nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Reliability of quantitative and qualitative assessment of air leakage paths through reductive sealing

A full characterization of a building air leakage is labour intensive. As results of laboratory and mock-up experimentation rarely portray in situ conditions, the assessment of real case studies bring added value. Still, the results of experimentation of the latter face more challenges than the former. In this work a full quantitative and qualitative assessment of air leakage paths is performed, using a light steel framing (LSF) modular building with structural insulated panels (SIPs) as case study. Blower-door measurements undergo for a sealing campaign of eleven steps, a technique often described as reductive sealing. Additionally, smoke tracer measurements were carried out to visually identify the air leakage locations. The application of three regression methods resulted in different uncertainty estimates. Less than 7% of the total air leakage was not attributed to one of the considered types of air leakage paths. Assessing less impacting leakage paths first and placing similar types of air leakage paths in a consecutive sealing order seems to be the most correct strategy when using the reductive sealing technique. On average, at a reference pressure difference of 4 Pa, the sealing step uncertainty averaged, 9.9%, 18.8%, and 27.5%, depending on the method used for regression of the blower door test results. Despite the highest calculated uncertainty, literature shows that the application of the method leading to it, Weighted Line of Organic Correlation (WLOC), provides the results in closer agreement with the observed uncertainty of measurements.

Field of study: Engineering
What role can small-scale irrigation play in promoting inclusive rural transformation? Evidence from smallholder rice farmers in the Philippines

We investigate how user-managed small-scale irrigation can influence inclusive rural transformation. Cultivating inclusive rural transformation is key to sustainable growth and poverty reduction in developing countries, but existing research rarely analyses the holistic impacts of rural development projects on this process. We use a combination of quantitative and qualitative data to rigorously measure impacts and uncover the causal pathways of a canal irrigation project for rice farmers in the Philippines, finding that positive impacts were heavily determined by market access and the strength of the local economy. We also find limited impacts for poorer farmers located further downstream on the irrigation canals. Based on these findings, we draw several lessons about the complementary conditions and support that are required in order for irrigation to be an effective tool in promoting inclusive rural transformation in developing countries.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences, Economics
A data driven heuristic for rapid convergence of general Scheduled Relaxation Jacobi (SRJ) schemes

The Scheduled Relaxation Jacobi (SRJ) method is a viable candidate as a high performance linear solver for elliptic PDEs. The method greatly improves the convergence of standard Jacobi iteration by applying a sequence of $M$ overrelaxation and underrelaxation steps in each cycle of the algorithm. In previous work, the relaxation factors associated with each of the $M$ steps (which characterize an SRJ scheme) were derived to be specific to the problem of interest and its discretization. In this work we develop a class of SRJ schemes which could be applied to solve any linear system as long as the original Jacobi iterative method would converge. Furthermore, we use data to train an algorithm to select which scheme to use at each cycle of the SRJ method for rapid convergence. Specifically, the algorithm is trained using convergence data obtained from randomly applying SRJ schemes to the 1D Poisson problem. The automatic selection heuristic that is developed based on this limited data is found to provide good convergence for a wide range of problems.

Field of study: Computer science
Relationship between regional homogeneity of male depressed patients and the severity of depression: a resting-state fMRI study

To explore the regional homogeneity (ReHo) feature of the spontaneous neural activity within young male depressed patients, and conduct correlation analysis of the abnormal regions with the severity of depressive symptoms. 
 
 
 
19 male depressed patients and 19 educated age-matched male healthy controls were undergone resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning at 3.0 Tesla. The whole brain’s regional homogeneity was calculated. The ReHo values of abnormal brain regions after alphasim correction were conducted correlation analysis with the total score of Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. 
 
 
 
As compared with the controls, the depressed patients exhibited significantly increased ReHo in the bilateral parahippocampal (-30, -42, -9: K=43: 27, -33, -12: K=18) and the right posterior cingulate gyrus(3, 15, 33: K=54), while decreased ReHo in the right postcentral gyrus (27, -36, 54, K=21) (P<0.05, Alphasim). The correlation analysis showed that the ReHo of the right parahippocampal gyrus was positively correlated with the HAMD17 total scores (r=0.535, P=0.018). 
 
 
 
The male depressed patients exhibit abnormities in the limbic-related brain regions during rest, and the extent of damage is correlated with the severity of depression. 
 
