nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Expressed-sequence-tag approach to identify differentially expressed genes following peripheral nerve axotomy.

Gene expression profiles in the rat hypoglossal nucleus after axotomy were demonstrated using expressed-sequence-tag (EST) approach. To demonstrate the gene-expression profiles after axotomy, nerve-transected hypoglossal nuclei were dissected and collected from about 1000 rats, with which a cDNA library was constructed. More than 750 clones were sub-cloned and sequenced from the library. The clones which hit frequently are likely to be associated with mitochondrial respiratory chain, cytoskeletal protein and protein synthesis. One hundred three clones from among the sequenced clones were further processed for histological screening using unilateral-hypoglossal nerve-transected brain sections by in situ hybridization histochemistry. In situ hybridization study revealed that 26% of clones examined showed upregulated expression of mRNA in response to axotomy. They included genes encoding proteins associated with glucose, lipid and protein metabolism, cytoskeleton, neurotransmission and immune reaction. The present EST analysis may have an advantage in targeting genes which are associated with nerve injury with a good efficacy, as compared with other methods such as differential display and subtraction.

Field of study: Biology
STUDY ON DYNAMIC STRENGTH OF THE AEOLIAN SAND IN MAOWUSU DESERT AREA

With the continuous exploration and development of oil and gas resources in Northern Shaanxi,the geotechnical characteristics of Maowusu Desert Aeolian sand has gradually become a problem haltering local engineering construction.This paper conducted consolidated undrained dynamic triaxial strength tests of the Maowusu Desert saturated Aeolian sand with different dry densities and confining pressures;The tests were made under isotropic consolidation condition,and pore water pressure failure criterion was used.Based on the experimental results,the dynamic strength curves and the dynamic pore water pressure developing curves were obtained.Considering the infinite loop dynamic load feature of natural gas compressor,the equivalent dynamic shear strength parameters were obtained and the corresponding failure criterion was established based on Mohr-Coulomb criterion.

Field of study: Engineering
Advances in interventions for families with a relative with a personality disorder diagnosis

Considerable research has demonstrated the important role that families play in the trajectory of recovery when partners or children have Axis I disorders, and that families need help, given the impact of a family member’s mental illness on them. These factors have spurred the development of a variety of programs and interventions for families of people with Axis I disorders, but programs for family members of people with personality disorders (PDs) are few. This is surprising given research that has demonstrated the important role of families in the course of illness in borderline personality disorder (BPD) in particular and the emerging evidence of the salutary effects of family involvement in treatment for BPD. Thus, although some advances have been made in working with families in which a member has a PD, this field is well behind other disorders. Despite the slow start, several programs have been developed for families with BPD; they are described, along with data supporting their utility.

Field of study: Medicine, Psychology
Prediction of predator–prey populations modelled by perturbed ODEs

In this paper we explore a stochastic model in continuous time for predator–prey interactions, which accounts for the periodical behaviour observed in many animal populations. More precisely, we consider a solution to the classical Lotka–Volterra system of equations, but we view the actual population sizes as random perturbations of the solutions to this ODE system. Namely, we assume that the perturbations follow correlated Ornstein–Uhlenbeck processes; this approach generalizes the one of Froda and Colavita [Aust N Z J Stat 2:235–254, 2005] who considered only i.i.d. errors. This type of perturbed deterministic model allows to perform parameter estimation and to predict population sizes at future times. On the other hand, the present model refines the previous one since it takes into account the variability due to external factors and the time dependence in the random component. Moreover, this more flexible model improves the predictions of population sizes at future times. In order to illustrate this last point, we analyse two data sets.

Field of study: Biology, Mathematics
Amplification of bacterial DNA bound on clay minerals by the random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique

Chromosomal DNA from Bacillus subtilis, bound on the clay minerals, montmorillonite (Wyoming (W) and Apache County (Ap)) and kaolinite (K), was subjected to the random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique. DNA bound on the clays was not amplified with 0.625, 1.875, 6.25, and 12.5 U of Taq DNA polymerase, but amplification occurred when the clay-DNA complexes were diluted 10- and 20-fold or when 21 U of Taq DNA polymerase was added. DNA desorbed from the Ap-DNA and K-DNA equilibrium complexes was amplified with 0.625 U of Taq DNA polymerase, whereas amplification of DNA desorbed from the W-DNA complex occurred only after a 10-fold dilution or when 1.875 U of Taq DNA polymerase was used. These observations indicate that clay minerals differentially affect the amplification process, probably by inhibiting the activity of Taq DNA polymerase.

