nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
The Epigenetically-Regulated microRNA-378a Targets TGF-β2 in TGF-β1-Treated Hepatic Stellate Cells

In liver fibrosis, the activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) is considered as a pivotal event. It is well known that transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is the main stimuli factor responsible for HSC activation. microRNAs (miRNAs), regulating various biological processes, have recently been shown to be involved in HSC activation. A recent study reported that deficiency of miR-378a contributes to cardiac fibrosis via TGF-β1-dependent paracrine mechanism. However, the involvement of miR-378a and its roles in TGF-β1-induced HSC activation remains largely unknown.  miR-378a expression was detected in TGF-β1-treated cells and patients with cirrhosis. Then, effects of miR-378a overexpression on cell proliferation and HSC activation were analyzed. We also analyzed the binding of miR-378a to the 3′-untranslated region of TGF-β2.  In response to TGF-β1, miR-378a expression was down-regulated in a dose-dependent manner. miR-378a overexpression suppressed both cell proliferation and cell cycle in TGF-β1-treated LX-2 cells. Moreover, miR-378a overexpression inhibited TGF-β1-induced HSC activation including the reduction of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and type I collagen. Similarly, miR-378a resulted in a reduction in cell proliferation, and the expressions of α-SMA and Col1A1 in TGF-β1-treated primary HSCs. Notably, TGF-β2 was confirmed as a target of miR-378a by luciferase reporter assays. Interestingly, miR-378a promoter methylation may be responsible for miR-378a down-regulation in TGF-β1-treated LX-2 cells and TGF-β1-treated primary HSCs. Further studies confirmed that reduced miR-378a was associated with promoter methylation in patients with cirrhosis compared with healthy controls.  Our results demonstrate that miR-378a expression is associated with its methylation status in TGF-β1-treated cells, and epigenetically-regulated miR-378a inhibits TGF-β1-induced HSC activation, at least in part, via TGF-β2.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry
Playa-lake basins on the Southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico: Part I. Hydrologic, geomorphic, and geologic evidence for their development

Playa-lake basins of the Southern High Plains, Texas and New Mexico, may originate wherever water periodically can collect in a surficial depression. They expand, however, by hydrologic and geomorphic processes including (1) dissolution of lithologic carbonates by infiltrating water; (2) transport downward of fine-grained clastic and organic material by the infiltrating ground water, leading to continuing processes of oxidation and carbonate dissolution in the subsurface; and (3) eolian removal of clastic material from the floor of playa lakes, which at some sites appears to have deepened playa depressions.

Evidence for largely hydrologic processes of playa-basin development on the Southern High Plains includes (1) a geographic occurrence restricted to relatively flat areas of the High Plains surface that have poorly developed fluvial drainage and which are underlain by generally unsaturated clastic and calcrete beds; (2) a tendency to occur where water collects and infiltrates, as along ephemeral streams and lineations suggestive of fracture systems; and (3) hydrologic, geochemical, petrographic, and bore-hole data, which suggest that recharge to the High Plains aquifer is principally from playa lakes, that various geochemical changes including carbonate dissolution and enhancement of secondary porosity occur as water moves downward through the unsaturated zone beneath playa lakes, and that calcrete beds often are missing or significantly dissolved beneath playa floors.

Field of study: Geology
Fool’s Type IIa Error Revisited

AbstractIn carefully examining the thesis of a paper by Anderson, Nelson, and Edgington (1984) concerning the socalled Fool’s Type IIa error, one realizes that certain fundamental statistical tenets have been overlooked or ignored. The purpose of the present paper is to discount the notion of a Fool’s Type IIa error under the Neyman-Pearson philosophy of testing statistical hypotheses and to highlight the need for improved statistical education related to hypothesis testing. If the importance of Type I and Type II errors cannot be quantified, then the Neyman-Pearson approach to hypothesis testing is of no value, and hence a Fool’s Type IIa error is irrelevant. If statistical testing errors are important and can be quantified, then adjustment for the Fool’s Type IIa error region is equivalent to increasing the probability of making a Type I error.

Field of study: Education
Nutritional and inflammatory status of hemodialysis patients in relation to their body mass index.

The study tested whether obese hemodialysis (HD) patients have a better nutritional and inflammatory state than those with overweight or normal body mass index (BMI).



This was a single-center, cross-sectional study.



Ninety-six stable HD patients from a local HD unit were divided into 3 groups according to BMI (normal, overweight, and obese).



Anthropometry, body composition by multifrequency bioelectrical impedance analysis, biochemical nutritional markers, as well as interleukins (IL-1, IL-6, and IL-10), tumor necrosis factor, leptin, and soluble leptin receptor (sOB-R) were measured.



