nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
MicroRNA-146a Induced by Hypoxia Promotes Chondrocyte Autophagy through Bcl-2

There have been many studies on the etiology of osteoarthritis (OA) with regard to the function of inflammatory cytokines, the process of cartilage degradation, the function of miR-146a, hypoxia stimulation and autophagy in OA chondrocytes, but there have been no reports on the relationship between miR-146a and autophagy in cartilage, especially under hypoxia. This study aimed to confirm the relationship of miR-146a and autophagy in cartilage under hypoxia.  Chondrocytes were treated by hypoxia gradients, and the main factors including HIF-1α, HIF-2α, miR-146a and Bcl-2 and autophagy markers ULK-1, ATG-5 were detected by quantitative PCR (Q-PCR) and western blotting. The autophagy marker LC-3 was detected by immunofluorescence. The reciprocal effects between miR-146a and Bcl-2 were confirmed by several combinations of shRNAs and adenovirus-gene systems followed by Q-PCR and western blot detection.  Hypoxia maintained the chondrocytes phenotype and promoted autophagy and miR-146a expression via HIF-1α, but not HIF-2α, while miR-146a did not reversely affect HIF-1α. The autophagy induced by hypoxia through HIF-1α, miR-146a and Bcl-2. Simply, hypoxia induced HIF-1α, and HIF-1α increased miR-146a, but miR-146a suppressed Bcl-2, an autophagy inhibitor. While Bcl-2 affected neither HIF-1α nor miR-146a. The absence of both HIF-1α and miR-146a or Bcl-2 over-expression inhibited hypoxia-induced autophagy.  HIF-1α, miR-146a and Bcl-2 play crucial roles during hypoxia-induced autophagy, Hypoxia, HIF-1α and miR-146a promote chondrocytes autophagy via depressing Bcl-2. We conclude that miR-146a may serve as a novel therapeutic target for protecting cartilage from degeneration in OA.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry
Large eddy simulation of vehicle emissions dispersion: Implications for on-road remote sensing measurements.

On-road remote sensing technology measures the concentration ratios of pollutants over CO2 in the exhaust plume in half a second when a vehicle passes by a measurement site, providing a rapid, non-intrusive and economic tool for vehicle emissions monitoring and control. A key assumption in such measurement is that the emission ratios are constant for a given plume. However, there is a lack of study on this assumption, whose validity could be affected by a number of factors, especially the engine operating conditions and turbulence. To guide the development of the next-generation remote sensing system, this study is conducted to investigate the effects of various factors on the emissions dispersion process in the vehicle near-wake region and their effects on remote sensing measurement. The emissions dispersion process is modelled using Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The studied factors include the height of the remote sensing beam, vehicle speed, acceleration and side wind. The results show that the measurable CO2 and NO exhaust plumes are relatively short at 30 km/h cruising speed, indicating that a large percentage of remote sensing readings within the measurement duration (0.5 s) are below the sensor detection limit which would distort the derived emission ratio. In addition, the valid measurement region of NO/CO2 emission ratio is even shorter than the measurable plume and is at the tailpipe height. The effect of vehicle speed (30-90 km/h) on the measurable plume length is insignificant. Under deceleration condition, the length of the valid NO/CO2 measurement region is shorter than under cruising and acceleration conditions. Side winds from the far-tailpipe direction have a significant effect on remote sensing measurements. The implications of these findings are discussed and possible solutions to improve the accuracy of remote sensing measurement are proposed.

Field of study: Environmental science
The Expression and Sequencing of Human Endogenous Retrovirus Long Terminal Repeats in Eosinophilia Cells

To explore the relationship between gene expression of endogenous retrovirus long terminal repeat and eosinphilia,PCR was used to amplify the peripheral blood granulocyte DNA fragments in 20 cases of(eosinophilia,) 1 case of malignant lymphoma and 10 healthy persons as control.The expression of long terminal repeat(LTR) gene was detected by RT-PCR.Denatured high performance liquid chromatography(DHPLC) was used to array the long terminal repeat DNA fragments,and then the nucleotide sequence of LTR was analyzed by automatic sequence meter.The PCR results indicated that the LTR gene fragments were found in eosinophilia patients,RT-PCR revealed that LTR gene was higher expressed in 20 cases of eosinophilia patient while no expression was detected in healthy persons.To contrast the homogeneity of nucleotide sequence of eosinophilia on locus of U3、R、U5 to that of HERV-K strain,there showed nucleotide changes.These results demonstrated that human beings carry human endogenous retrovirus sequences as an integral part of their genomes.There may be a relationship between gene expression of human endogenous retrovirus and eosinophilia developing.The mechanism abode in inducing eosinophilia needs further investigation.

