar to the one for native bFGF.

Field of study: Biology, Engineering
Gender Differences Amongst African Generation Y Students Hedonic And Utilitarian Shopping Motivations

The South African retail industry is a major industry with high public spending. As such, there is a high level of competition among retailers, pressuring marketers and retailers to gain and maintain a competitive advantage. By developing and adapting marketing strategies to target their market effectively, these marketers and retailers can differentiate themselves from their competitors. In order to develop and adapt their marketing strategies, they need to understand and focus on the motivations behind the act of shopping. Accordingly, this paper reports on a study undertaken to determine whether there are any gender differences amongst African Generation Y students’ hedonic and utilitarian shopping motivations in order to develop marketing strategies for effectively targeting the different gender segments in this market. In the South African context, individuals born between 1986 and 2005, labelled Generation Y, account for 37 percent of the total South African population, and the African Generation Y individuals represent 84 percent of the total Generation Y cohort. The primary data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire completed by a convenience sample of 404 African Generation Y students enrolled at two South African registered public higher education institutions (HEIs), situated in the Gauteng province was taken. The statistical analysis of the collected data included descriptive statistics and a two independent-samples t-test. The results indicate that male and female African Generation Y students appear to have statistically significant different hedonic and utilitarian shopping motivations. The findings of this study contributes to the practice of marketing by providing retailers and marketers with a better understanding of both male and female African Generation Y students by examining their hedonic and utilitarian shopping motivations, which will assist them in developing appropriate marketing strategies for effectively targeting this cohort

Field of study: Business
Stimulation of Suicidal Erythrocyte Death by the CDC25 Inhibitor NSC-95397

The CDC25B inhibitor NSC-95397 triggers apoptosis of tumor cells and is thus considered for the treatment of malignancy. The substance is effective in part by modification of gene expression. Similar to apoptosis of nucleated cells erythrocytes may undergo eryptosis, the suicidal erythrocyte death characterized by cell shrinkage and cell membrane scrambling with phosphatidylserine translocation to the erythrocyte surface. Eryptosis may be triggered by increase of cytosolic Ca2+ activity ([Ca2+]i), oxidative stress, ceramide, as well as activation of protein kinases. The present study explored, whether NSC-95397 induces eryptosis and, if so, to shed some light on the mechanisms involved.  Phosphatidylserine exposure at the cell surface was estimated from annexin-V-binding, cell volume from forward scatter, [Ca2+]i from Fluo3-fluorescence, ROS formation from DCFDA dependent fluorescence, and ceramide abundance utilizing specific antibodies.  A 48 hours exposure of human erythrocytes to NSC-95397 significantly increased the percentage of annexin-V-binding cells (≥ 1 µM), significantly decreased forward scatter (≥ 2.5 µM), and significantly increased Fluo3-fluorescence (≥ 1 µM), DCFDA fluorescence (5 µM) and ceramide abundance (≥ 5 µM). The effect of NSC-95397 (5 µM) on annexin-V-binding was slightly, but significantly blunted by removal of extracellular Ca2+ and by addition of the protein kinase C inhibitor staurosporine (1 µM).  NSC-95397 triggers cell shrinkage and phospholipid scrambling of the erythrocyte cell membrane, an effect in part requiring entry of Ca2+ and activation of staurosporine sensitive kinase(s).

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry
Experimental study of the gravity effect on the distribution of refrigerant flow in a multi-pass condenser

Gravity in multi-pass condensers affects the refrigerant flow rate distribution, owing to the gravitational pressure drop that occurs mainly in the U-bend tubes in fin and tube condensers with horizontal tubes. This effect was studied using an experimental approach. A condenser with two ‘nU’ circuits was selected, and the temperature variation of the refrigerant side was measured and compared along each circuit. The critical air velocity, which indicated the initiation of the gravity effect, was found for a given refrigerant flow rate. As the air velocity increased beyond the critical air velocity, the gravity effect (or mal-distribution of the refrigerant flow) developed further. Similarly, the critical refrigerant flow rate was also determined for a given air velocity. As the refrigerant flow rate decreased below the critical refrigerant flow rate, the gravity effect also developed further. The gravity-affected region was shown in the table with rows of air velocities and columns of refrigerant flow rates, and expressed using a single parameter for a given refrigerant flow circuit.

Field of study: Engineering
WE-D-204-02: Errors and Process Improvements in Radiation Therapy.