Serum creatinine was significantly elevated in the highest BMI category. Albumin and transferrin were significantly elevated in higher BMI groups after adjustment for age, sex, and diabetes status. The higher BMI group had greater lean body mass (P = .001) and fat mass (P = .0001), higher phase angle (PA), and lower extracellular mass-to-body-cell-mass ratio (ECM/BCM) (P < .05). Inflammatory cytokine levels were not different in the 3 BMI groups. In parallel with increasing BMI, a gradual increase in serum leptin and a trend for decreasing sOB-R were detected (P = .0001 and P = .055, respectively). Both PA (r = 0.295, P = .008) and ECM/BCM (r = -0.345, P = .002) significantly correlated with serum leptin concentration. According to a multiple linear regression analysis, with PA as the dependent variable, age (beta = 0.274, P = .008), creatinine (beta = 0.355, P = .001), and log sOB-R/leptin ratio (beta = -0.465, P = .008) were significant independent predictors of PA.



HD patients with elevated BMI demonstrate better nutritional status compared to normal BMI or overweight patients, whereas the severity of inflammation is not related to BMI in HD patients.

Field of study: Medicine
Monte Carlo Reliability Model for Single-Event Transient on Combinational Circuits

A Monte Carlo model was proposed to evaluate the reliability for single-event transient (SET) on combinational circuits. The masking effects, including logical, electrical, and timing masking effects, and the randomicity of SET are considered in the proposed model. Based on the reported model, an electrical masking model is also presented to apply for the reliability model. For ISCAS’85 benchmark circuits, the effects of SET duration, the masking effects, and the multi-SETs on the reliability are analyzed by the proposed model. The results are reported showing that the proposed model can be effectively used to analyze the reliability of a complex circuit.

Field of study: Physics
Social Activities Related to Rhesus Monkey Consort Behavior

The dominant male and six adult female rhesus monkeys within a larger group were studied to determine behavioral correlates of the estrus cycle. Consort behavior was expressed primarily in increased proximity scores and consequent increases in all types of social interaction. Estrus females enjoy greater toleration by the male, but may be attacked too, and show no change in dominance rank relative to other group members. Some females remain in proximity with the dominant male whenever tolerated regardless of sexual status and others avoid him even when in estrus.

Field of study: Psychology
PERCEPTION OF PATIENTS REGARDING QUALITY OF HEALTHCARE SERVICES AT PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TERTIARY CARE HOSPITALS

Patient satisfaction is a significant marker for estimating the quality of medical services being provided at a clinical facility. It also influences the opportune, proficient, and patient-focused provision of quality medical services. 
 Data from 768 outdoor patients were collected from four tertiary care hospitals in Islamabad, Pakistan. Half of the patients were from public sector hospitals, while others were from private hospitals. A self-administered questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha=0.896) was structured for data collection. Using SPSS, descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and Chi-square test were used to analyze data. 
 Overall, 51.4% of patients were satisfied with the services provided to them at hospital Outpatient department. Patients who experienced private sector hospitals (74%) were significantly more satisfied than those who visited the public sector hospitals (29%) (p<0.001). Gender-wise, female patients were more satisfied (58%) than male patients (47%). Insufficient attention of the doctor, the behavior of the supporting staff and inadequate management of disease record were the red flags highlighted by the patients. 
 The current investigation has shown that quality healthcare is significantly associated with economic conditions; patients’ perspective have expressed that the private sector provides satisfactory medical services at a high expense, whereas the public sector is a less expensive alternative but it lags in the provision of high-quality services and patient satisfaction.

Field of study: Medicine
Antioxidant Activity of Indole-3-butyric Acid

The antioxidant activity of indole-3-butyric acid was studied by measuring the DPPH scavenging activity, hydroxyl radical scavenging activity, hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity, metal chelating activity and reducing power. The results showed that both IBA and IAA expressed a stronger antioxidant activity than NAA and 2,4-D in the DPPH scavenging activity, hydroxyl radical scavenging activity, metal chelating activity, reducing power. Compared with GA, no significant difference in metal chelating activity was appeared.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Network, Transcriptomic and Genomic Features Differentiate Genes Relevant for Drug Response

Understanding the mechanisms underlying drug therapeutic action and toxicity is crucial for the prevention and management of drug adverse reactions, and paves the way for a more efficient and rational drug design. The characterization of drug targets, drug metabolism proteins, and proteins associated to side effects according to their expression patterns, their tolerance to genomic variation and their role in cellular networks, is a necessary step in this direction. In this contribution, we hypothesize that different classes of proteins involved in the therapeutic effect of drugs and in their adverse effects have distinctive transcriptomics, genomics and network features. We explored the properties of these proteins within global and organ-specific interactomes, using multi-scale network features, evaluated their gene expression profiles in different organs and tissues, and assessed their tolerance to loss-of-function variants leveraging data from 60K subjects. We found that drug targets that mediate side effects are more central in cellular networks, more intolerant to loss-of-function variation, and show a wider breadth of tissue expression than targets not mediating side effects. In contrast, drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters are less central in the interactome, more tolerant to deleterious variants, and are more constrained in their tissue expression pattern. Our findings highlight distinctive features of proteins related to drug action, which could be applied to prioritize drugs with fewer probabilities of causing side effects.

