nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
SU-F-R-24: Identifying Prognostic Imaging Biomarkers in Early Stage Lung Cancer Using Radiomics.

Patients diagnosed with early stage lung cancer have favorable outcomes when treated with surgery or stereotactic radiotherapy. However, a significant proportion (∼20%) of patients will develop metastatic disease and eventually die of the disease. The purpose of this work is to identify quantitative imaging biomarkers from CT for predicting overall survival in early stage lung cancer.



In this institutional review board-approved HIPPA-compliant retrospective study, we retrospectively analyzed the diagnostic CT scans of 110 patients with early stage lung cancer. Data from 70 patients were used for training/discovery purposes, while those of remaining 40 patients were used for independent validation. We extracted 191 radiomic features, including statistical, histogram, morphological, and texture features. Cox proportional hazard regression model, coupled with the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), was used to predict overall survival based on the radiomic features.



The optimal prognostic model included three image features from the Law's feature and wavelet texture. In the discovery cohort, this model achieved a concordance index or CI=0.67, and it separated the low-risk from high-risk groups in predicting overall survival (hazard ratio=2.72, log-rank p=0.007). In the independent validation cohort, this radiomic signature achieved a CI=0.62, and significantly stratified the low-risk and high-risk groups in terms of overall survival (hazard ratio=2.20, log-rank p=0.042).



We identified CT imaging characteristics associated with overall survival in early stage lung cancer. If prospectively validated, this could potentially help identify high-risk patients who might benefit from adjuvant systemic therapy.

Field of study: Medicine, Physics
Spin Alignments in Heavy-ion Resonances

Recent particle-particle-$\gamma$ coincident measurements on a $^{28}\rm Si+{}^{28}Si$ resonance have suggested ''vanishing spin alignments''. New analyses for spin alignments by using a molecular model are reported. Different aspects between di-nuclear systems with prolate deformed nuclei and those with oblate deformed nuclei are clarified.

Field of study: Physics
The Crucifix in State Schools in Italy, Victim of Globalization, between Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Education

The interest to analyse the phenomenon of the exposure of religious symbols, particularly of the crucifix, in state schools in Italy and the principle of secularism, derives from the cultural and constitutional peculiarities that this system presents, as a consequence of the historical and cultural events that have influenced its ordering. First of all, it must be pointed out, as indeed it is evident, that Catholicism was the dominant faith for about two thousand years, and until recently, almost the only one. The Catholic religion has crossed the entire history of the country, penetrating and intertwining with the socio-cultural dynamics. For this reason, the Italian constitutional history has been crossed by the principle of tolerance. The latter can be considered clearly out-dated only with the Republican Constitution of 1948, thus the legal system emptied itself of its confessionalism. The last few years, as a result of strong migratory flows, the religious-cultural landscape, not only in Italy, but throughout Europe it seems to have changed. Other cultures have brought their own customs, languages and religions like a wave. Thus we are witnessing an extraordinary social, economic and juridical transformation. In this multicultural mosaic, the clash between civilizations could not be missing. Minorities have in many cases felt they were discriminated against, bullied and offended by the display in public buildings (schools, courtrooms, hospitals, etc.) of the symbol par excellence of Christianity, namely the crucifix, arousing the protest of parents of different faiths. All this has produced legal conflicts and jurisprudential rulings that have involved the European Court of Human Rights itself. This discussion aims to analyze from a socio-juridical point of view, the consequences of religious symbology external to educational institutions and to be able to give a juridical truth, stripped of religious indoctrination. This path will not be easy since every element inherent to religion touches delicate aspects, linked in particular with what is most profound in the people and culture of a country. 
  
 2 March 2021  14 April 2021 / Published: 10 May 2021

Field of study: Education, Sociology
Direct observation of double-core-hole shake-up States in photoemission.

