nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Creating an artificial two-dimensional Skyrmion crystal by nanopatterning.

A Skyrmion crystal typically arises from helical spin structures induced by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Experimentally its physical exploration has been impeded because it is a rarity and is found only within a narrow temperature and magnetic field range. We present a method for the assembly of a two-dimensional Skyrmion crystal based upon a combination of a perpendicularly magnetized film and nanopatterned arrays of magnetic vortices that are geometrically confined within nanodisks. The practical feasibility of the method is validated by micromagnetic simulations and computed Skyrmion number per unit cell. We also quantify a wide range in temperature and field strength over which the Skyrmion crystal can be stabilized without the need for any intrinsic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, which otherwise is needed to underpin the arrangement as is the case in the very few known Skyrmion crystal cases. Thus, our suggested scheme involves a qualitative breakthrough that comes with a substantial quantitative advance.

Field of study: Physics
A framework for admission control and path allocation in DiffServ networks

We consider a Differentiated Service Domain, in which the domain administrator has to decide if to accept or to reject Bandwidth Reservation Requests (BRRs) requested by users. We first define an analytical approach and a methodology to determine the set of SLAs that can be effectively supported by a DiffServ IP network. We consider the Assured Forwarding Per Hop Behavior, and, based on the BRR probabilistic description, we derive a worst-case mathematical formulation for the overbooking probability, i.e., the probability that the traffic crossing any link of a source-destination path exceeds the link capacity. Next, we focus our attention to the problem of routing traffic arising from BRRs, i.e., the selection of paths along which traffic may flow. In particular, we show that the construction of an optimal set of paths is equivalent to the construction of a multicast tree, or a Steiner Tree, which is know to be an NP-hard problem. We therefore propose a class of simple heuristics, whose performance are assessed by simulations. Results show the effectiveness of the admission control criterium proposed, and that it is possible to increase up to 40% the amount of capacity a network provider can reserve to BRRs without violating the QoS constraints or to reduce the BRR blocking probability by a order of magnitude by using the proposed optimization algorithm.

Field of study: Computer science
Protective effects of Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol against N-methyl-d-aspartate-induced AF5 cell death.

The neuroprotective effects of Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) were examined using an in vitro model in which the AF5 CNS cell line was exposed to toxic levels of N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA), an agonist of the NMDA glutamate receptor. NMDA toxicity was reduced by THC, but not by the more specific cannabinoid receptor agonist, WIN55,212-2. Addition of dibutyryl cAMP (dbcAMP) to the culture medium did not alter the neuroprotective effect of THC and did not unmask a neuroprotective effect of WIN55,212-2. The cannabinoid antagonist SR141716A did not inhibit the neuroprotection induced by THC or alter the response to WIN55,212-2, even in the presence of dbcAMP, indicating that the neuroprotective effect of THC was cannabinoid receptor-independent. On the other hand, both THC and WIN55,212-2 produced cellular toxicology at higher dosages, an effect which was blocked in part by SR141716A. Capsaicin, an antioxidant and vanilloid receptor agonist, also produced a protective effect against NMDA toxicology. The protective effect of capsaicin was blocked by co-application of ruthenium red, but was not blocked by the specific vanilloid receptor antagonist capsazepine, and the transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) and ANKTM1 transcripts were not detected in AF5 cells. Thus, the neuroprotective effects of THC and capsaicin did not appear to be mediated by TRP ion channel family receptors. The antioxidant alpha-tocopherol prevented neurotoxicity in a dose-dependent manner. Therefore, THC may function as an antioxidant to increase cell survival in NMDA-induced neurotoxicity in the AF5 cell model, while higher dosages produce toxicity mediated by CB1 receptor stimulation.