Field of study: Biology, Environmental science
A Comparison of Plenoptic Imaging System and Camera Array System

The imaging method based on light field data is a hot research topic at present. By recording the location and direction of light, light field imaging can reconstruct the three-dimensional scene. From the point of view of recording method, there are two similar light field recording systems, so-called camera array system and plenoptic imaging system. In order to process data flexibly, the light field information can be represented as a 4-D plenoptic function: ( , , , ) L x y u v . Although these two systems are similar in data recording, there exist some important differences between camera array system and plenoptic imaging system when transforming raw data into 4-D plenoptic function. Based on the imaging principle of these two different systems, this paper summarizes the distinction, which will be of great help for the researchers in this field.  The human visual system uses binocular disparity to perceive the scene by fusing two images acquired by two eyes together. Conventional photos are two-dimensional, showing the location of captured scene but ignoring the depth information. To capture three-dimensional information of object scene, we must describe and record the light transmission. Adelson 1 put forward the concept of a seven-dimensional plenoptic function in 1991, which describes the light as a function of angle, wave length, time and location of the viewer, depicted as ( , , , , , , ) P x y z t θ φ λ . A typical model was proposed by Levoy and Hanrahan 2 in 1996, using two parallel planes to describe the location and direction information of light. Levoy and Hanrahan ignored the influence of wave length and time in Adelson’s model, and assumed that the intensity of light is constant during propagation. Therefore, the 7-D plenoptic function is simplified into a 4-D form, showed as ( , , , ) L u v x y , where ( , ) u v represents the direction of light and ( , ) x y represents the location. According to recording methods, there are two similar light field information captured systems, so-called camera array system and plenoptic imaging system. Camera array system is huge and complex, aiming to capture large amounts of light field data. The cave system designed by Q. Dai and K. Lee 3 at Tsinghua University, the 128 camera system designed by Stanford University 4,5 are both camera array systems. The plenoptic First author, Wei-jia Cai, School of biological science & medical engineering, Southeast University, Lane 2, Sipailou Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing, China Other authors in the sequence, School of biological science & medical engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

Field of study: Engineering
Acute effects of a partially purified fraction from garlic on plasma glucose and cholesterol levels in rats: putative involvement of nitric oxide.

Garlic has been extensively used as a medicinal plant. Most of its numerous beneficial effects such as antioxidant, antibacterial, antitumoral involve sulfur-derived amino acids. In the present work, we reevaluated the acute effects of aqueous extract of garlic on plasma glucose and cholesterol levels in normal rats. Control (vehicle H2O) or garlic extract-treated group at 100-120 mg protein/kg body wt were intraperitoneally injected (IP) and glucose, cholesterol, insulin and nitric oxide metabolites levels were determined after a short-term duration of 6 h. We confirmed that garlic contained an active fraction, exerting both glucose and cholesterol-lowering activity. The glucose-lowering effect was triggered by an increase in insulinemia. Preliminary study indicated that the active agent was different from S-allyl-cysteine-sulfoxide, the active principle implicated in hypoglycaemic and hypolipidemic effects of garlic or arginine. The mechanism of action seemed to involve nitric oxide (NO), which increased time and dose-dependently. The garlic effects were abolished by diphenyleneiodonium chloride (DPI = 1 mg/kg body wt), a specific inhibitor of NO production, suggesting the involvement of constitutive nitric oxide synthase.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry, Physics
Research on Power Line as Communication Channel with Multi-Tap and Multi-Branch Configuration

To study the effect of different branch configuration on transmission characteristic in-home low-voltage (LV) communication power line communication (PLC) channel, the influences of branch length, number of branch and tap, and branch terminal impedance on the performance of PLC are investigated. The two type power line network structures of the one-tap with multi-branch (OTMB) and the multi-tap with multi-branch (MTMB) are studied. The transmission characteristics of the PLC channel are simulated by varying the length and terminal impedance of the branch for two configurations. Simulation results show that the length and terminal impedance of the branch have significant influence on the amplitude and phase response of the transfer function. The position and number of notches and crests in the amplitude responses are affected by different branch types and the configurations of branch length and branch terminal impedance. The models developed in this paper can easily handle an arbitrary topology of power line channel and provide accurate calculation for the channel responses of the all kinds of channel branch structures in indoor LV power line network

Field of study: Computer science
Social Mobilisation in the Midst of Social Change: The Case of Traditional Authorities in Ghana

This study examined the social mobilisation functions of chiefs as partners in socio-economic development. Data were sourced from Juaben Traditional Area in the Ashanti region of Ghana. A qualitative research method was mainly utilized in this study to have a deeper comprehension of the role of chiefs in social mobilisation in the midst of social change. Fifteen participants were purposively sampled and interviewed. A series of interviews and follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted. The study revealed among other things that by providing the requisite leadership, the paramount chief and his Traditional Council mobilise labour, finances and natural resources in partnership with individuals, local government agencies and private organisations to embark on a number of projects that benefit people in the Traditional Area tremendously. The paper argues that despite their immense developmental roles, chiefs are relegated to the background in the decentralization process. It therefore calls for a greater integration and collaboration between chiefs and local government officials in the planning, execution and monitoring of projects in their communities.