Direct measurements of Ar^{+} 1s^{-1}2p^{-1}nl double-core-hole shake-up states are reported using conventional single-channel photoemission, offering a new and relatively easy means to study such species. The high-quality results yield accurate energies and lifetimes of the double-core-hole states. Their photoemission spectrum also can be likened to 1s absorption of an exotic argon ion with a 2p core vacancy, providing new information about the spectroscopy of both this unusual ionic state as well as the neutral atom.

Field of study: Physics
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF APPLYING COMPOSTED ORGANICS TO NEW HIGHWAY EMBANKMENTS: PART 1. INTERRILL RUNOFF AND EROSION

Construction of new highways can lead to challenges when attempting to re-establish vegetation on right-of-ways. 
Lack of vegetation can leave soil exposed and subject to increased runoff and soil erosion. Therefore, the Iowa Department of 
Transportation and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources sponsored a study to evaluate the use of composts applied as 
mulch blankets to decrease runoff and erosion. This article evaluates interrill runoff and erosion between three types of compost 
(biosolids, yard waste, and bio-industrial byproducts) and two soil conditions (existing compacted subsoil (control) and imported 
topsoil) on a 3:1 highway embankment. Composts were applied as 5 and 10 cm blankets on the surface of the control, 
and topsoil was placed on the surface of the control at a depth of 15 cm. Treatments were replicated six times over a two-year 
period for both bare soil and six weeks following planting of an Iowa DOT-specified cover crop. Rainfall was applied at an 
average intensity of 95 mm h-1 using a rainfall simulator, and sampling was conducted for 1 h after runoff began. All compost 
treatments were effective at reducing interrill erosion rates under the conditions simulated in this study. In addition, the three 
compost media required 30 min or longer to produce runoff, while the two conventional soils produced runoff within the first 
8 min. The depth of compost application was only a factor for the runoff rate on unvegetated treatments. In this case, the 5 cm 
depth had a significantly greater runoff rate than the 10 cm depth. Both 5 and 10 cm compost applications had similar effects 
on interrill erosion rates. Although the steady-state interrill erosion rates of all three composts were 3% to 24% of the 
steady-state interrill erosion rates of the two soils on unvegetated treatments, and 0.1% to 30% of the steady-state interrill 
erosion rates of the two soils on vegetated treatments, the type of compost was also a factor in interrill erosion control. The yard 
waste compost was the coarsest of the three compost materials, and on unvegetated plots had a steady-state interrill erosion 
rate that was 17% and 33% of the steady-state interrill erosion rates of biosolids and bio-industrial compost, respectively. 
Interrill erodibility factors were calculated for all treatments and fell within the range of experimental rangeland values (10,000 
to 2,000,000 kg sec/m4) that are used in the Water Erosion Prediction Project.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Amortized Complexity of Zero-Knowledge Proofs Revisited: Achieving Linear Soundness Slack

We propose a new zero-knowledge protocol for proving knowledge of short preimages under additively homomorphic functions that map integer vectors to an Abelian group. The protocol achieves amortized efficiency in that it only needs to send O(n) function values to prove knowledge of n preimages. Furthermore we significantly improve previous bounds on how short a secret we can extract from a dishonest prover, namely our bound is a factor O(k) larger than the size of secret used by the honest prover, where k is the statistical security parameter. In the best previous result, the factor was \(O(k^{\log k} n)\).

Field of study: Computer science, Mathematics
An augmented hard core equation of state generalized in terms of Tc, Pc, and ω

A generalized Carnahan-Starling hard core equation of state perturbed by attractive forces is presented for nonpolar fluids. The information required is the critical temperature the critical pressure and Pitzer's acentric factor. Realistic predictions of the critical compressibility factor and second virial coefficients are ensured and the representation of pure compound liquid molar volumes in the reduced temperature range of 0.5 to 1.0 is improved significantly over cubic equations of state. The equation of state is then modified for 1-alkanols and extended to mixtures by augmenting the mixing rules of Arai et al.