Field of study: Biology
RESEARCH ARTICLES The Short-Term Impact of a Continuing Education Program on Pharmacists' Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Diabetes

This study examined the short-term impact of a continuing education (CE) program on pharmacists’ knowledge and attitudes toward diabetes.  A constructive 7-hour CE program for enhancing the ability to perform pharmaceutical care for diabetic patients was conducted by the Taipei Pharmacists Association. The Diabetes Knowledge Test in Mandarin (DKT-M) with 10 items and the Diabetes Attitude Scale in Mandarin (DAS-M) with 37 items were employed to measure the efficacy of the program.  Pharmacists’ mean scores on the DKT-M significantly increased from 4.89 ±1.93 before the CE program to 7.72 ± 1.96 after the educational intervention (p < 0.0001). The mean overall score and mean scores on 6 subscales on the DAS-M exceeded the neutral point of 3 before intervention, indicating positive attitudes toward diabetes. Nevertheless, their mean DAS-M score of 3.91 ± 0.30) significantly increased to 4.0 ± 0.28 after the intervention (p < 0.0001), indicating highly positive attitudes toward diabetes.  Although pharmacists already had positive attitudes toward diabetes, the CE program further improved their knowledge and attitudes toward the disease. Future studies of educational intervention using standardized instruments are needed to ensure and compare the efficacy of educational interventions for health care professionals.

Field of study: Education, Medicine
An assessment of biopotential of three cyanobacterial isolates from Antarctic for carotenoid production.

Specific growth rates and carotenoid contents of three Antarctic and tropical strains of cyanobacteria viz. Anabaena sp., Phormidium sp. and Nostoc sp. were compared in batch and mass cultures to assess bio-potential of Antarctic strains for cost-effective carotenoid production. Antarctic strains though exhibited slightly lower specific growth rates, but contained higher carotenoid contents (per unit dry wt.), than tropical strains. Modification of normal composition of BG-11 culture medium, by altering nitrogen and carbon sources resulted in 25-38% increase in carotenoid content in both types of strains. Mass-culture in indoor and semi-outdoor bio-reactors resulted in 39-113% higher carotenoid content in Antarctic strains, compared to their respective tropical strains. The observations suggest that Antarctic cyanobacteria may have potential as superior strains for maximizing the yield of carotenoids.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry, Physics
IL-17A versus IL-17F induced intracellular signal transduction pathways and modulation by IL-17RA and IL-17RC RNA interference in AGS gastric adenocarcinoma cells.

Inflammatory processes are implicated in gastric cancer development. In contrast, the role of inflammation and proinflammatory cytokines in established cancer remains to be clarified. We investigated the contribution of IL-17A versus IL-17F-mediated intracellular signalling pathways in human gastric adenocarcinoma AGS cells. IL-8 secretion was evaluated by ELISA, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)(4) by Western blotting, and activator protein 1(AP-1) and nuclear factor kappa B (NFkappaB) by TransAM transcription factor assay or qRT-PCR. IL-17RA and IL-17RC inhibition were achieved by small interfering RNA (siRNA). IL-17A significantly induced activation of all three MAPK (ERK, p38 and JNK) and downstream transcription factors AP-1 and p65 NFkappaB. IL-17F was less potent but induced a significant activation of p65 NFkappaB. Consistently, IL-17A was more potent to induce IL-8 secretion than IL-17F. Inhibition of either IL-17RA or IL-17RC expression via siRNA led to near complete abrogation of IL-17A-mediated c-Jun and p65 activation. These data suggest that in gastric cancer, absence of either IL-17RA or IL-17RC can inhibit IL-17 responsiveness. Conversely, downstream of IL-17R binding, IL-17A and IL-17F induce key signal transduction pathways implicated in inflammation and carcinogenesis. IL-17A, and possibly IL-17F, may contribute to amplification and persistence of inflammatory processes implicated in inflammation-associated cancer.

Field of study: Medicine
FIBER AND INTEGRATED OPTICS: Experimental investigation of energy transfer between modes in a graded-index fiber waveguide with periodic microbending of the axis

An experimental investigation was made of energy transfer between the lowest axially symmetric modes in a multimode graded-index fiber waveguide as a function of the amplitude of periodic bending of its axis. Selective excitation and detection of given modes in a waveguide was induced with the aid of synthesized holograms. The experimental curves were in satisfactory agreement with the results of a theoretical calculation and confirmed that the sensitivity of a mode to bending of the axis of a graded-index waveguide increased on increase in the mode number.