Field of study: Biology
Special Issue: Advances in Chemical Vapor Deposition

Pursuing a scalable production methodology for materials and advancing it from the laboratory to industry is beneficial to novel daily-life applications. From this perspective, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) offers a compromise between efficiency, controllability, tunability and excellent run-to-run repeatability in the coverage of monolayer on substrates. Hence, CVD meets all the requirements for industrialization in basically everything including polymer coatings, metals, water-filtration systems, solar cells and so on. The Special Issue “Advances in Chemical Vapor Deposition” has been dedicated to giving an overview of the latest experimental findings and identifying the growth parameters and characteristics of perovskites, TiO2, Al2O3, VO2 and V2O5 with desired qualities for potentially useful devices.

Field of study: Materials science
Reply to the Letter “Diagnostic Method to Screen Taenia solium Taeniasis Carriers”

had shown very high sensitivity (> 97%) and specificity (99%) for the diagnosis of T. solium taeniasis . Furthermore, our ELISA-based assay for the detection of antiT. solium taeniasis-specific IgG antibodies is intended for use as an initial rapid screening test to screen large numbers of people in field settings such as Ports and Borders Health, and Food Handlers Examination Section in Kuwait where > 350 subjects need to be screened almost daily, and the currently used gold standard method (stool microscopy) is time-consuming and lacks sensitivity. We also agree that our assay does not confirm a current infection as it only detects previous exposure to T. solium. However, application of ELISA-based detection of anti-T. solium taeniasis-specific IgG antibodies will greatly reduce the number of stool samples that will require further confirmation of taeniasis infections in such settings. The letter by Mungmunpuntipantip and Wiwanitkit  has raised some important points for discussion. Although we agree that there may be cross-reactivity in some immunological tests during screening for cysticercosis/Taenia solium taeniasis with other common parasitic infections such as echinococcosis and gnathostomiasis, we used the rES33 antigen for the detection of anti-T. solium taeniasis-specific IgG antibodies by ELISA for determining the seroprevalence of T. solium taeniasis . The main reason for selecting the rES33 antigen for this purpose was based on its specific 267 amino acid peptide sequence in T. solium (TSES33 protein: sequence ID: AAO65442.1), which does not show cross-reactivity with proteins from other closely related organisms such as T. saginata, Echinococcus granulosus, and other organisms that produce similar disease symptoms. An earlier study based on serological diagnostic tests by enzyme-linked immunoelectrotransfer blot assay using recombinant antigen rES33

Field of study: Medicine
Do private clinics or expedited fees reduce disability duration for injured workers following knee surgery?

To investigate the effect of workers' compensation policies related to expedited surgical fees and private clinic surgical setting on disability duration among injured workers.



The study included 1,380 injured workers with knee meniscectomy between 2001 and 2005 in British Columbia. Using linked workers' compensation claim and surgery/clinical records, wait time for surgery (time from last surgical consult to surgery) and time from surgery to return to work were computed and compared for workers who received care in public versus private facilities, and according to whether their surgeons received fees intended to expedite care.



The public expedited group had the shortest disability duration from surgical consult to return to work; the expedited fee reduced the surgery wait time (~2 work weeks), and surgeries performed in public hospitals had a shorter return-to-work time (~1 work week).



An overall difference of approximately three work weeks in disability duration may have meaningful clinical and quality-of-life implications for injured workers. However, minimal differences in expedited surgical wait times by private clinics versus public hospitals, and small differences in return-to-work outcomes favouring the public hospital group, suggest that a future economic evaluation of workers' compensation policies related to surgical setting is warranted.