Field of study: Education, Sociology
Mangroves as unique but understudied traps for anthropogenic marine debris: A review of present information and the way forward.

Marine debris and plastic pollution affect all coastal habitats, however coastal debris studies are predominantly performed on sandy beaches. Other coastal habitats, such as mangroves, remain understudied. Eighteen of the top twenty rivers that contribute the most plastic to the ocean are associated with mangroves, but very few of those forests were investigated in terms of plastic debris pollution. Here we discuss the results of the few available studies on macrodebris conducted in mangroves, which show that mangrove debris research is still in its early stages, with many areas of study to be further investigated. Indeed, the distinct structural complexity of mangroves increases their ability to trap debris from both terrestrial, freshwater and marine sources, resulting in impacts unique to the mangrove ecosystem. Our review highlights a significant lack in standardisation across the performed surveys. Here we suggest standardised guidelines for future integrated macrodebris and microplastic studies in mangroves to facilitate comparisons between studies. Such standardisation should prioritize the use of stratified random sampling, the measurement of the area covered by the debris and the abundance and type of macrodebris and microplastics found, in order to assess the ecological impact of macrodebris and its role as source of microplastics for adjacent ecosystems. We also advocate the use of standard categories across studies, based on those identified for surveying other coastal habitats. This review highlights an alarming knowledge gap in extent, sources and overall impacts of marine macrodebris, mainly constituted by plastic, on mangrove forests, which hinders policy making to address this issue. Standardised, reliable and extended research on this aspect of mangrove pollution is needed to manage and protect these endangered vegetated coastal ecosystems.

Field of study: Environmental science
Taking the first steps. Research career program in family medicine.

ADDRESSED
Research is not new to family medicine, yet it is pursued less than in other clinical disciplines. We need to establish a critical mass of family medicine researchers.



To establish a departmental research organization using a strategy implemented in 1995 by the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto.



We set out to establish a critical mass of researchers. Applicants were required to complete credible and feasible 3- to 5-year research plans and to have formal support from their clinical chiefs. Once selected, researchers were supported for 40% of their time. Support was provided for 3 years and was renewable according to progress on their research plans. Researchers were expected to publish on average two papers yearly and be involved as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on at least one successful grant after the first 3 years. Since implementation in 1996, funded researchers have become principal investigators in 80% of the grants in which they are involved compared with 20% before the support program. Nine of 15 Medical Research Council grants held by family physicians in Canada have department members as principal investigators. Faculty-supported researchers contributed more than 200 peer-reviewed publications to the literature between 1996 and 2000.



Four years of experience allows for early assessment of the first step taken to build a thriving family medicine research organization using limited departmental resources.

Field of study: Medicine
Research On Operating Dilatation and Curettage On Incomplete Abortion Under Hysteroscope

To research diagnosis of incomplete abortion, advantages and values of dilatation and curettage with the help of hysteroscopy. In December 2002, Our hospital operated dilatation and curettage under hysteroscope on 368 cases of patients who suffered from incomplete abortion. Through hysteroscopy, we examined the shape of uterus cavity, endometrium and made sure where the embryo was, and then carried out dilatation and curettage, after that, we checked whether all the remains had been cleaned up through hysteroscopy. 368 patients completely succeeded in receiving operation.  Hysteroscopy of incomplete abortion is superior to B ultrasonic; Dilatation and curettage under hysteroscopy is more accurate, more reliable than B ultrasonic, it can reduce the damage to endometrium. So, Dilatation and curettage through hysteroscopy is well worth of being applied widely.

Field of study: Medicine
Studies on hydrodynamics of slurry turbulent bubble column(I) Gas holdup and its radial distribution

The slurry bubble column operating at turbulent flow regime is of practical importance.The average gas holdup and gas holdup radial distribution in the column were measured under the condition of high superficial gas velocity,high solid content and large column diameter,including both the experimental and industrial data.A novel gas holdup correlation was then obtained,which is applicable to industrial conditions.A simplified hydrodynamic model was developed to predict gas holdup distribution.Experimental results showed that gas holdup for the slurry system would decrease as the column diameter and solid content increased.In addition,increase of either column diameter or superficial gas velocity would cause gas holdup distribution steeper in the radial direction.The model computational results agreed well with experimental data.