Field of study: Engineering, Physics
Symmetric quasi-hereditary envelopes

We show how any finite-dimensional algebra can be realized as an idempotent subquotient of some symmetric quasi-hereditary algebra. In the special case of rigid symmetric algebras we show that they can be realized as centralizer subalgebras of symmetric quasi-hereditary algebras. We also show that the infinite-dimensional symmetric quasi-hereditary algebras we construct admit quasi-hereditary structure with respect to two opposite orders, that they have strong exact Borel and $\Delta$-subalgebras and the corresponding triangular decompositions.

Field of study: Mathematics
Monitoring Matters: Examining the Potential of Locally-based Approaches

Monitoring of biodiversity and resource use by professional scientists is often costly and hard to sustain, especially in developing countries, where financial resources are limited. Moreover, such monitoring can be logistically and technically difficult and is often perceived to be irrelevant by resource managers and the local communities. Alternatives are emerging, carried out at a local scale and by individuals with little formal education. The methods adopted span a spectrum, from participatory monitoring where aims and objectives are defined by the community, to ranger-based monitoring in protected areas. What distinguishes these approaches is that local people or local government staff are directly involved in data collection and (in most instances) analysis. In this issue of Biodiversity and Conservation, 15 case studies examine whether these new approaches can address the limitations of professional monitoring in developing countries. The case studies evaluate ongoing locally-based monitoring schemes involving more than 1500 community members in 13 countries. The papers are based on a symposium held in Denmark in April 2004 (www. monitoringmatters.org). Here, we review how the case studies shed light on the following key issues concerning locally-based methods: cost, sustainability, their ability to detect true local or larger-scale trends, their links to management decisions and action, and the empowerment of local constituencies. Locally-based monitoring appears to be consistently cheap relative to the costs of management and of professional monitoring, even though the start-up costs can be high. Most local monitoring schemes are still young and thus their chances of being sustained over the longer term are not yet certain. However, we believe their chances of surviving are better than many professional schemes, particularly when they are institutionalised within existing management structures, and linked to the delivery of ecosystem goods or services to local communities. When properly designed, local schemes yield locally relevant results that can be as reliable as those derived from professional monitoring. Many management decisions emanate from local schemes. The decisions appear to be taken promptly, in response to immediate threats to the environment, and often lead to community-based actions to protect habitats, species or the local flow of ecosystem benefits; however, few local schemes have so far led to actions beyond the local scale. Locally-based monitoring schemes often reinforce existing community-based resource management systems and lead to change in the attitude of locals towards more environmentally sustainable resource management. Locally-derived data have considerable unexplored potential to elucidate global patterns of change in the status of populations and habitats, the services they provide, and the threats they face, but more effort is needed to develop effective modalities for feeding locally-derived data up to national and international levels.

Field of study: Environmental science
Elevated Temperature Performance of Reactive Powder Concrete Containing Recycled Fine Aggregates

This study examines the effect of elevated temperature on various properties of reactive powder concrete (RPC) containing varying percentages of recycled fine aggregates as sand replacement. Recycled fine aggregates were collected from two sources, i.e., demolished normal strength concrete and demolished RPC. The specimens were prepared using 25%, 50%, and 75% replacement of natural sand with recycled fine aggregates, exposed to two different curing conditions and were subjected to four temperatures, i.e., 25, 200, 400, and 600 °C. Later, the specimens were tested for mass loss, compressive strength test, split-tensile strength test, flexural strength test, and water absorption test at all temperature ranges. Results determined that although the mechanical properties degraded with the temperature rise, the recycled aggregates can be employed as a partial replacement of natural sand in RPC without causing a significant decrease in the performance of RPC, and can help to produce more sustainable RPC by using recycled aggregates.