Field of study: Medicine, Political science
Gabbard's Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders (4th edn) Edited By Glen O'Gabbard. American Psychiatric Publishing. 2007. 968pp. US $195.00 (hb). ISBN 978158622160

[⇓]

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This book began life almost a quarter of a century ago as a four-volume, encyclopaedic tome. In the course of publishing the previous editions, it has contracted to a single volume. But, this is not at the expense of quality since it continues to include the full

Field of study: Medicine, Psychology
Towards a 3-D tomographic retrieval for the air-borne limb-imager GLORIA

GLORIA (Gimballed Limb Observer for Radiance Imaging of the Atmosphere) is a new remote sensing instrument essentially combining a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer with a two-dimensional (2-D) detector array in combination with a highly flexible gimbal mount. It will be housed in the belly pod of the German research aircraft HALO (High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft). It is unique in its combination of high spatial and state-of-the art spectral resolution. Furthermore, the horizontal view angle with respect to the aircraft flight direction can be varied from 45° to 135°. This allows for tomographic measurements of mesoscale events for a wide variety of atmospheric constituents. In this paper, a tomographic retrieval scheme is presented, which is able to fully exploit the manifold radiance observations of the GLORIA limb sounder. The algorithm is optimized for massive 3-D retrievals of several hundred thousands of measurements and atmospheric constituents on common hardware. The new scheme is used to explore the capabilities of GLORIA to sound the atmosphere in full 3-D with respect to the choice of the flightpath and to different measurement modes of the instrument using ozone as a test species. It is demonstrated that the achievable resolution should approach 200 m vertically and 20 km–30 km horizontally. Finally, a comparison of the 3-D inversion with conventional 1-D inversions using the assumption of a horizontally homogeneous atmosphere is performed.

Field of study: Environmental science
QoS evaluation of 3G-324M mobile videophones over WCDMA networks

Third generation mobile networks are currently being deployed and user demand for multimedia applications is increasing. We study the quality of service (QoS) of 3GPP 3G-324M mobile videophones over WCDMA networks, using only circuit switched connections. Video quality is assessed in both mobile-to-land and mobile-to-mobile connections at 32 and 64 kbps for different channel conditions and mobile speeds. Call control issues and service flexibility are also analyzed. Results are presented in terms of visual quality, received peak signal to noise ratio, delay, and frame rate.

Field of study: Computer science
Infrared Pulsed Laser Deposition of Niobium Nitride Thin Films

We have successfully fabricated superconducting niobium nitride thin films on single crystals of magnesium oxide using a pulsed laser deposition technique where 1064 nm (photon energy ~1.16 eV) laser pulses from an Nd:YAG laser were used for ablation. A correlation between the superconducting transition temperature, the nitrogen base pressure during deposition and the lattice parameter of the produced NbN films was observed. Superconductor-insulator-normal metal junctions fabricated using these NbN films as the superconductor revealed nonlinear electrical characteristics at 4.2 K associated with quasiparticle tunneling.

Field of study: Physics
Some extended Pochhammer symbols and their applications involving generalized hypergeometric polynomials

Ever since 2012 when Srivastava et al. 22] introduced and initiated the study of many interesting fundamental properties and characteristics of a certain pair of potentially useful families of the so-called generalized incomplete hypergeometric functions, there have appeared many closely-related works dealing essentially with notable developments involving various classes of generalized hypergeometric functions and generalized hypergeometric polynomials, which are defined by means of the corresponding incomplete and other novel extensions of the familiar Pochhammer symbol. Here, in this sequel to some of these earlier works, we derive several general families of hypergeometric generating functions by applying (for example) some such combinatorial identities as Gould's identity, which stem essentially from the Lagrange expansion theorem. We also indicate various (known or new) special cases and consequences of the results presented in this paper.

Field of study: Mathematics
Circadian phase alteration by GABA and light differs in diurnal and nocturnal rodents during the day.

