nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
A comparative study of amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistors with HfOxNy and HfO2 gate dielectrics

High-κ HfOxNy and HfO2 films are applied to amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) devices as gate dielectric using radio-frequency reactive sputtering. The electrical characteristics and reliability of a-IGZO metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) capacitors and thin-film transistors (TFTs) are then investigated. Experimental results indicate that the nitrogen incorporation into HfO2 can effectively improve the interface quality and enhance the reliability of the devices. Electrical properties with an interface-state density of 5.2 × 1011 eV−1 cm−2, capacitance equivalent thickness of 1.65 nm, gate leakage current density of 3.4 × 10−5 A cm−2 at Vfb +1 V, equivalent permittivity of 23.6 and hysteresis voltage of 110 mV are obtained for an Al/HfOxNy/a-IGZO MIS capacitor. Superior performance of HfOxNy/a-IGZO TFTs has also been achieved with a low threshold voltage of 0.33 V, a high saturation mobility of 12.1 cm2 V−1 s−1 and a large on–off current ratio up to 7 × 107 (W/L = 500/20 µm) at 3 V.

Field of study: Materials science
Superoxide radicals are mediators of the effects of methamphetamine on Zif268 (Egr-1, NGFI-A) in the brain: evidence from using CuZn superoxide dismutase transgenic mice.

Administration of methamphetamine (METH) to mammals is known to cause deleterious effects to brain monoaminergic systems. These toxic effects are thought to be due to oxidative stress. Acute administration of METH causes activation of immediate-early genes (IEGs) such as c-fos and Zif268 mRNA in rodent brains. However, the exact mechanisms involved in these changes have not been completely clarified. As a first step towards assessing a possible role for free radicals in METH-induced changes in IEGs, we have used CuZn superoxide dismutase (SOD) transgenic (Tg) mice and have quantified the effects of METH on c-fos and Zif268 mRNAs by in situ hybridization techniques. Mice were injected with 25 mg/kg of METH and sacrificed at various time points afterwards. There were significant METH-induced increases in both c-fos and Zif268 mRNAs in the frontal cortex and striatum of both strains of animals. Interestingly, the increases in Zif268 were markedly attenuated in the CuZn SOD-Tg mice; the increases in c-fos were also attenuated, but to a significantly lesser degree. These results indicate that superoxide radicals might play an important role in the activation of Zif268 after METH administration. Because IEGs are modulators of gene expression, these results also raise the possibility that oxidative mechanisms might be important factors in neuroadaptive changes caused by stimulant drugs.

Field of study: Biology
Identifying and evaluating urban mercury emission sources through passive sampler-based mapping of atmospheric concentrations

Beyond emissions from coal-fired power generation, urban sources of mercury (Hg) to the atmosphere, especially minor fugitive sources, are relatively poorly characterized. To identify urban sources of fugitive Hg emissions, passive air samplers (PASs) were deployed for periods of 4?6 weeks in the summer of 2016 at 145 sites across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). PASs were also deployed along transects of increasing distance from five sites listed as Hg sources in the National Pollution Release Inventory (NPRI) within or near the GTA. Mean gaseous Hg concentrations in downtown Toronto (1.77???0.28?ng?m?3) are slightly, but significantly elevated relative to other parts of the GTA (1.42???0.20?ng?m?3). Similarly, concentrations at sites close to waste/recycling (1.61???0.22?ng?m?3) and hospitals/dental facilities (1.63???0.21?ng?m?3) are significantly higher than at sites presumably distant from potential sources (1.37???0.20?ng?m?3). Gaseous Hg concentrations are elevated near four of five NPRI source sites, but not near a wastewater treatment plant. Measured or predicted concentrations (using extrapolated transect relationships) close to known Hg sources do not correlate with reported NPRI emissions. For example, the Hg disposal company Aevitas Inc. has the lowest reported NPRI emissions (0.11?kg?yr?1) among the five sources, but measured (12.3?ng?m?3) and predicted (60.0?ng?m?3) concentrations outside the facility are the highest. The PAS's ability to precisely and accurately discriminate small differences in gaseous Hg concentration (<0.2?ng?m?3) at and near global background concentrations enables the mapping of the spatial concentration variability and the identification of fugitive Hg emission sources.