Speakers in this session will present overview and details of a specific rotation or feature of their Medical Physics Residency Program that is particularly exceptional and noteworthy. The featured rotations include foundational topics executed with exceptional acumen and innovative educational rotations perhaps not commonly found in Medical Physics Residency Programs. A site-specific clinical rotation will be described, where the medical physics resident follows the physician and medical resident for two weeks into patient consultations, simulation sessions, target contouring sessions, planning meetings with dosimetry, patient follow up visits, and tumor boards, to gain insight into the thought processes of the radiation oncologist. An incident learning rotation will be described where the residents learns about and practices evaluating clinical errors and investigates process improvements for the clinic. The residency environment at a Canadian medical physics residency program will be described, where the training and interactions with radiation oncology residents is integrated. And the first month rotation will be described, where the medical physics resident rotates through the clinical areas including simulation, dosimetry, and treatment units, gaining an overview of the clinical flow and meeting all the clinical staff to begin the residency program. This session will be of particular interest to residency programs who are interested in adopting or adapting these curricular ideas into their programs and to residency candidates who want to learn about programs already employing innovative practices.



1. To learn about exceptional and innovative clinical rotations or program features within existing Medical Physics Residency Programs. 2. To understand how to adopt/adapt innovative curricular designs into your own Medical Physics Residency Program, if appropriate.

Field of study: Medicine, Physics
Multiple pulse interactions and averaging in systems of coupled neural oscillators

Oscillators coupled strongly are capable of complicated behavior which may be pathological for biological control systems. Nevertheless, strong coupling may be needed to prevent asynchrony. We discuss how some neural networks may be designed to achieve only simple locking behavior when the coupling is strong. The design is based on the fact that the method of averaging produces equations that are capable only of locking or drift, not pathological complexity. Furthermore, it is shown that oscillators that interact by means of multiple pulses per cycle, dispersed around the cycle, behave like averaged equations, even if the number of pulses is small. We discuss the biological intuition behind this scheme, and show numerically that it works when the oscillators are taken to be composites, each unit of which is governed by a well-known model of a neural oscillator. Finally, we describe numerical methods for computing from equations for coupled limit cycle oscillators the averaged coupling functions of our theory.

Field of study: Biology, Mathematics
Establishment, Optimization and Application of cDNA-SCoT Reaction System in Sugarcane

Gene differential expression analysis by cDNA-SCoT is a newly developed technique in plants.In this study,the root tip of sugarcane variety GT11 was used as the experiment material.We isolated the total RNA of sugarcane root tip and it was reversely transcripted into the first strand cDNA.And then,we optimized SCoT-PCR amplification system of sugarcane in five factors such as template cDNA,SCoT primers,Taq DNA polymerase,dNTPs and Mg2 + to establish an optimal reaction system of sugarcane,which was used to isolate differentially expressed genes in sugarcane root tip induced by 25% PEG6000.The results showed that all of the five factors affected the PCR amplification and the optimal 20 μL PCR reaction mixtures in sugarcane was template cDNA 80 ng,SCoT primers 1.0 μmol/L,Taq DNA polymerase 2.0 U,dNTPs 200 μmol/L and Mg2+1.8 mmol/L.The amplification results of SCoT primers indicated higher genetic diversity at the polymorphic rate of 46.9%,and the average bands of each primer were 30 bands.What should be stressed is that we obtained a total of 45 differentially expressed bands in sugarcane root tip induced by 25% PEG.The cDNA-ScoT PCR amplification system established in this paper has several advantages: simplicity,stabilization,highly reproducibility,inexpensiveness and rich polymorphism,which would be a new technique useful for sugarcane as differential gene expression analysis.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Contingency, Catalysts, and International System Change

Wars, revolutions, and depressions change the world and the way in which we think about it. World War I was a seminal event in both respects. It ushered in a profound transformation of the international system, and is described by many historians as the crucible in which the twentieth century was shaped. It has also been a critical case for the generation and testing of theories about conflict and international relations more generally. Many historians contend that World War I-or something like it-would have been very hard, if not impossible, to avoid. The distinguished British historian, F. H. Hinsley, insisted, "If the Sarajevo crisis had not precipitated a particular great war, some other crisis would have precipitated a great war at no distant date."1 Neorealisfs and power transition theorists make similar claims, albeit for different reasons.2 I do not doubt that many, perhaps most of the causes of war in 1914 that historians and political scientists have identified created a conflict-prone environment. But underlying causes, no matter how numerous or deep-seated, do not make an event inevitable. Their consequences