Field of study: Chemistry
Analysis and Improvement About Particle Swarm Optimization Based on Linear Control Theory

Using control theory, three different particle swarm optimization (PSO), such as basic PSO, standard PSO and PSO with constriction factor were analyzed in detail, the results showed that the evolution equations were composed of both integral elements and inertia elements or inertia elements only. To improve the calculation efficiency, the inertia elements in evolution equations were modified to the oscillation elements and the corresponding algorithm and the coefficients selection principles were discussed. The optimization computing of some examples was made to show the new algorithm has better global search capacity and rapid convergence rate.

Field of study: Computer science
Oxidation of furans (Review)

Published data and the results of the authors’ own investigations on the catalytic oxidation of furan and its homologs under various conditions are reviewed. The mechanisms and the characteristics and composition of the products from the transformations of furans are discussed in relation to the type of oxidizing agent and the reaction conditions. The prospects of using the oxidation processes of furan and its homologs in the synthesis of alkoxy- and dialkoxydihydrofurans, 5-alkoxy-2(5H)-furanones, β-formylacrylic acid, maleic acid, and its dialdehyde are indicated.

Field of study: Chemistry
Application of Self-Assembled Monolayers to the Electroless Metallization of High Aspect Ratio Vias for Microelectronics

All-wet electroless metallization of through-silicon vias (TSVs) with a width of 5 μm and a 1:10 aspect ratio was carried out. Immersion in a n-(2-aminoethyl) 3-aminopropyl-trimethoxysilane (AEAPTMS) self-assembled monolayer (SAM) was used to enhance the adhesion between the metal film and substrate. Contact angle variation and atomic force microscopy were used to verify the formation of a SAM layer. A PdCl2 solution was later used to activate the silanized substrates, exploiting the affinity of the –NH3 functional group of AEAPTMS to palladium. A nickel-phosphorus-boron electroless bath was employed to deposit the first barrier layer onto silicon. The NiPB growth rate was evaluated on flat silicon wafers, while the structure of the coating obtained was investigated via glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy. Cross-sectional scanning electron microscope observations were carried out on metallized TSVs to characterize the NiPB seed, the Cu seed layer deposited with a second electroless step, and the Cu superfilling obtained with a commercial solution. Complete filling of TSV was achieved.

Field of study: Materials science
Analysis of Industrial Cluster Development of Nanjing Industry Development Zone

There are many Nanjing's industrial development zones along the Yangtse River. So their development is very important for strategy of development along the Yangtse River. The meaning of industrial clusters is elucidated in this paper, and Nanjing's industrial development zone's actualities are analyzed. Based on it some problems are discussed in Nanjing's industrial development zone, and countermeasures are proposed.

Field of study: Economics
Age may explain the association of an early dialysis initiation with poor survival.

Some studies postulate that early dialysis initiation may increase mortality.



The aim of the present study was to assess to what extent this was due to confounding by age.



Observational retrospective cohort study.



We studied all patients starting dialysis therapy between 1 January 1995 and 31 December 2009 in our center. The following variables at dialysis initiation in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients were analysed: estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), age, gender, diabetes mellitus, serum albumin, hemoglobin, period of dialysis initiation, history of ischemic heart disease and stroke. Multivariate Cox model was used to calculate adjusted patient survival.



Over the last 15 years, 428 patients initiated dialysis therapy in our reference area. Median eGFR at dialysis initiation was 8.16 ml/min. In the univariate analysis, increased eGFR, age, dialysis initiation 1995-1999/2000-2004, diabetes and history of ischemic heart disease were associated (P < 0.05) with increased mortality in ESRD. Patients that started dialysis program with eGFR > 8.16 were older than those who did it with eGFR < 8.16 (66 vs. 61 years, P < 0.001). The association between mortality and eGFR in the crude multivarite Cox model was lost when the model was adjusted by age. In the multivariate Cox model, dialysis initiation period, serum albumin and history of ischemic heart disease were associated with mortality.