Field of study: Environmental science
Die Richtungsabhängigkeit der Szintillations-Lichtausbeute von dünnen Anthrazen- und Stilben-Kristallen beim Beschuß mit α-Strahlen

The scintillation light yield of thin anthracene and stilbene crystals bombarded with α particles of ThB is investigated. A strong dependence of the light yield on the direction of incidence with respect to the crystal axes is found, confirming the results of previous measurements with thick anthracene crystals. For anthracene, maximum light yield occurs for α particles incident approximately parallel to thec′ axis. With stilbene crystals a minimum of the light output is found in thec′ direction. Furthermore, for thin anthracene crystals the direction of maximum light output depends slightly on the crystal thickness.

Field of study: Physics
Diversity of Local Environments of RE Ions in Aluminoborosilicate Glasses

Luminescence and excitation spectra are analyzed along with the kinetics of luminescence decay for aluminoborosilicate glasses containing rare earth (Sm, Eu and Ce) oxides. It is found that the measured spectra depend on the moment of experimental registration, the wavelength of excitation, and the concentration of rare earth activators. Variations in spectra are associated with differences in the local environment of the rare earth activator.

Field of study: Physics
When are identification protocols with sparse challenges safe? The case of the Coskun and Herley attack

Cryptographic identification protocols enable a prover to prove its identity to a verifier. A subclass of such protocols are shared-secret challenge-response identification protocols in which the prover and the verifier share the same secret and the prover has to respond to a series of challenges from the verifier. When the prover is a human, as opposed to a machine, such protocols are called human identification protocols. To make human identification protocols usable, protocol designers have proposed different techniques in the literature. One such technique is to make the challenges sparse, in the sense that only a subset of the shared secret is used to compute the response to each challenge. Coskun and Herley demonstrated a generic attack on shared-secret challenge-response type identification protocols which use sparse challenges. They showed that if the subset of the secret used is too small, an eavesdropper can learn the secret after observing a small number of challenge-response pairs. Unfortunately, from their results, it is not possible to find the safe number of challenge-response pairs a sparse-challenge protocol can be used for, without actually implementing the attack on the protocol and weeding out unsafe parameter sizes. Such a task can be time-consuming and computationally infeasible if the subset of the secret used is not small enough. In this work, we show an analytical estimate of the number of challenge-response pairs required by an eavesdropper to find the secret through the Coskun and Herley attack. Against this number, we also give an analytical estimate of the time complexity of the attack. Our results will help protocol designers to choose safe parameter sizes for identification protocols that employ sparse challenges.

Field of study: Computer science, Mathematics
[The decentralized training program and the retention of general practitioners in Quebec's Lower St. Lawrence Region].

To assess the effect of decentralized training programs, financial incentives, and physicians' origins on whether general practitioners continue to practise in an area.



Our data were obtained from the physician database maintained by the Bas-Saint-Laurent Regional Department of Health and Social Services and from responses to a mailed questionnaire completed by physicians in the study.



The Lower St. Lawrence Region of Quebec.



General practitioners who practised in the area between 1985 and 2003.



We used the Cox proportional hazards model of survival analysis to ascertain which variables were related to retaining physicians in the area.



The adjusted probability of physicians remaining in Bas-Saint-Laurent after being exposed to the area through rural rotations had an odds ratio of 2.12 (P = .15). The probability of remaining in the area climbed to an odds ratio of 4.5 (P < .01) for physicians originally from the Bas-Saint-Laurent region. Financial incentives appeared to make little difference to whether physicians were retained in the area.



The most promising strategies for retaining rural general practitioners are recruiting candidates from rural areas and exposing medical students to rural practice through decentralized training.