Field of study: Biology
Cloning, expression and crystallization of VMA13p, an essential subunit of the vacuolar H+-ATPase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The expression and crystallization of the VMA13p subunit of the vacuolar proton-translocating ATPase (V-ATPase) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is described. This 478 amino-acid subunit is essential for activity but not for the assembly of this multisubunit complex. The protein has been recombinantly overexpressed in Escherichia coli and purified. Diffraction-quality crystals have been obtained using the hanging-drop vapor-diffusion method with ammonium sulfate as precipitant. Several different crystal forms were obtained. The most suitable crystal form for crystallographic characterization belongs to space group P3(1)21 or its enantiomorph, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 118.8, c = 119.3 A. Using an in-house X-ray source, the crystals diffract to about 3.5 A resolution under rapidly frozen conditions.

Field of study: Chemistry
A leguminous species exploiting alpha- and beta-rhizobia for adaptation to ultramafic and volcano-sedimentary soils: an endemic Acacia spirorbis model from New Caledonia.

Acacia spirorbis subsp. spirorbis Labill. is a widespread tree legume endemic to New Caledonia that grows in ultramafic (UF) and volcano-sedimentary (VS) soils. The aim of this study was to assess the symbiotic promiscuity of A. spirorbis with nodulating and nitrogen-fixing rhizobia in harsh edaphic conditions. Forty bacterial strains were isolated from root nodules and characterized through (i) multilocus sequence analyses, (ii) symbiotic efficiency and (iii) tolerance to metals. Noteworthy, 32.5% of the rhizobia belonged to the Paraburkholderia genus and were only found in UF soils. The remaining 67.5% isolated from both UF and VS soils belonged to the Bradyrhizobium genus. Strains of the Paraburkholderia genus showed significantly higher N2-fixing capacities than those of Bradyrhizobium genus. Strains of the two genera isolated from UF soils showed high metal tolerance and the respective genes occurred in 50% of strains. This is the first report of both alpha- and beta-rhizobia strains associated to an Acacia species adapted to UF and VS soils. Our findings suggest that A. spirorbis is an adaptive plant that establishes symbioses with whatever the rhizobia is present in the soil, thus enabling the colonization of contrasted ecosystems.

Field of study: Biology, Environmental science
An elastic compensation model for frame-based scheduling algorithms in wireless networks

Scheduling algorithms for high-speed wireless networks need to be simple to implement for serving packets while ensuring quality-of-service (QoS). The ordinary frame-based scheduling principle is well-known for providing fair service with low implementation complexity. However, existing frame-based scheduling algorithms cannot properly handle location-dependent burst errors in wireless networks. To utilize the advantages of frame-based scheduling algorithms in error-prone wireless networks, we propose an elastic compensation model that provides not only smooth compensations without any service disruptions of flows but also flexible compensations to flows that experience frequent errors to provide flows with fairness of service. From our analysis and simulation studies, we found that the proposed compensation model shows smooth compensation performance without any service disruption periods and good fairness performance when channel errors occur.

Field of study: Computer science
Exploring Employed Women’s Perceptions of Leadership in the Light of a Leadership Program in Saudi Arabia

The present research paper aims at exploring the expectations and perceptions of leadership among Saudi employed women who accomplished a leadership development program “Qiyadat” offered by MiSK Foundation. The author designed a questionnaire of eight domains to examine the participants’ perceptions of the leadership program content, required leadership competencies, leadership challenges, support, program success requirement, as well as understanding and implementing the Saudi Vision 2030. The sample consisted of 60 employed women who have attended a leadership development program offered by Misk Foundation in the academic year 2019/2020. Following a descriptive-analytical research design, the author administered the instrument to collect data and discuss the results. The results showed that the participants have high perceptions of leadership due to the leadership development program offered by Misk Foundation. Additionally, there was a positive correlation between the participants’ perceptions of leadership and the seven variables of the questionnaire (i.e., the leadership program content, leadership competencies, leadership challenges, sources of support, program success requirements, understanding Saudi Vision 2030, and execution of Saudi Vision 2030). There were no statistically significant differences between the participants in their perceptions of leadership in the light of the women’s leadership program offered by Misk Foundation according to the years of experience. Thus, it is highly recommended that public and private sectors support women in the development of leadership, address their needs, and overcome challenges facing their empowerment and gender equity. 
  
