nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Ultra-dried storage of Stylosanthes guianensis seeds

Stylosanthes guianensis was used as material to study the physiochemical change of its seeds treated with ultra-dry storage, and the parameters of ultra dry storage. Results showed that the ultra-dried seeds of Stylosanthes guianensis with moisture content of 3.17 % were highly tolerant of aging after treated at 50℃ for 15 days. After 2 years of storage, there was no difference in the percentage of germination and the vigor index among the treatments of ultra-dried seeds stored under an ambient temperature and of seeds with moisture content of 8.10 % stored at 5℃ and -20℃ respectively. Compared with the control, dehydrogenase activity and respiration rate of the ultra-dried seeds were increased by 33.5 % and 33.0 % respectively, and the electric conductivity and malonadehyde of the ultra-dried seeds decreased by 43.0 % and 50.0 % respectively, lower than that of the control. All these results showed that ultra-dried treatment can increase the storability of Stylosanthes guianensis seeds.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Patronage Politics and the Behavior of Armed Groups

The structures of pre-conflict patronage politics in West Africa play a major role in shaping the organization and behavior of armed groups that have appeared in that region since the 1990s. Patronage networks provide the social context in which armed group leaders arise and influences how they obtain and use resources. It weighs heavily in influencing who they recruit and how fighters and leaders define their goals. Two general principles emerge out of this investigation. First, political leaders who enjoyed close ties to prewar capital-based patronage networks tend to organize predatory armed groups. Leaders who come from communities that were marginal to these networks organize armed groups that are more likely to benefit local communities and take community norms more seriously. Overall, the latter maintain more stable internal organizations and are less prone to commit extreme human rights violations, at least in comparison to their better connected rivals. Evidence indicates that leaders of these groups often are tempted to pursue more predatory strategies. They discover, however, that this social context in which they gather resources and recruit fighters inhibits the pursuit of such strategies.

Field of study: History, Sociology
A channelling and conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy study of annealing behaviour of tin implanted silicon

The authors investigate the solid phase epitaxial (SPE) regrowth and the substitutional solid solubility of silicon implanted with 119Sn to a dose of 1 * 1016 cm-2 at 250 keV, after furnace annealing, rapid thermal annealing and two-step annealing. It is shown that by means of two-step annealing one can reach a complete epitaxial regrowth of the amorphised layer, as well as a complete substitutional solid solution of the 119Sn impurity, to a concentration two orders of magnitude higher than the solid solubility limit, without any observable redistribution of the implanted concentration profile.

Field of study: Materials science
Synthesis of 5,6,17,18-Bisdehydrotetrathia[24]annulene[2.2.2.2]. A Strained Planar Annulene Devoid of Peripheral Conjugation

5,6,17,18-Bisdehydrotetrathia[24]annulene[2.2.2.2], synthesized through a sequence of the McMurry coupling of 1,1-dichloro-2,2-di(5-formyl-2-thienyl)ethene and a novel double Fritsch-Buttenberg-Wiechell rearrangement, has a planar X-ray structure with bent triple bonds and short S-S contacts but shows little sign of peripheral conjugation.

Field of study: Chemistry
Detecting long-range dependence with truncated ratios of periodogram ordinates

We propose new tests for testing hypotheses about the memory parameter that are based on ratios of periodogram ordinates. They are highly robust against conditional heteroskedasticity and outliers and are therefore of great value for the detection of long-range dependence in financial data. The robustness is obtained by truncation of a distribution with nonexistent moments. Tables of critical values are provided. The performance of the new tests is assessed by extensive simulations. Applying the tests to daily series of gold price returns and stock index returns, we find no evidence of long-range dependence characterized by a non-vanishing memory parameter. In the case of spread series (differences between interest rates at different maturities, gold prices and silver prices, related stock market indices), we find no evidence of a memory parameter well below 0.5.

Field of study: Mathematics
Alcohol alters insulin-like growth factor-1-induced transforming growth factor β1 synthesis in the medial basal hypothalamus of the prepubertal female rat.

Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) are produced in hypothalamic astrocytes and facilitate luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) secretion. IGF-1 stimulates release by acting directly on the LHRH nerve terminals and both peptides act indirectly through specific plastic changes on glial/tanycyte processes that further support LHRH secretion. Because the relationship between these growth factors in the hypothalamus is not known, we assessed the ability of IGF-1 to induce TGFβ1 synthesis and release and the actions of alcohol (ALC) on this mechanism prior to the onset of puberty.



Hypothalamic astrocytes were exposed to medium only, medium plus IGF-1 (200 ng/ml), or medium plus IGF-1 with 50 mM ALC. After 18 hours, media were collected and assayed for TGFβ1. For the in vivo experiment, prepubertal female rats were administered either ALC (3 g/kg) or water via gastric gavage at 07:30 hours and at 11:30 hours. At 09:00 hours, saline or IGF-1 was administered into the third ventricle. Rats were killed at 15:00 hours and the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH) was collected for assessment of TGFβ1, IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R), and Akt.



IGF-1 induced TGFβ1 release (p < 0.01) from hypothalamic astrocytes in culture, an action blocked by ALC. In vivo, IGF-1 administration caused an increase in TGFβ1 protein compared with controls (p < 0.05), an action blocked by ALC as well as a phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase/Akt inhibitor. IGF-1 stimulation also increased both total (p< 0.01) and phosphorylated (p)-IGF-1R (p < 0.05) protein levels, and phosphorylated (p)-Akt levels (p < 0.01), which were also blocked by ALC.



This study shows that ALC blocks IGF-1 actions to stimulate synthesis and release of hypothalamic TGFβ1, total and p-IGF-1R, and p-Akt levels further demonstrating the inhibitory actions of ALC on puberty-related events associated with hypothalamic LHRH release.

Field of study: Medicine
Direct measurement of lensing amplification in Abell S1063 using a strongly lensed high redshift HII galaxy

ID11 is an actively star-forming, extremely compact galaxy and Ly α emitter at z = 3.117 that is gravitationally magnified by a factor of ~17 by the cluster of galaxies Hubble Frontier Fields AS1063. The observed properties of this galaxy resemble those of low luminosity HII galaxies or giant HII regions such as 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Using the tight correlation correlation between the Balmer-line luminosities and the width of the emission lines (typically L (H β ) − σ (H β )), which are valid for HII galaxies and giant HII regions to estimate their total luminosity, we are able to measure the lensing amplification of ID11. We obtain an amplification of 23 ± 11 that is similar within errors to the value of ~17 estimated or predicted by the best lensing models of the massive cluster Abell S1063. We also compiled, from the literature, luminosities and velocity dispersions for a set of lensed compact star-forming regions. There is more scatter in the L − σ correlation for these lensed systems, but on the whole the results tend to support the lensing model estimates of the magnification. Our result indicates that the amplification can be independently measured using the L − σ relation in lensed giant HII regions or HII galaxies. It also supports the suggestion, even if lensing is model dependent, that the L − σ relation is valid for low luminosity high- z objects. Ad hoc observations of lensed star-forming systems are required to determine the lensing amplification accurately.

Field of study: Physics
RNA silencing of hydrogenase(-like) genes and investigation of their physiological roles in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

The genome of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii encodes two [FeFe]-hydrogenases, HydA1 and HydA2, and the hydrogenase-like protein HYD3. The unique combination of these proteins in one eukaryotic cell allows for direct comparison of their in vivo functions, which have not been established for HydA2 and HYD3. Using an artificial microRNA silencing method developed recently, the expression of HydA1, HydA2 and HYD3 was specifically down-regulated. Silencing of HydA1 resulted in 4-fold lower hydrogenase protein and activity under anaerobic conditions. In contrast, silencing of HydA2 or HYD3 did not affect hydrogen production. Cell lines with strongly (>90%) decreased HYD3 transcript levels grew more slowly than wild-type. The activity of aldehyde oxidase, a cytosolic Fe-S enzyme, was decreased in HYD3-knockdown lines, whereas Fe-S dependent activities in the chloroplast and mitochondria were unaffected. In addition, the HYD3-knockdown lines grew poorly on hypoxanthine, indicating impaired function of xanthine dehydrogenase, another cytosolic Fe-S enzyme. The expression levels of selected genes in response to hypoxia were unaltered upon HYD3 silencing. Together, our results clearly distinguish the cellular roles of HydA1 and HYD3, and indicate that HYD3, like its yeast and human homologues, has an evolutionary conserved role in the biogenesis or maintenance of cytosolic Fe-S proteins.