Field of study: Medicine
Development of the Late Paleozoic glaciations of the South American Gondwana in western Argentina

The Late Paleozoic Ice Age in the South American segment of Gondwana consisted of several glaciations, which can be grouped into two main glacial periods. The oldest of them occurred in late Early to early Late Carboniferous time and the younger in Early Permian time. Paleontological evidence in the western Argentine Precordillera supports a late Visean age for the beginning and a probable early Westphalian age for the end of the Carboniferous glacial period. In this span of time, subsidence and deposition of glacial debris took place in the western mobile belt and in Patagonia, but no sediments of that age were deposited in the eastern portion of the South American Gondwana, where subsidence started later. A Carboniferous glacial sequence is remarkably well preserved in the San Eduardo Group on the western flank of the Precordillera, where at least three distinct glaciations are recognized. This sequence can be taken as a reference section for the Carboniferous glacial deposits. Shorter than the former, and probably restricted to the Asselian Epoch, the Permian glacial period is better known. The evidence for it is well developed in eastern South American Gondwana, although a relic is also present in the Precordillera. The recognition of two glacial periods within the Late Paleozoic Ice Age is supported by the existence of a long-lasting interglacial, which seemingly began in the late Westphalian and lasted until the end of the Carboniferous Period. This major interglacial period is inferred from the total absence of glacial features in the Upper Carboniferous sequences. In spite of the existence of a mountainous belt parallel to the “Pacific” during the Carboniferous Period, the presence of marine beds and glacial drift well to the east of these ranges, suggests that it was not altitude that was the main factor in determining the formation of glaciers, but latitude plus a global change in temperature. It is argued that the ice sheets extended greatly during the Carboniferous glaciations and reached neighboring areas of the Paganzo basin in central Argentina.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
Isotonic rules for selecting good exponential populations

The problem of selecting exponential populations better than a control under a simple ordering prior is investigated. Based on some prior information, it is appropriate to set lower bounds for the concerned parameters. The information about the lower bounds of the concerned parameters is taken into account to derive isotonic selection rules for the control known case. An isotonic selection rule for the control unknown case is also proposed. A criterion is proposed to evaluate the performance of the selection rules. Simulation comparisons among the performances of several selection rules are carried out. The simulation results indicate that for the control known case, the new proposed selection rules perform better than some earlier existing selection rules.

Field of study: Mathematics
Chronology of Avalonian events on Presqu'ile du Cap Miquelon (Le Cap), Saint-Pierre et Miquelon (France)

UIPb geochronology and field studies on Presqu'ile du Cap Miquelon demonstrate that amphibolite-grade metamorphism, ductile deformation, and subsequent plutonism in this part of the Appalachian Avalon Zone are of Proterozoic age. Clear, crosscutting relationships between a dated granite dyke (part of the Cap Blanc granite) and foliated, amphibolite-grade metasedimentary and metaigneous rocks provide a younger age limit of 616': Ma for tectonism. Proterozoic titanite and hornblende ages indicate that no significant younger thermal overprint occurred such as those recorded in nearby southern Newfoundland. Deformation and metamorphism of the country rocks and intrusion of the Cap Blanc granite are at least 30 Ma older than the onset of deposition of the youngest Proterozoic volcano-sedimentary successions in adjacent insular Newfoundland. Possible equivalents of these younger sequences occur near Cap Blanc, and contain what may be interpreted as clasts of granite, dated at 620 + 3 Ma. The Miquelon metamorphic sequence is unique with respect to the southern Newfoundland Appalachians in representing a significant area of Proterozoic migmatite, not observably affected by tectonothermal events after 580 Ma.