 
 
Depressive disorder; Gender; Resting-state; ReHo; Severity of depression

Field of study: Medicine, Psychology
On the implementation of a novel data-intelligence model based on extreme learning machine optimized by bat algorithm for estimating daily chlorophyll-a concentration: case studies of river and lake in USA

Chlorophyll-a is one of the main indicators for water quality (WQ) analysis in environmental monitoring of aquatic ecosystems. WQ degradation is mostly a result of the increase of the concentration of chlorophyll-a in a waterbody, however, proper estimation of daily chlorophyll-a concentration is a complex problem. In this study, the classic extreme learning machine (ELM), group method of data handling (GMDH), random forest (RF), classification and regression tree (CART), and a novel integrated Bat-ELM model (with the bat optimization algorithm) were developed and applied to predict daily chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration in river and lake ecosystems. Input parameters including turbidity (TU), pH, specific conductance (SC), water temperature (TE), and periodicity were applied as the influential elements for estimating daily Chl-a concentration for two different USGS stations. General results based on RMSE values indicated that the Bat-ELM as the most robust model improved the performance of standard ELM, GMDH, RF, and CART models during the testing procedure by 20.7%, 23.9%, 18.3%, and 27.4% in USGS no. 05543010 and 13.8%, 16.8%, 17.5%, and 52.0% in USGS no. 09014050 in terms of the 7th input-combination, respectively. Moreover, the results revealed that periodicity is the most effective input parameter that considered as the last scenario (input combination) on daily chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration.

Field of study: Environmental science
Investigation of Welds and Heat Affected Zones in Weld Surfacing Steel Plates Taking into Account the Bead Sequence

In this paper, the experimental investigation results of the bead sequence input on geometry, structure, and hardness of surfaced layers after multi-pass weld surfacing are analyzed. Three S355 steel plates surfaced by GMAW (Gas Metal Arc Welding) were tested with three different combinations of six beads. The geometric, structural, and hardness analysis was carried out in the cross-section of the plates in the middle of the welded layers. The dimensions of padded layers, fusion and heat-affected zone, as well as the individual padded weld were evaluated. On the basis of metallographic samples, qualitative and quantitative structure analysis was performed. Hardness measurements in surfacing welds and heat-affected zones in the tested cross-sections of the surfacing layers were carried out. A comparative analysis of structure and hardness, taking into account the thermal implications of the bead sequence, allowed for the formulation of conclusions. Comparative studies have shown differences in properties between heat-affected zones (HAZ) for individual surfacing sequences. These differences were mainly in the dimensions of the surfacing layers, the share of structural components, as well as the uniformity of hardness distributions. Finally, the most favorable sequence in terms of structure and hardness distribution, maximum hardness, and range of hardness has been indicated.

Field of study: Materials science
Central Asian rivers under climate change: Impacts assessment in eight representative catchments

Study region Eight river catchments within Central Asia. Study focus The limited amount of water resources is already an issue in the Central Asian region, and climate change may be crucial for water availability and development of countries in the region. This study investigates potential climate change impacts on water resources in Central Asia to the end of the century by focusing on eight river catchments with diverse natural conditions located in different countries. The eco-hydrological model SWIM was setup, calibrated and validated for all selected catchments under study. Scenarios from five bias-corrected GCMs under Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 and 8.5 were used to drive the hydrological model. New hydrological insights for the region The results show an increase of mean annual temperature in all catchments for both RCPs to the end of the century. The projected changes in annual precipitation indicate a clear trend to increase in the Zhabay and to decrease in the Murghab catchments, and for other catchments, they were smaller. The projected trends for river discharge are similar to those of precipitation, with an increase in the north and decrease in the south of the study region. Seasonal changes are characterized by a shift in the peak of river discharge up to one month, shortage of snow accumulation period, and reduction of discharge in summer months.

Field of study: Environmental science
Quantification of the degree of blending in hot-mix asphalt (HMA) with reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) using Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDX) analysis

This study quantified the degree of blending using Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDX) analyses between virgin and RAP binders inside HMA produced with RAPs from three different sources and RAP contents of 15%, 25%, and 40% by weight of the mixture. Titanium oxide (TiO2) nanoparticles were selected as a virgin binder tracer inside the RAP mixtures. Two different fabrication procedures were executed per RAP mixture where the first procedure simulated 100% blending and the second represented the actual blending state; then the degree of blending was found by calculating the titanium to sulfur mass ratios (Ti:S) for the two procedures. Results showed that the average degree of blending decreased with increasing RAP content and increasing RAP binder PG. The degree of blending and homogeneity between the RAP and virgin binders for the 25% RAP mixtures were slightly lower than the corresponding 15% RAP mixtures, whereas, for the high RAP content mixtures at 40%, poor and nonhomogeneous blending were found. Moreover, RAP binder with a lower PG indicated a better blending efficiency than with a higher PG. The Thermal Stress Restrained Specimen Test (TSRST) and Indirect Tensile Asphalt Cracking Test (IDEAL-CT) were performed to assess the low- and -intermediate temperature cracking resistances of the RAP mixtures, respectively, and correlate mixture performance with the microscopic analyses.