Field of study: Biology, Computer science
Ontogeny of Contextual Fear Conditioning in Rats: Implications for Consolidation, Infantile Amnesia, and Hippocampal System Function

The authors present developmental evidence that contextual fear conditioning is supported by a short-term memory system that supports conditioning immediately after a shock and by a long-term memory system that supports contextual conditioning 24 hr after training. This is based on the finding that after 1 conditioning trial, rats 18 to 32 days old show the same amount of conditioned freezing when tested immediately after conditioning but 18-day-old rats show much less conditioned freezing than the older rats when the retention interval is 24 hr. The data also suggest that the long-term memory representation of context that mediates conditioned fear is not available until several hours after the conditioning trial. Implications of these findings for memory consolidation processes, infantile amnesia, and hippocampal formation development are discussed. Two views of how the experimental context in which the events of a conditioning experience occur can be identified. One view (e.g., Rescorla & Wagner, 1972) is that the context is just the sum of its elements (the individual auditory, visual, olfactory, and tactile cues that the rat experiences) and that these cues have the same associative properties as the phasic events that constitute the conditioned stimulus. The alternative view is that the elements of the context are conjoined into a unitary representation, a spatial map (Nadel & Willner, 1980; Nadel, Willner, & Kurz, 1985), a configuration (Rudy, 1993), or dynamic stereotype (Fanselow, 1990; Pavlov, 1962). The first view implies that conditioning to context and to the conditioned stimulus (CS) are mediated by the same neural systems, but the second view suggests that they depend on different systems. Studies of conditioned fear, as assessed by the rat's tendency to crouch or freeze (Blanchard & Blanchard, 1969), recently have provided evidence for the second view. In these studies, rats were exposed to pairings of an auditory cue and an electrical-shock unconditioned stimulus (US) and subsequently were tested for their fear to both the context and to the auditory cue. Normal adult rats showed a conditioned fear response to both the context in which the shock occurred and to the auditory cue. Both Kim and Fanselow (1992) and Phillips and LeDoux (1992), however, report that damage to the hippocampal formation impairs contextual fear conditioning but has no effect on fear conditioning to the auditory cue. Rudy (1993) has reported a similar dissociation during development. Rats 18 and 23 days old display equivalent fear conditioning to an auditory cue paired with shock, but 18-day

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Study on the Effect of Different Additives on the yield of Polysaccharide in Cordyceps Militaris Liquid Culture

The influences on polysaccharide yield of cordyceps militaris was studed by adding 6 kinds polysaccharide precursor to the liquid fermentation medium,the results demonstrated the effects of 6 precursors on the yield of cordyceps sinensis polysaccharide as follows, glucose> mannose> galactose> arabinose> sorbose> fructose. Glucose and mannose are the most suitable precursors for the production of Cordyceps militaris Polysaccharide. The optimum addition is 20g/L,and the optimum addition of galactose, Arabia sugar and sorbose is 15g/L.The best combination of the four precursors of the highest yield of Cordyceps militaris is glucose 20g/L, Gump sugar 20g/L, galactose 10g/L, Ara The yield of polysaccharide is 5g/L, and the yield of polysaccharide is 270.80mg/g.