Field of study: Environmental science
Energy efficiency and moisture diffusivity of apple slices during convective drying

The present study aimed at investigating the influences of drying air temperature and flow rate on energy parameters and dehydration behaviour of apple slices. For this purpose, apple slices were dried in a convective dryer at air temperatures of 50, 60 and 70 °C, and air velocities of 1, 1.5 and 2 m s–1. Dehydration rate increased as the air temperature and flow rate increased from 50 to 70 °C and 1 to 2 m s–1, respectively. The effective moisture diffusivity was determined to be in the range of 6.75×10–10-1.28×10–9 m2 s–1. Results of data analysis showed that the maximum energy consumption (23.94 kW h) belonged to 50 °C and 2 m s–1 and the minimum (13.89 kW h) belonged to 70 °C and 1 m s–1 treatment. Energy efficiency values were in the range of 2.87-9.11%. Moreover, the results indicated that any increment in the air temperature increases thermal and drying efficiencies while any increment in the air flow rate decreases both of them.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Molecular pathogenesis of interstitial pneumonitis with TNF-alpha transgenic mice.

Tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) transgenic mice, which overexpress TNF-alpha in the lungs, develop interstitial pneumonitis resembling idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in humans. Transgenic mice were used to study molecular pathogenesis of interstitial pneumonitis with regard to sequential histological changes and cytokine network induced by TNF-alpha. The authors divided the histological process of interstitial pneumonitis into three stages: early stage with lymphocytic infiltration in alveolar septa, middle stage with recruitment of macrophages, and late stage with hyperplasia of epithelial cells and mild fibrosis. As for cytokine network, prolonged overexpression of TNF-alpha along with increasing interleukin 6 (IL-6) were associated with the progression of interstitial pneumonitis. Increasing IL-1 was found only in the early stage, the beginning of lymphocyte proliferation. The mRNA level of an anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10, was constantly enhanced in the lungs of transgenic mice. However, transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta 1) protein decreased, which is closely associated with prolonged TNF-alpha synthesis, resulting in development of chronic inflammation and less severe fibrosis in the lungs of this animal model, analogous to inflammatory stage of human IPF. TNF-alpha transgenic mice enabled the analysis of the sequential process of interstitial pneumonitis as a model of IPF pathogenesis in humans, the results of which will give rise to new therapeutic measures for human IPF.

Field of study: Medicine
Detecting Hidden Leakages

Reducing the entropy of the mask is a technique which has been proposed to mitigate the high performance overhead of masked software implementations of symmetric block ciphers. Rotating S-box Masking (RSM) is an example of such schemes applied to AES with the purpose of maintaining the security at least against univariate first-order side-channel attacks. This article examines the vulnerability of a realization of such technique using the side-channel measurements publicly available through DPA contest V4. Our analyses which focus on exploiting the first-order leakage of the implementation discover a couple of potential attacks which can recover the secret key. Indeed the leakage we exploit is due to a design mistake as well as the characteristics of the implementation platform, none of which has been considered during the design of the countermeasure (implemented in naive C code).

Field of study: Computer science, Mathematics
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS: Formation of narrow output beams in wide-aperture resonators with multipass mode selection

A method is proposed for reducing the angular divergence of radiation from wide-aperture lasers with stable resonators by formation of parallel multipass mode beams at the exit. The use of a resonator with a slit in the mirror for implementation of this method can increase by three orders of magnitude the radiation power density in the far-field zone of a gasdynamic laser.

Field of study: Engineering, Physics
Language resources to negotiate historical thinking in history classroom interactions

This article examines different patterns of language resources that both teacher and students use to incorporate other voices in history secondary-level classroom interactions. The study particularly centers on the analysis of interpersonal and ideational linguistic resources used by teachers and students that contribute to the inclusion of historical evidence in the discourse, in combination with the building of semantic waves ( Maton, 2014 , Maton, 2016 ) through the variation of semantic density and semantic gravity . The analysis shows that when teachers and students use a strong semantic gravity (SG+), they also have a tendency of employing a more heteroglossic-oriented discourse, whereas when teachers and students use a strong semantic density (SD+), their discourse tends to be oriented to more monoglossic choices in language ( Martin & White, 2005 ). The language resources chosen by teachers and students in their pedagogical interactions impact how historical thinking is constructed in the classroom; particularly regarding the space, these more or less specialized and nonspecialized language resources provide for the incorporation of epistemic and axiological sources, which are necessary to build history as an interpretative social science through different levels of abstraction.