Field of study: Materials science
A participatory approach to assessing groundwater recharge under future climate and land-cover scenarios, Tutuila, American Samoa

Study region Oceania, South Pacific, Polynesia.  Changing climates have the potential to significantly impact global water resources availability. On many volcanic islands, groundwater is the primary drinking water source, thereby making it essential to manage this limited resource carefully. In this study, we developed high temporal and spatial resolution groundwater recharge estimates for the Island of Tutuila, American Samoa using the Soil Water-Balance-2 (SWB2) model. Additionally, we predicted future recharge by running the calibrated model with combinations of dynamically downscaled general circulation climate model (GCM) predictions, and future land-cover scenarios developed collectively with local stakeholder groups. New hydrological insights Present-day results indicate 57 % of Tutuila’s rainfall becomes groundwater recharge, 8 % evaporates from the canopy, 15 % evapotranspires, and 20 % discharges as stormflow-runoff. Future climate scenarios suggest recharge may increase by 8 % or 14 % depending on global emissions. Land-cover was a less significant driver of hydrologic change, although increases in impervious surfaces showed a negative impact on recharge. This work is maintained as an active open-source project on GitHub, the world’s leading software development platform, thereby enhancing transparency, reproducibility, and participation from stakeholders and managers in American Samoa. This study is the first of its kind from a location within the South Pacific Convergence Zone, and provides insights into how human activities on global and local levels affect the future sustainability of essential resources.

Field of study: Environmental science
Late Neogene surge in sedimentary charcoal fluxes partly due to preservation biases, not fire activity

Fire has been an important Earth System phenomenon for millions of years and our ability to understand its role in geologic history relies upon robust and unequivocal paleofire archives. Charcoal particles preserved in sedimentary deposits form the primary basis of our understanding of fire's variability on geologic timescales as well as its role in the emergence of plant physiology, ecosystems, and biogeographic configurations. An intriguing aspect of the global Cenozoic fire history is the surge in fire activity that is thought to have occurred in the late Neogene (beginning ca. 7 Ma) and indicates that modern biogeography, ecology, and plant physiology was born out of the ashes of an extremely fiery period in Earth's history. The late Neogene fire surge is primarily inferred from charcoal fluxes to sediment records in the North Pacific. In this paper, we revisit these data and show that they are unlikely to reflect an increase in fire activity alone. Rather, these charcoal fluxes likely also reflect an anomalous late Neogene increase in the amount of terrigenous material (and charcoal) supplied to marine sediment records and/or an inflation of late Neogene charcoal flux measurements (and sedimentation rates) resulting from the incompleteness of older stratigraphic sections. These results highlight the importance of accounting for sediment preservation biases when interpreting long term paleoenvironmental records and suggest charcoal fluxes in the North Pacific do not provide conclusive evidence that fire activity increased in the late Neogene.

Field of study: Geology
Floral Designs on Sacrificial Towels from an Old Believers’ Prayer House

We reconstruct the semantics of fl oral compositions on commemorative towels, embroidered by women, members of the Old Believers Bespopovtsy (priestless worship community rejecting marriage) in Novosibirsk. The original vine motif, associated with the funerary cult, was transformed by replacing vines with more familiar motifs, such as flowers, berries, buds, etc. Certain designs resemble those found in late 19th to early 20th century embroidery manuals and on wrappers of cheap soap manufactured by Rallet, Brocard, etc. In most cases, however, there are no exact parallels. Some fl oral compositions are original: for instance, those showing vases with scrolls reminiscent of Jesus Christ’s monogram, and “vases” turned into letters on Our Savior’s icons. The results of the technological and stylistic analyses suggest that most sacrificial towels were made in the late 1800s and early 1900s, some in the 1940s and 1950s, and some may have been manufactured in places of the Old Believers’ former residence in northern and central Russia. Designs arranged in friezes or central fi gures, such as crosses, cruciate motifs, “vases”, or “vaults”, allude to the Old Believers’ fundamental values. Ritual towels evidence motifs on commercial embroideries creatively transformed by Old Believers according to their beliefs and traditions.

Field of study: Art
THz-TDS Reflection Measurement of Coating Thicknesses at Non-Perpendicular Incidence: Experiment and Simulation

Time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) in the Terahertz (THz) frequency range is gaining 1 in importance in nondestructive testing of dielectric materials. One application is the layer 2 thickness measurement of a coating layer. To determine the thickness from the measurement data, 3 the refractive index of the coating layer must be known in the surveyed frequency range. For 4 perpendicular incidence of the radiation, methods exist to extract the refractive index from the 5 measurement data itself without prior knowledge. This paper extends these methods for non6 perpendicular incidence, where the polarization of the radiation becomes important. Furthermore, 7 modifications considering effects of surface roughness of the coating are introduced. The new 8 methods are verified using measurement data of a sample of Inconel steel coated with yttria9 stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and with COMSOL simulations of the measurement setup. To validate 10 the thickness measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the layer structure 11 are used. The results show good agreement with an average error of 1 % for the simulation data 12 and under 4 % for the experimental data compared to reference measurements.

Field of study: Materials science