These studies investigated the circadian effects of light and gamma aminobutyric acid-A (GABAA) receptor activation in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the diurnal unstriped Nile grass rat (Arvicanthis niloticus). Microinjection of the GABAA agonist muscimol into the SCN during the day produced phase shifts that were opposite in direction to those previously reported in nocturnal rodents. In addition, light had no significant effect on the magnitude of muscimol-induced phase delays during the daytime. Injection of muscimol during the night, however, significantly inhibited light-induced phase delays and advances in a manner similar to that previously reported in nocturnal rodents. Therefore, the circadian effects of GABAA receptor activation are similar in diurnal and nocturnal species during the night but differ significantly during the day.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Understanding the interplay between the logical and structural coupling of software classes

During the lifetime of object-Oriented (OO) software systems, new classes are added to increase functionality, also increasing the inter-dependencies between classes. Logical coupling depicts the change dependencies between classes, while structural coupling measures source code dependencies induced via the system architecture. The relationship or dependency between logical and structural coupling have been debated in the past, but no large study has confirmed yet their interplay. In this study, we have analysed 79 open-source software projects of different sizes to investigate the interplay between the two types of coupling. First, we quantified the overlapping or intersection of structural and logical class dependencies. Second, we statistically computed the correlation between the strengths of logical and structural dependencies. Third, we propose a simple technique to determine the stability of OO software systems, by clustering the pairs of classes as “stable” or “unstable”, based on their co-change pattern. The results from our statistical analysis show that although there is no strong evidence of a linear correlation between the strengths of the coupling types, there is substantial evidence to conclude that structurally coupled class pairs usually include logical dependencies. However, not all co-changed class pairs are also linked by structural dependencies. Finally, we identified that only a low proportion of structural coupling shows excessive instability in the studied OSS projects.

Field of study: Computer science, Engineering
Topological nanospaser

We propose a nanospaser made of an achiral plasmonic–metal nanodisk and a two-dimensional chiral gain medium – a monolayer nanoflake of a transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMDC). When one valley of the TMDC is selectively pumped (e.g. by a circular-polarized radiation), the spaser (surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) generates a mode carrying a topological chiral charge that matches that of the gain valley. There is another, chirally mismatched, time-reversed mode with exactly the same frequency but the opposite topological charge; it is actively suppressed by the gain saturation and never generates, leading to a strong topological protection for the generating matched mode. This topological spaser is promising for use in nano-optics and nanospectroscopy in the near field especially in applications to biomolecules that are typically chiral. Another potential application is a chiral nanolabel for biomedical applications emitting in the far field an intense circularly polarized coherent radiation.

Field of study: Physics
Quaternary rate of folding of the Ventura Avenue anticline, western Transverse Ranges, southern California

Upper Quaternary terraces of the Ventura River, California, are uplifted, tilted, and folded over the Ventura Avenue anticline. Rates of uplift and tilting have decreased since inception of the structure over the past 200 ka. Assuming that the chronology, based on amino-acid racemization, 14C dates, and soils correlation, is approximately correct, then the minimum possible average rate of uplift in the axial region of the fold has decreased from ∼14 mm/yr to 2 mm/yr during the past 200 ka. Interval rates of uplift for the periods 200 ka to 80 or 105 ka, 80 or 105 ka to 30 ka, and 30 ka to present are, respectively, about 20 mm/yr, 9 mm/yr, and 5 mm/yr. The rate of tilting shows a similar trend, decreasing from ∼5.8 urad/yr, 2.5 urad/yr, and 1.2 urad/yr for the same time intervals, respectively. Based on the mechanics of flexural slip folds in stratified sedimentary rocks, these data suggest that the rootless Ventura Avenue anticline is a fold that has been shortening at a relatively constant rate of about 9 mm/yr since its inception.