Field of study: Education, Linguistics
Office Visits with Patients over 65 Years of Age: Do They Take More Time?

Office visits were timed for 952 patients seen in a family practice, comparing time required for patients aged 65 and over with time required for patients aged two to 65. Diagnoses were similar in both groups. No significant difference was found in time required. This may be due to familiarity with the patients and appropriate office design, or may mean that not enough time was spent with geriatric patients. However, since family medicine is inherently patient-centred and not disease-centred, good geriatric care should take no more time than care to other age groups.

Field of study: Medicine
Basic Research in Action

An increasingly important component of society's response to the AIDS epidemic is the involvement of volunteers in caring for persons with AIDS. To understand this social phenomenon, we employed basic psychological theories in coordinated longitudinal and cross-sectional research on three stages of the volunteer process: antecedents of the decision to be a volunteer, experiences of volunteers and those with whom they work, and consequences for volunteers and for society. In this article, we draw upon portions of data collected from currently active AIDS volunteers to illustrate the linkages between basic research and practical problems. We discuss the ways that basic theory can both guide research on societally important issues and be informed by such research conducted in applied contexts. Finally, we relate our approach to the Lewinian tradition of action research.

Field of study: Psychology
Electoral Competition and Institutional Change in Mexico (review)

Overall in assessing the party's political abilities, Mizrahi concludes that PAN leaders have demonstrated they are better managers in the sense of achieving integrity and efficiency, but lack a sensitivity to and ability to address the political side of politics. As she points out, they are able to win elections, but quickly distance themselves from the very public which has made their electoral success possible. Leadership tensions accentuate their political problems. Once in office, the newcomers tend to ignore longtime party activists and thus support from that core group is lukewarm. She correctly concludes that while the party's internal divisions 'are not as sharp as the other two leading parties (PRI and PRD), the PAN nevertheless clings to too many traditions from the past. Most of Vicente Fox's problems can be foretold from this work. Mizrahi accurately argues that the fate of the PAN as a national governing party is central to the fate of Mexican democracy.

Field of study: History
Synthesis of substituted imidazo[5,1-b]benzimidazoles

By the cyclization of the formyl and acetyl derivatives of 2-(α-aminoethyl)-1-methylbenzimidazole under the action of phosphorus oxychloride we have synthesized, respectively, 3,4-dimethyl- and 1, 3, 4-trimethylimidazo[5, 1-b]benzimidazoles. 2-(α-Aminoethyl)-1-methylbenzimidazole was obtained by reducing the oxime of 2-acetyl-1-methylbenzimidazole. The latter was synthesized from 1-methylbenzimidazole by an organolithium synthesis.

Field of study: Chemistry
The role of exercise during adolescence on adult happiness and mood

The main research question for this paper was: Does exercise during adolescence predict happiness and positive moods in adult life? Data was collected through an online questionnaire (N = 438). The questionnaire included a measure of happiness (The Subjective Happiness Scale), moods (The Profile of Mood States) and questions on current exercise and exercise during adolescence. Exercise during adolescence was a significant predictor for positive moods, even when controlling for current exercise. There is also a connection between exercise during adolescence and happiness, although it appears to be that exercise during adolescence predicts exercise in adult life, which in turn has a connection to happiness. Exercise was not a significant predictor of negative moods in adulthood.

Field of study: Sociology
Online Purchase: A Study of Generation Y in Malaysia

Internet had changed the way businesses do business and the way consumers purchase the goods and services. With internet, the consumers can conduct their online shopping without hassle. Among all the internet users, Generation Y is the group of consumers who actively involved in online purchase. The total online purchase is expected to hit USD1.7 trillion by year 2015. However, in the developing country like Malaysia, the growth in online purchase is still relatively slow compare to the global trend. This aim of this study is to understand the purchase behaviour of Generation Y in Malaysia. The results of the study reveal that Malaysian Generation Y is not ready for online purchase because most of them are still having doubts on the website trust when they come to online purchase.

Field of study: Business