Field of study: Materials science
Dyadic, longitudinal associations among outcome expectation and alliance, and their indirect effects on patient outcome.

Research indicates that patient outcome expectation (OE) correlates with improvement, and that this association may be mediated by better patient-therapist alliances. However, despite OE and alliance being dyadic and dynamic constructs, most research on these direct and indirect associations has assessed these variables from only one dyad member's perspective and at single time points. Addressing these gaps, we used a longitudinal actor-partner interdependence model to first examine OE-alliance associations. Namely, we assessed "actor" effects (relation between each member's OE at 1 session and his or her own next session alliance) and "partner" effects (relation between each member's partner's OE at 1 session and his or her own next session alliance). Second, we tested whether significant actor or partner effects of OE on alliance translated into better patient outcomes (indirect effects). Analyses were conducted at within- and between-dyad levels. Data derived from a generalized anxiety disorder trial in which 85 patients received 15 sessions of either cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or CBT integrated with motivational interviewing. After every session, patients and therapists rated OE and alliance, and patients rated their worry. At the within-dyad level, there were OE-alliance actor effects for both patients and therapists. There was also a within-dyad partner effect; when patients had greater OE at one session their therapists reported better next-session alliances. Finally, all within-dyad effects in turn related to lower subsequent worry. Results reveal ways in which session-by-session fluctuations in both patient and therapist OE translate into better outcomes through their influence on alliance quality.

Field of study: Psychology
Difference in Chemical Composition between the Bright and Faint Red Clump Stars in the Milky Way Bulge

The double red clump (RC) observed in color–magnitude diagrams of the Milky Way bulge is at the heart of the current debate on the structure and formation origin of the bulge. This feature can be explained by the difference between the two RCs either in distance (“X-shaped scenario”) or in chemical composition (“multiple-population scenario”). Here we report our high-resolution spectroscopy for the RC and red giant branch stars in a high-latitude field (b ∼ −8.5°) of the bulge. We find a difference in [Fe/H] between the stars in the bright and faint RC regimes, in the sense that the bright stars are enhanced in [Fe/H] with respect to the faint stars by 0.149 ± 0.036 dex. The stars on the bright RC are also enhanced in [Na/Fe] but appear to be depleted in [Al/Fe] and [O/Fe], although more observations are required to confirm the significance of these differences. Interestingly, these chemical patterns are similar to those observed among multiple stellar populations in the metal-rich bulge globular cluster Terzan 5. In addition, we find a number of Na-rich stars, which would corroborate the presence of multiple populations in the bulge. Our results support an origin of the double RC from dissolved globular clusters that harbor multiple stellar populations. Thus, our study suggests that a substantial fraction of the outer bulge stars would have originated from the assembly of such stellar systems in the early phase of the Milky Way formation.

Field of study: Physics
Odd-even staggering of heavy cluster spontaneous emission rates

Experimentally observed enhanced14C and24Ne emission rates from even-even parents in comparison with that from even-odd or odd-even nuclei are explained in the framework of the analytical superasymmetric fission model, by taking various prescriptions for the zero point vibration energy of even-even, even-odd, odd-even and odd-odd emitters. Longer half-lives than previously computed are obtained by extrapolating the present prescriptions to emitted clusters heavier than24Ne.

Field of study: Physics
Improved oxygen ion conductivity of NdAlO3 perovskite-type oxide by doping with Ga

Effects of Ga addition to NdAlO3 on the oxygen ion conductivity were studied. Substitution of Ga to Al sites is effective for enhancing the oxygen ion conductivity of Nd0.9Ca0.1AlO3 and the highest oxygen ion conduction was obtained at x=0.5 in Nd0.9Ca0.1Al1−xGaxO3. Since the increased oxygen ion conduction by doping Ga suppressed the p-type semic onduction at high oxygen partial pressure, electrical conductivity was almost independent of the oxygen partial pressure in a range from PO2=1 to 10−20 atm. The oxygen ion conductivity of Nd0.9Ca0.1Al0.1Ga0.5O3 at 1223 K is as high as log (σ/S cm−)=−1.4, and furthermore, the oxide ion transference number is estimated to be almost 1.0 over a wide range of oxygen partial pressure and temperature.