Field of study: Engineering
Nations of Peace: Nuclear Disarmament and the Making of National Identity in Scotland and Wales

This article uses the Scottish and Welsh Councils for Nuclear Disarmament as windows into the relationship between peace and nationalism in Scotland and Wales in the late 1950s and early 1960s. From one perspective, it challenges histories of peace movements in Britain, which have laboured under approaches and assumptions centred on London. From another, it demonstrates the role of movements for nuclear disarmament in the emergence of a 'left of centre' nationalism in Scotland and Wales. Although these movements were constituents of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, their nationalism evolved as the threat from nuclear weapons to Scotland and Wales came to be seen as distinctive and was interpreted through lenses of local culture and tradition. The movements contributed to 'the making of national identity' by providing a channel through which activists could 'nationalize' and galvanize Scottish and Welsh Christianity, folk and socialism in particular. It was through the movements that activists articulated and promoted Scotland and Wales as sovereign nations of peace, with an international outlook separate from that of Britain.

Field of study: History
k-Dependent Electronic Structure, a Large "Ghost" Fermi Surface, and a Pseudogap in a Layered Magnetoresistive Oxide

The k-dependent electronic structure of the low temperature ferromagnetic state of La 1.2Sr1.8Mn2O7 was measured using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and calculated using the local spin density approximation (LSDA). The measured near-Fermi energy states display E vs k and symmetry relationships which agree relatively well with the LSDA prediction through much of the Brillouin zone, and the locus of lowest energy excitations matches the predicted large Fermi surface quite well. However, the spectral features are too broad to be well described as Fermi-liquid-like quasiparticles, and they are strongly suppressed from the Fermi energy, i.e., there is a pseudogap in the excitation spectrum. We discuss the spectral properties in terms of strong coupling to a local effect such as a lattice distortion.

Field of study: Physics
Some Recent Aspects in the Structure Elucidation of Natural Products

Although in the past 20 yr a large number of new synthetic approaches have been developed methods of isolation and structural elucidation have changed more dramatically in the last two decades than have those of synthesis. For the purification of natural products more and more different chromatographic techniques like paper, thin-layer, column, and gas-liquid chromatography are being used. Characterizations of natural products by elemental analysis, melting points, optical rotation values, and degradation and derivatization reactions are being increasingly supported by parameters of spectroscopic tools like proton nuclear magnetic resonance, carbon nuclear magnetic resonance, phosphorus nuclear magnetic resonance, fluorine nuclear magnetic resonance, infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, absorption spectroscopy, optical rotatory dispersion, circular dichroism, magnetic circular dichroism and computer analysis. The principle of one of the most efficient methods for the structural elucidation of natural products, pulse Fourier transform 13C NMR spectroscopy, is discussed in detail. The usefulness of this method is demonstrated using examples from the peptide, carbohydrate and terpenoid field. The structural elucidations by the application of different physicochemical tools for the three following most recently isolated natural products are given: Hypothalamus-releasing hormones, terpenoids from Melia azadirachta Linn., and substances, isolated from urines of sick children.

Field of study: Chemistry
Comparison of exhaust emissions from Swedish environmental classified diesel fuel (MK1) and European Program on Emissions, Fuels and Engine Technologies (EPEFE) reference fuel: a chemical and biological characterization, with viewpoints on cancer risk.

Diesel fuels, classified as environmentally friendly, have been available on the Swedish market since 1991. The Swedish diesel fuel classification is based upon the specification of selected fuel composition and physical properties to reduce potential environmental and health effects from direct human exposure to exhaust. The objective of the present investigation was to compare the most stringent, environmentally classified Swedish diesel fuel (MK1) to the reference diesel fuel used in the "European Program on Emissions, Fuels and Engine Technologies"  The study compares measurements of regulated emissions, unregulated emissions, and biological tests from a Volvo truck using these fuels. The regulated emissions from these two fuels (MK1 vs EPEFE) were CO (-2.2%), HC (12%), NOx (-11%), and particulates (-11%). The emissions of aldehydes, alkenes, and carbon dioxide were basically equivalent. The emissions of particle-associated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and 1-nitropyrene were 88% and 98% lower than those of the EPEFE fuel, respectively. The emissions of semi-volatile PAHs and 1-nitropyrene were 77% and 80% lower than those from the EPEFE fuel, respectively. The reduction in mutagenicity of the particle extract varied from -75 to -90%, depending on the tester strain. The reduction of mutagenicity of the semi-volatile extract varied between -40 and -60%. Furthermore, the dioxin receptor binding activity was a factor of 8 times lower in the particle extracts and a factor of 4 times lower in the semi-volatile extract than that of the EPEFE fuel. In conclusion, the MK1 fuel was found to be more environmentally friendly than the EPEFE fuel.