Field of study: Political science
Monitoring means and covariances of multivariate non linear time series with heavy tails

In this paper, the focus is on sequential analysis of multivariate financial time series with heavy tails. The mean vector and the covariance matrix of multivariate non linear models are simultaneously monitored by modifying conventional control charts to identify structural changes in the data. The considered target process is a constant conditional correlation model (cf. Bollerslev, 1990), an extended constant conditional correlation model (cf. He and Teräsvirta, 2004), a dynamic conditional correlation model (cf. Engle, 2002), or a generalized dynamic conditional correlation model (cf. Capiello et al., 2006). For statistical surveillance we use control charts based on residuals. Further, the procedures are constructed for t-distribution. The detection speed of these charts is compared via Monte Carlo simulation. In the empirical study, the procedure with the best performance is applied to log-returns of the stock market indices FTSE and CAC.

Field of study: Mathematics
Comment on "Nature of Long-Range Order in Stripe-Forming Systems with Long-Range Repulsive Interactions".

In a recent Letter, Mendoza-Coto et al.  presented a study focusing on the nature of phase transitions in twodimensional (2D) stripe-forming systems with competing short-range attractive and long-range (1=rα) repulsive interactions. In particular, they conclude that for dipolar interactions (α 1⁄4 3), the isotropic-nematic phase transition is in the Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) universality class. The authors support their findings by mapping an effective Hamiltonian into models which behavior resembles the 2D XY model at low temperatures [2], and a finite-size scaling analysis from Langevin simulations. However, the validity of their conclusion is hindered by the lack of numerical evidence due to the relative small lattice sizes , and more generally because a nonuniversal behavior is expected for such 2D systems [4]. Aswe illustrate here, tiny lattice effects are enough to alter the transition scenario completely. Below we present a comparative analysis between the microcanonical caloric curves βðEÞ obtained for the 2D dipolar Ising model , which displays an isotropicnematic transition, and the 2D XY model , which shows a KT transition. The Hamiltonians H2D dip and H 2D XY are given in terms of the parameters δ and J as in , respectively. We evaluate βðEÞ via the statistical temperature-weighted histogram analysis method (ST-WHAM)  from data produced by Monte Carlo simulations with cluster updates for the XY model and replica exchange method for the dipolar Ising model. Figure 1 clearly shows that caloric curves for the two models exhibit distinct behaviors. While there are two S-shaped curves in βðEÞ for the dipolar Ising model, a monotonic decreasing behavior is observed for the XY model. The two S-shaped curves in Fig. 1(a) corresponds to two transitions that separates the isotropic phase (which is stable for E=N≳−1.086 and temperatures T>1=βIN≃0.8), the nematic phase (snapshot in the middle), and the striped phase (which is stable for E=N≲−1.187 and T<1=βNS ≃ 0.767, and displays ground-state configurations with 18 stripes for N 1⁄4 72). The S-shaped curves in βðEÞ are due to the presence of first-order phase transitions . The results for the XY model  shows the region near the KT transition at T 1⁄4 1=βKT ≃ 0.893. Accordingly, there is no signal of S-shaped curves in βðEÞ because the KT transition is an infinite order transition . In conclusion, our analysis indicates that the isotropicnematic transition in the dipolar Ising model is a first-order phase transition instead of a KT transition. By considering this example and the expected nonuniversality, we argue that both mapping and numerical results in  are insufficient to determine the nature of isotropic-nematic transition in 2D systems with competing short-range and dipolar interactions. We thank Y. Levin for the clarifying discussions, F. C. Poderoso for helping us with the simulations of the 2D X model, and the support from CNPq (Brazil, Grant No. 165153/2014-8) and LCCA-USP.

Field of study: Physics
Особенности течения болезни Паркинсона при гетерозиготном носительстве мутаций в гене глюкоцереброзидазы А

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease. Literature sources indicate the association of PD and mutations in the glucocerebrosidase A (GBA) gene. According to our study, the frequency of the two most common mutations in the GBA gene, N370S and L444P, is 1.85%. Mutation carriers have slower progression of motor symptoms, but are more likely to develop drug-induced motor fluctuations and dyskinesia. In carriers of GBA mutations, the severity of cognitive impairment corresponds to age-matched patients without mutations. Cognitive deficit in PD patients carrying GBA mutations primarily affects visual-spatial functions and often is associated with psychotic disorders and parasomnias syndrome. Other non-motor disorders in patients with GBA mutations do not differ from those in patients without mutations. In patients with PD and GBA mutations, a slower escalation of levodopa dose should be recommended because of the high risk of complications of therapy.