 16 December 2020  8 February 2021 / Published: 5 March 2021

Field of study: Education, Sociology
Controlling and Monitoring Applications of WLAN using Android phone

Now a days, computers are grouped together to form a network. To manage and control the activities of the network while in office is an easy task. However, while you are outstation away from office, how do you go about with monitoring and controlling of network? Instead of depending on third party information, you can always have your Cell Phone, email accounts serve the purpose. The interaction between the clients and the remote administrator is achieved via a central monitoring server. The main objective of this paper is to provide maximum details about the network to the administrator on their smart phones, when administrator is away from office or goes out station. In this paper we have proposed Silent Unattended Installation Package Manager that automates the process of silent unattended installation of software. An Installation that is performed without user interaction and does not display any message or GUI during its progress is known as Silent and Unattended Installation. Silent Unattended Installation Package Manager not only introduces new Methodology but generalizes the process of silent and unattended installation of the software. The process is fully autonomous and does not require any user interaction for installation of the software.

Field of study: Engineering
Study of Water Simulation on Cavity Filling of Aluminum Alloy Low-pressure Casting

Based on the theory of similarity criterion,the simulation experiment on cavity filling of aluminum liquid in low-pressure casting was done.The air pressure was exerted on the liquid surface,at the same time the die cavity was vacuumized.The experiment results indicate that the antrorse liquid surface keeps to horizontality and advances along the vertical direction.When the vacuum degree is-0.02 MPa and the applying pressure is 0.02 MPa at the same time,they are the best technical parameters.And the simulated results are compared with the archetypal results,both have favorable consistency.

Field of study: Materials science
A Ceramide-binding C1 Domain Mediates Kinase Suppressor of Ras Membrane Translocation

Genetic and biochemical data support Kinase Suppressor of Ras 1 (KSR1) as a positive regulator of the Ras-Raf-MAPK pathway, functioning as a kinase and/or scaffold to regulate c-Raf-1 activation. Membrane translocation mediated by the KSR1 CA3 domain, which is homologous to the atypical PKC C1 lipid-binding domain, is a critical step of KSR1-mediated c-Raf-1 activation. In this study, we used an ELISA to characterize the KSR1 CA3 domain as a lipid-binding moiety. Purified GST-KSR1-CA3 protein effectively binds ceramide but not other lipids including 1,2-diacylglyceol, dihydroceramide, ganglioside GM1, sphingomyelin and phosphatidylcholine. Upon epidermal growth factor stimulation of COS-7 cells, KSR1 translocates into and is activated within glycosphingolipid-enriched plasma membrane platforms. Pharmacologic inhibition of ceramide generation attenuates KSR1 translocation and KSR1 kinase activation in COS-7 cells. Disruption of two cysteines, which are indispensable for maintaining ternary structure of all C1 domains and their lipid binding capability, mitigates ceramide-binding capacity of purified GST-KSR1-CA3 protein, and inhibits full length KSR1 membrane translocation and kinase activation. These studies provide evidence for a mechanism by which the second messenger ceramide can target proteins to subcellular compartments in the process of transmembrane signal transduction.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry
An efficient mixed asymptotic-numerical scheme for singularly perturbed convection diffusion problems

In this paper, we present and analyze a mixed asymptotic-numerical method for the solution of singularly perturbed convection diffusion problems. The technique, used in this work, is the careful factorization of original problem into two explicit problems which are independent of perturbation parameter contaminating the solution. The first problem, so obtained, is the degenerate equation which corresponds to the outer solution while the second problem is obtained by making use of suitable stretching transformation and it corresponds to the inner solution. The degenerate equation is solved numerically using q -stage Runge–Kutta method. The second problem, which retains the order of the original problem, is solved analytically. Possible extensions of the present technique to differential equations with delay as well as advance and to the nonlinear problems are also discussed. A comparative study of the present method with some state of art existing numerical schemes is carried out by means of several linear and nonlinear test examples that demonstrates the effectiveness and the potential of the present approach.

Field of study: Mathematics
Application of RE Deep-layer Elecenary Boronizing in Hot Forging Dies

RE deep-layer electuary boronizing,heat treatment processes,the microstructures and the mechanical properties of the boronized layer on 5CrNiMo steel have been studied .Results show that the hot forging dies have excellent multiple quality by RE deep-layer electuary boronizing and rational heat treatmet processes, can meet its work condition.

Field of study: Materials science