Field of study: Materials science
Application of rhodium-catalyzed cyclohydrocarbonylation to the syntheses of enantiopure homokainoids

Kainic acid (KA), rigidified (S)-glutamic acid, is a well-known kainite receptor agonist for excitatory transmission in the central nervous system (CNS). Our interest in highly selective kainite ligands prompted us to design a series of new kainic homologs, "homokainoids", i.e., conformationally rigidified (S)-glutamic acids. For the syntheses of enantiopure novel homokainoids (pipecolino-glutamic acids), we successfully applied the cyclohydrocarbonylation (CHC) reaction, which has been developed in these laboratories. Efficient total syntheses of enantiopure novel homokainoids from (R)-serine feature the highly diastereoselective conjugate addition and the regioselective CHC process in the key steps.

Field of study: Chemistry
Saddle-point Methods for the Multinomial Distribution

Many problems in the theory of probability and statistics can be solved by evaluating coefficients in generating function, or, for continuous differentiable distributions, by an analogous process with Laplace or Fourier transforms. As pointed out for example by H. E. Daniels , these problems can often be solved by asymptotic series derived by the saddle-point method from integrals containing a large parameter. Daniels gave a form of saddle-point theorem that is convenient for applications to probability and statistics. In the present paper we extend the theorem in various directions and give some applications to distributions connected with the multinomial distribution, especially to the distribution of $\chi^2$ and to the distribution of the maximum entry in a multinomial distribution.

Field of study: Mathematics
Structural relationships in the Antalya ophiolite complex, Turkey: Possible model for an oceanic ridge

From an extensive field study of the structural orientations within the Antalya ophiolite complex, a model for an oceanic ridge is proposed. The magmatic cumulate plane in ultramafic and mafic cumulates is restored to a horizontal orientation, and the strike of the ridge is chosen as the normal in this horizontal plane to the mineral lineation found in the foliation of the ultramafic tectonites. The lineation in these tectonites is the trace of the ductile-flow direction. It is parallel to the axis of folds developed in pyroxenite layers during ductile flow. Along the ridge strike, as defined above, the foliation has a 32° mean dip and is almost horizontal in the direction normal to the ridge strike. This suggests a mantle diapiric intrusion beneath the ridge. In the ultramafic tectonites, which are deformed in a dominantly rotational regime, the shear-flow plane has a somewhat more pronounced dip toward the ridge than does the foliation. The gabbro and pyroxenite veinlets, generated during the flow by partial melting of the peridotite, are intruded along planes containing the mineral lineation in tectonites. The isolated diabase dikes that cut all the members of the assemblage are principally subvertical with various trends and have nothing to do with the primary assemblage.

Field of study: Geology
Personality disorders and schizophrenia

: Interactions of constitutional character anomalies with endogenous disease are considered. Deformation of personality structure caused by the endogenous process in light of traditional conceptions (personality disorders (PD) as the perversion of inherent traits or the formation of new traits due to the schizophrenic defect) and current conceptions (PD as Axis II disorders, comorbid to psychopathological presentations of Axis I, "recovery" conception) are viewed on the basis of amplification mechanisms, "splitting" etc that do not principally alter the initial premorbid structure. These correlations do not explain all the diversity of interactions between the abnormal personality structure and endogenous process. A mechanism of this interaction is realized according to the complete "substitution" of constitutional properties by psychopathological presentations of the previous psychosis. The data obtained suggest that these clinical formations further do not undergo the reverse development but, maintaining its syndrome completeness, during the stabilization of the schizophrenic process reduce to the level of "minor psychiatric disorders", i.e. to the level of border-line psychiatric pathology and duplicate the psychosis. Just in these cases the state may be determined as PD acquired during the lifetime per se. Based on the matrix reflecting the residual signs of the process, the restoration of the personality is implemented.

Field of study: Medicine, Psychology