Field of study: Medicine, Psychology
Phylogeographic Analyses of the East Asian Endemic Genus Prinsepia and the Role of the East Asian Monsoon System in Shaping a North-South Divergence Pattern in China

Prinsepia Royle (Rosaceae) is a genus native to China and the Himalayan region. In order to explain its current fragmented distribution pattern and to compare the impact of relatively recent climate changes on the genetic structure of Prinsepia species in different regions of China, a total of 66 populations and 617 individuals of four species of Prinsepia were genotyped, using three cpDNA markers. Meanwhile, phylogenetic reconstructions and divergence dating were conducted using the cpDNA haplotypes dataset and the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) dataset, respectively. Ecological niche modeling (ENM) was performed to predict the potential distribution of each species of Prinsepia at present and during the Last Glacial Maximum. Both ITS and cpDNA gene trees support a north-south divergence of Prinsepia species in China. The divergence time of the northern and southern Clades occurred around the late Oligocene epoch. Combining the present distribution of Prinsepia species and their habitats, we inferred that the transition to a monsoon climate system in East Asia during the late Oligocene epoch, created a humid forest vegetation zone from central to East China, which potentially gave rise to the north-south divergence of Prinsepia species. Both regional climates and allopatric divergence may have played an important role in the speciation of P. sinensis and P. uniflora. P. sinensis had the lowest genetic diversity and a putative northward post-glacial colonization. The distribution range of P. uniflora was also extremely sensitive to interglacial-glacial cycles. P. utilis from southwestern China preserved more haplotypes than P. sinensis and P. uniflora due to its multiple and isolated refugia.

Field of study: Biology
Time-dependent behavior of gas absorption in lubricant oil

Gas absorption behavior in liquid with time has been studied by applying a simple mathematical model. The model is based on a one-dimensional mass diffusion process due to the concentration difference in dissolving gas. In order to examine the model validity, selected experimental data in the literature have been analyzed with the present model. The model has faithfully reproduced the experimental transient behavior of dissolving gases, and physically meaningful model parameters, diffusion constant and solubility limit, have been obtained for dissolving gas (water and refrigerant) in various lubricant oils. The validity and the significance of the model are discussed.

Field of study: Engineering
Marfan syndrome and the thumb sign.

A 74-year-old woman presented with congestive heart failure exacerbation. She was known to have moderate–to-severe aortic regurgitation and echocardiogram exam demonstrated ascending aortic aneurysm of 4.6 cm diameter on her recent hospitalization, 1 month ago. The patient's appearance was suggestive for Marfan syndrome, and complete physical examination, in addition to the known aortic root disease, further strengthened …

Field of study: Medicine
Stretching Groth-Sahai: NIZK Proofs of Partial Satisfiability

Groth, Ostrovsky and Sahai constructed a non-interactive Zap for NP-languages by observing that the common reference string of their proof system for circuit satisfiability admits what they call correlated key generation. The latter means that it is possible to create from scratch two common reference strings in such a way that it can be publicly verified that at least one of them guarantees perfect soundness while it is computationally infeasible to tell which one. Their technique also implies that it is possible to have NIWI Groth-Sahai proofs for certain types of equations over bilinear groups in the plain model. We extend the result of Groth, Ostrovsky and Sahai in several directions. Given as input some predicate P computable by some monotone span program over a finite field, we show how to generate a set of common reference strings in such a way that it can be publicly verified that the subset of them which guarantees perfect soundness is accepted by the span program. We give several different flavors of the technique suitable for different applications scenarios and different equation types. We use this to stretch the expressivity of Groth-Sahai proofs and construct NIZK proofs of partial satisfiability of sets of equations in a bilinear group and more efficient Groth-Sahai NIWI proofs without common reference string for a larger class of equation types. Finally, we apply our results to significantly reduce the size of the signatures of the ring signature scheme of Chandran, Groth and Sahai or to have a more efficient proof in the standard model that a commitment opens to an element of a public list.

Field of study: Computer science, Mathematics