Field of study: Chemistry, Environmental science
A fast distributed parameter model of ground heat exchanger based on response factor

Ground heat exchanger (GHE) is an important component of ground-coupled heat pump system. The soil temperature distribution and heat exchange capacity of GHE will largely determine the overall performance of the system. Consequently, it is very important for system design and its further performance improvement to seek a proper method of calculating the soil temperature field around GHE and the corresponding heat exchange rate. To break the limits of the existing calculating solutions and to improve the calculation accuracy and speed simultaneously, a fast distributed parameter model based on response factor (RF model) was proposed in this paper. The response factor refers to the contribution of a heat source to the excess temperature variation of a certain soil point. In a case study, the response factors and the temperature distribution of the soil heat container around one borehole were calculated using the RF model. Compared with results of numerical simulations, it can be known that the RF model equaled numerical solution in terms of accuracy, but enjoyed faster speed over numerical solution. In addition, the RF model was validated against the experiment data, with deviations less than 1.2%. In conclusion, the proposed RF model was a potential solution to predict the transient soil temperature distribution fast and accurately.

Field of study: Engineering
A crystallographic study of haem binding to ferritin.

Ferritin, the iron-storage protein, binds porphyrins, metalloporphyrins and the fluorescent dyes ANS (8-anilino-1-naphthalenesulfonic acid) and TNS (2-p-toluidinyl-6-naphthalenesulfonic acid), similarly to apo-myoglobin. Octahedral crystals of horse-spleen apo-ferritin (HSF; 174 amino acids) complexes prepared by the addition of haem, hematoporphyrin or Sn-protoporphyrin IX to a solution of apo-ferritin crystallize in space group F432 with cell parameter a = 184.0 A. X-ray crystallographic analysis of single crystals prepared from a mixture containing haem or Sn-protoporphyrin IX shows that the haem-binding sites in these crystals are occupied by protoporphyrin IX, which is free of metal, rather than by the original metalloporphyrin. The present paper describes the structure of horse-spleen apo-ferritin cocrystallized with Sn-protoporphyrin IX. The 6797 reflections up to 2.6 A resolution used in the refinement were obtained from a data set recorded on a Nicolet/Xentronics area detector with Cu Kalpha radiation from a Rigaku RU 200 rotating anode. The final structure comprises 1613 non-H atoms, two Cd atoms and 170 solvent molecules. Four residues are described as disordered. The root-mean-square deviations from ideal bond lengths and angles are 0.013 A and 2.88 degrees, respectively. Protoporphyrins are observed in special positions on the twofold axes of the ferritin molecule with a stoichiometry of 0.4 per subunit.

Field of study: Chemistry
Motor cortex injury has different behavioral and anatomical effects in early and late adolescence.

Although there are many studies investigating the effects of early cortical injury on brain and behavioral development in laboratory animals, there are virtually no studies examining the effects of cortical injury in adolescence. The purpose of present study was to investigate the effects of unilateral motor cortex lesion received in early and late adolescence periods (Postnatal days 35 and 55 [P35, P55]) on spontaneous neural reorganization and behavioral recovery in adulthood. Rats were given unilateral motor cortex lesions at P35 or P55 and their motor behaviors were compared to sham controls in adulthood. The results of behavioral tests (skilled reaching, postural asymmetry, sunflower seed manipulation, forepaw inhibition in swimming) revealed that rats with P35 lesions had significant functional deficits whereas the rats with P55 lesions showed nearly complete recovery. Golgi-Cox analysis of pyramidal neurons showed bilateral hypertrophy of dendritic fields in the remaining sensorimotor cortex in P55 but not P35 rat brains. Thus, there appears to be an age-related pattern of morphological and behavioral changes in response to cortical injury in the early and late adolescent periods leading to better functional recovery from later injuries, much as is seen in human children.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Anonymous Role-Based Access Control on E-Health Records

Electronic Health Record (EHR) system facilitates us a lot for health record management. Privacy risk of patients' records is the dominating obstacle in the widely deployed EHRs. Role-based access control (RBAC) schemes offer an access control on EHRs according to one's role. Only the medical staff with roles satisfying the specified access policies can read EHRs. In existing schemes, attackers can link patients' identities to their doctors. Therefore, the classification of patients' diseases are leaked without actually knowing patients' EHRs. To address this problem, we present an anonymous RBAC scheme. Not only it achieves flexible access control, but also realizes privacy-preserving for individuals. Moreover, our scheme maintains the property of constant size for the encapsulated EHRs. The proposed security models with semantic security and anonymity can be proven under decisional bilinear group assumptions. Besides, we provide an approach for EHR owners to search out their targeted EHR in the anonymous system. For better user experience, we apply "online/offline" approach to speed up data processing in our scheme. Experimental results show that the time consumption for key generation and EHR encapsulation can be done in milliseconds.

Field of study: Computer science, Mathematics