History of ischemic heart disease, serum albumin and dialysis start before 2005 were risk factors for mortality in ESRD patients. Older age is usually associated with early dialysis initiation, so age adjustment is needed to perform studies aimed to calculate the effect of eGFR at dialysis initiation on survival.

Field of study: Medicine
Sea surface temperature inter-hemispheric dipole and its relation to tropical precipitation

Using different SST datasets, the variability of zonal mean SSTs is investigated. Besides the global warming mode, the variability is dominated by one equatorially symmetric mode and one antisymmetric mode. The former is most pronounced in the Pacific and dominated by interannual variability, corresponding to the ENSO signature. The latter features an inter-hemispheric dipole-like pattern and is referred to as the SST inter-hemispheric dipole (SSTID). The SSTID and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation are found to be related but distinct in the spatial pattern. Observational analysis shows that the SSTID significantly influences tropical rainfall and contributes to the north‐south asymmetry of tropical precipitation on multidecadal timescales. The observed SSTID and its relation to the tropical rainfall are realistically reproduced in a control simulation with the UKMO-HadCM3 climate model. Results from the UKMO-HadCM3 simulation suggest that the SSTID is related to the variability of the global ocean northward cross-equatorial heat transport.

Field of study: Environmental science
A Direct Learning Digital Predistortion Method to Compensate for the Power Amplifier Nonlinear Distortion

In this paper, a novel direct learning digital predistortion (DPD) relied on gradient-based algorithm to identify the model of power amplifier (PA) is proposed. Unlike the conventional DPD introducing an inevitable calculation error in model identification, the proposed method accurately calculates the predistortion function by constructing a univariate polynomial and finding its roots to obtain the accurate value of the DPD function, which linearizes the PA more precisely. Simulations show that the proposed linearization scheme outperforms the conventional DPD in the normalized mean square error (NMSE) performance, and the adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) performance as well.

Field of study: Engineering
Classified Mixed Model Prediction

Many practical problems are related to prediction, where the main interest is at subject (e.g., personalized medicine) or (small) sub-population (e.g., small community) level. In such cases, it is possible to make substantial gains in prediction accuracy by identifying a class that a new subject belongs to. This way, the new subject is potentially associated with a random effect corresponding to the same class in the training data, so that method of mixed model prediction can be used to make the best prediction. We propose a new method, called classified mixed model prediction (CMMP), to achieve this goal. We develop CMMP for both prediction of mixed effects and prediction of future observations, and consider different scenarios where there may or may not be a “match” of the new subject among the training-data subjects. Theoretical and empirical studies are carried out to study the properties of CMMP, including prediction intervals based on CMMP, and its comparison with existing methods. In particular, we show that, even if the actual match does not exist between the class of the new observations and those of the training data, CMMP still helps in improving prediction accuracy. Two real-data examples are considered.

Field of study: Mathematics
Equity of renal replacement therapy utilization: a prospective population-based study.

This 1-year prospective survey assessed the incidence and characteristics of all patients starting renal replacement therapy (RRT) for end-stage renal disease in Scotland, and whether there is equity of utilization of RRT in terms of age, domicile and social circumstance. In the year studied, 104 patients per million population (533 patients) started RRT (390 per million population aged 65-75). In 23.5% the cause of ESRD could not be determined. Diabetes was the single most frequently identified cause (16%). The requirement for RRT rose with age, but over the country as a whole, patients aged over 75 years were under-represented. The majority of health boards provided RRT at a rate within 20% of the national rate. There was no difference in the median age at starting RRT between health boards. The spectrum of social deprivation of patients starting RRT was the same as that of the general population. There was no evidence that social deprivation influences acceptance on to the RRT program, although the relationship between ESRD and deprivation is complex. The utilization of RRT exceeded the minimum rate recommended by the Renal Association, although there was fluctuation between health board areas. The national requirement for resources to provide RRT is likely to rise further to care for an increasingly elderly population.