Field of study: Geology
Jan Smits, Omstreden rechtswetenschap, Over aard, methode en organisatie van de juridische discipline

Vooral sinds het verschijnen van het NJB-artikel van Stolker in 2003 (‘Ja, geléérd zijn jullie wel!’, Over de status van de rechtswetenschap, NJB 2003, 15, p. 766-778) heeft er in Nederland een discussie gewoed, met name in het NJB, over status en methoden van de rechtsgeleerdheid. Smits heeft daaraan bijgedragen als voorzitter van de Commissie prestatie-indicatoren en ranking, die in 2007 het VSNU-rapport Naar prestatie-indicatoren voor rechtswetenschappelijk onderzoek liet verschijnen. Maar nu heeft hij in een boek zijn eigen visie uitvoerig uiteengezet. Het is een helder, overzichtelijk en zeer leesbaar boek geworden. Smits is een goed jurist, die weet waar hij over schrijft. Hij stelt vast dat in de huidige wetenschappelijke wereld echte kennis vooral berust op empirisch onderzoek. De traditionele beoefening van de rechtswetenschap voldoet hieraan niet. Er bestaat dan een zekere neiging onder juristen die zichzelf niet uit de markt willen prijzen om ook de empirische kant op te gaan. Smits heeft geen enkel bezwaar tegen empirisch onderzoek naar het recht. Maar de reductie van het rechtswetenschappelijk onderzoek tot dergelijk empirisch onderzoek vindt hij gevaarlijk (vgl. p. 22). Hij is daarom kritisch over rechtsgeleerden die voor methoden vooral bij sociale of andere empirische wetenschappen gaan zoeken. Smits onderscheidt vier typen onderzoek (soorten vragen) waar de rechtswetenschap zich mee bezighoudt.  1. De beschrijvende rechtswetenschap (hoe luidt het recht?), 2. De normatieve rechtswetenschap (hoe behoort het te luiden?), 3. De empirische rechtswetenschap (welke consequenties heeft de toepassing van een bepaalde rechtsregel?), en 4. Het metajuridisch perspectief (wat is recht, waarom geldt het en hoe ontwikkelt het zich?) (p. 28, 29). Vraag 4 is onderwerp van rechtsfilosofie en rechtstheorie. Het is misschien teleurstellend voor de lezers van dit tijdschrift, maar aan deze vraag worden nauwelijks meer dan twee pagina’s gewijd (waarin Kelsens Grundnorm en Harts ultimate rule of recognition wel wat erg snel als verouderd worden weggezet; zie p. 57, 58). De empirische rechtswetenschap krijgt niet veel meer aandacht (vijf pagina’s). Smits schrijft vooral over de beschrijvende en de normatieve rechtswetenschap. De laatste vormt naar zijn mening de kern van de rechtswetenschap (p. 28, 63, 70). De normatieve rechtswetenschap is, meent Smits, niet gebonden aan beslissingen van juridische autoriteiten als bijvoorbeeld de wetgever (p. 74). Ook andere vaste ankerpunten (rechtseconomie, empirisch onderzoek, mensenrechten) ontbreken.

Field of study: Philosophy
Observing and Forecasting Vog Dispersion from Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii

AbstractEmissions from Kīlauea volcano, known locally as “vog” for volcanic smog, pose significant environmental and health risks to the Hawaiian community. The Vog Measurement and Prediction (VMAP) project was conceived to help mitigate the negative impacts of Kīlauea’s emissions. To date, the VMAP project has achieved the following milestones: i) created a custom application of the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model (HYSPLIT, hereafter Vog model) to produce statewide forecasts of the concentration and dispersion of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and sulfate aerosol from Kīlauea volcano; ii) developed an ultraviolet (UV) spectrometer array to provide near-real-time volcanic gas emission rate measurements for use as input into the Vog model; iii) developed and deployed a stationary array of ambient SO2 and meteorological sensors to record the spatial characteristics of Kīlauea’s gas plume in high temporal and spatial resolution for model verification; and iv) developed web-based tools to ...

Field of study: Environmental science
Radiometric characterization of ultrahigh radiance xenon short-arc discharge lamps.

Xenon short-arc discharge lamps exhibit ultrahigh radiance with substantial emission beyond the visible, primarily in the near infrared. Their radiance distributions are spatially and angularly inhomogeneous due to both the structure of the plasma arc and the infrared radiation from the electrodes. These characteristics are favorable for high-irradiance biomedical and high-temperature reactor applications that exploit both visible light and infrared radiation. For the affiliated optical designs, full-spectrum radiometry, rather than just visible photometry, is needed and not extensively available. We present experimental measurements for the spectral, spatial, and angular distributions of such 150 W lamps and relate the consequences for such novel applications.

Field of study: Physics