Field of study: Environmental science
Localized Metal Solubilization in the Rhizosphere of Salix smithiana upon Sulfur Application

A metal-accumulating willow was grown under greenhouse conditions on a Zn/Cd-polluted soil to investigate the effects of sulfur (S0) application on metal solubility and plant uptake. Soil porewater samples were analyzed 8 times during 61 days of growth, while DGT-measured metal flux and O2 were chemically mapped at selected times. Sulfur oxidation resulted in soil acidification and related mobilization of Mn, Zn, and Cd, more pronounced in the rooted compared to bulk soil. Chemical imaging revealed increased DGT-measured Zn and Cd flux at the root-soil interface. Our findings indicated sustained microbial S0 oxidation and associated metal mobilization close to root surfaces. The localized depletion of O2 along single roots upon S0 addition indicated the contribution of reductive Mn (oxy)hydoxide dissolution with Mn eventually becoming a terminal electron acceptor after depletion of O2 and NO3–. The S0 treatments increased the foliar metal concentrations (mg kg–1 dwt) up to 10-fold for Mn, (5810 ± 593), 3.3-fold for Zn (3850 ± 87.0), and 1.7-fold for Cd (36.9 ± 3.35), but had no significant influence on biomass production. Lower metal solubilization in the bulk soils should translate into reduced leaching, offering opportunities for using S0 as environmentally favorable amendment for phytoextraction of metal-polluted soils.

Field of study: Environmental science
Multiple Long-Read Sequencing Survey of Herpes Simplex Virus Dynamic Transcriptome

Long-read sequencing (LRS) has become increasingly important in RNA research due to its strength in resolving complex transcriptomic architectures. In this regard, currently two LRS platforms have demonstrated adequate performance: the Single Molecule Real-Time Sequencing by Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) and the nanopore sequencing by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT). Even though these techniques produce lower coverage and are more error prone than short-read sequencing, they continue to be more successful in identifying polycistronic RNAs, transcript isoforms including splice and transcript end variants, as well as transcript overlaps. Recent reports have successfully applied LRS for the investigation of the transcriptome of viruses belonging to various families. These studies have substantially increased the number of previously known viral RNA molecules. In this work, we used the Sequel and MinION technique from PacBio and ONT, respectively, to characterize the lytic transcriptome of the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). In most samples, we analyzed the poly(A) fraction of the transcriptome, but we also performed random oligonucleotide-based sequencing. Besides cDNA sequencing, we also carried out native RNA sequencing. Our investigations identified more than 2,300 previously undetected transcripts, including coding, and non-coding RNAs, multi-splice transcripts, as well as polycistronic and complex transcripts. Furthermore, we found previously unsubstantiated transcriptional start sites, polyadenylation sites, and splice sites. A large number of novel transcriptional overlaps were also detected. Random-primed sequencing revealed that each convergent gene pair produces non-polyadenylated read-through RNAs overlapping the partner genes. Furthermore, we identified novel replication-associated transcripts overlapping the HSV-1 replication origins, and novel LAT variants with very long 5’ regions, which are co-terminal with the LAT-0.7kb transcript. Overall, our results demonstrated that the HSV-1 transcripts form an extremely complex pattern of overlaps, and that entire viral genome is transcriptionally active. In most viral genes, if not in all, both DNA strands are expressed.

Field of study: Biology