Field of study: Medicine
Using Mean-shift Clustering and Statistical Analysis for Breast Mass Segmentation and Category

Breast mass segmentation is a crucial step in computer-aided diagnosis systems. The objective of this study is to propose a breast mass segmentation method using mean-shift clustering and statistical analysis.  The proposed method is described as follows. Firstly, the mean-shift algorithm splits the breast mass image into different clusters. Subsequently, the clusters of interest are identified by finding the overlapping of the split clusters and a circle covering the mass. Finally, Levene’s test and Welch’s test are both used to determine whether or not to merge clusters among clusters of interest.  The experimental results show that the proposed can perform mass segmentation effectively even if the margin of a mass is obscure and difficult to identify. In addition, the experiments also show that the Zernike moments method and the k-means method are effective methods to classify the shape of a breast mass.

Field of study: Engineering
Late Permian to Early Triassic environmental changes in the Panthalassic Ocean: Record from the seamount-associated deep-marine siliceous rocks, central Japan

In order to infer the late Late Permian to early Early Triassic environmental changes in a pelagic realm of the Panthalassic Ocean, the stratigraphic variations of TOC (wt.%) and δ13Corg (‰) of the PTB siliceous rock section (~ 3.5 m in thickness) were examined. The study section crops out in the Mino terrane, central Japan, and consists of the upper Upper Permian chert (Changhsingian) and lower Lower Triassic (Induan) black claystone intermittently with thin chert beds. The succession is reconstructed as sediments on the lower slope of a mid-Panthalassic seamount. The major extinction event of Permian radiolarians (MEE) occurs at the top of the Changhsingian chert. Our analysis shows that the TOC content is markedly higher in the Induan black claystone than the Changhsingian chert. TOC values rapidly increase across the PTB. The onset of the increase in TOC values corresponds to MEE. The rapid and profound increase in TOC values implies the sudden onset of oceanic anoxia as well as the rapid increase in primary production at the PTB. δ13Corg values are generally higher in the Changhsingian chert than the Induan claystone and chert. The stepwise drop of δ13Corg values characterizes their excursion of the study section. The largest-scale drop occurs prior to MEE. The minimum δ13Corg value is recorded at the base of the Induan claystone. The flux of δ13C-depleted gasses related to the Siberian Traps could have significantly contributed to the marked drop of δ13Corg values. Due to the weakened ocean circulation under the predominant condition of global warming, oceanic anoxia suddenly took place at the end of the Permian. The anoxic condition in the surface layer was the most likely kill-mechanism for Permian radiolarians. The anoxic condition persisted into the Induan, but was intermittently weakened. The episodic relaxation of the anoxic condition in the Induan resulted in intermittent and transient blooming of radiolarians and deposition of radiolarian chert with lowered TOC values. These biotic and depositional records of the study section imply the mid-Panthalassic Ocean was under the more hospitable conditions favored by the earlier recovery of radiolarians, relative to the Tethys Ocean and Pangean marginal seas.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
Evacuation and Social Policy During the Second World War: Myth and Reality.

Richard Titmuss's classic study of social policy during the Second World War, Problems of Social Policy, published in 1950, has exercised an enormous influence on historical accounts of the period. However, recently his interpretation has fallen out of favour with revisionist historians who have argued that he exaggerated the extent to which the artifical conditions of war provided a permanent basis for the creation of the welfare state in the postwar period, and the degree to which evacuation changed official attitudes to poverty. This article examines to what extent the evacuation of September 1939 led to a reassessment of the earlier achievements of the School Medical Service, and how far it illustrated opinion on the reform of welfare services. After briefly tracing planning and the arrival of the evacuees in the reception areas, it considers what the evacuation revealed about the School Medical service and the wider problems of child health in four areas head lice and skin disease, footwear and clothing, nutrition, and child psychology. It concludes that while there was not unanimity on the need for reform, the evacuation did lead to a major reassessment of the effectiveness of health services for schoolchildren and to significant policy changes.

Field of study: History