nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Localised defect states in electron-irradiated Pb1-xSnxSe alloys

The effect of pressure on the galvanomagnetic properties of electron-irradiated n-Pb1-xSnxSe (0.07<or=x<or=0.125) has been investigated. The electron concentration as a function of pressure is used to determine the parameters of the band of radiation-induced resonant states and to reconstruct the energy spectrum of Pb1-xSnxSe alloys irradiated with electrons.

Field of study: Materials science
Optimality conditions for truncated Laguerre networks

Presents optimality conditions for truncated Laguerre networks both for continuous time and for discrete time. Contrary to the current approach, no assumption is made about the whiteness of the power spectrum of the input signal. Curiously, the results obtained have the same form as those published for the more restrictive case where the input signal is an impulse at the time origin (or white noise).

Field of study: Engineering
On the possible influence of extraterrestrial volatiles on Earth's climate and the origin of the oceans

A consideration of observational and circumstantial evidence suggests that Earth may be subject to high influx rates (1011–1012 kg/yr) of extraterrestrial-sourced volatile elements (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen) derived from comets or other primitive solar-system material. The total extraterrestrial influx rate may be four to five orders of magnitude greater than previously thought, large enough to account for today's total near-surface inventories of water and carbon. The possibility of high rates of extraterrestrial volatile-accretion suggests a new climatic paradigm wherein Earth's surface temperature is influenced by conflicting internal and external processes. A variable influx of volatile elements tends to warm the Earth, while terrestrial processes cool the planet by absorbing these gasses at a more uniform rate. Variations in extraterrestrial influx rates may explain the variation of sea level and mean global temperature over geologic time, as well as some types of climate change, the occurrence of the Pleistocene ice ages, and the asymmetry of the Phanerozoic climate record (sudden warmings, slow coolings). The extraterrestrial influx rate may also act as the pacemaker of terrestrial evolution, at times leading to mass extinctions through climatic shifts induced by changes in accretion rates with concomitant disruptions of the carbon and nitrogen cycles. Life on Earth may be balanced precariously between cosmic processes which deliver an intermittent stream of life-sustaining volatiles from the outer solar system or beyond, and biological and tectonic processes which remove these same volatiles from the atmosphere by sequestering water and carbon in the crust and mantle.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
The TRPC6-AMPK Pathway is Involved in Insulin-Dependent Cytoskeleton Reorganization and Glucose Uptake in Cultured Rat Podocytes

Podocytes are dynamic polarized cells on the surface of glomerular capillaries that are an essential part of the glomerular filtration barrier. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a key regulator of glucose and fatty acid metabolism, plays a major role in obesity and type 2 diabetes. Accumulating evidence suggests that TRPC6 channels are crucial mediators of calcium transport in podocytes and are involved in regulating glomerular filtration. Here we investigated whether the AMPK-TRPC6 pathway is involved in insulin-dependent cytoskeleton reorganization and glucose uptake in cultured rat podocytes.  Western blot and immunofluorescence analysis confirmed AMPKα and TRPC6 expression, the phosphorylation of proteins associated with actin cytoskeleton reorganization (PAK, rac1, and cofilin), and the expression of insulin signaling proteins (Akt, Insulin receptor). Coimmunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence results demonstrated AMPKα/TRPC6 interaction. To ask whether TRPC6 is involved in the insulin regulation of glucose transport, we measured insulin-dependent (1, 2-3H)-deoxy-D-glucose uptake into podocytes after reducing TRPC6 activity pharmacologically and biochemically (TRPC6 siRNA).  The results suggested a key role for the TRPC6 channel in the mediation of insulin-dependent activation of AMPKα2 and glucose uptake. Moreover, AMPK and TRPC6 activation were required to stimulate the Rac1 signaling pathway.  These results suggest a potentially important new mechanism that regulates glucose transport in podocytes and that could be injurious during diabetes.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry
A method to generate reusable safety case argument-fragments from compositional safety analysis

Safety-critical systems usually need to be accompanied by an explained and well-founded body of evidence to show that the system is acceptably safe. While reuse within such systems covers mainly code, reusing accompanying safety artefacts is limited due to a wide range of context dependencies that need to be satisfied for safety evidence to be valid in a different context. Currently the most commonly used approaches that facilitate reuse lack support for reuse of safety artefacts.

Field of study: Computer science, Engineering
Compensation Committee Quality and Effective Executive Remuneration

Grounding in the agency theory, this paper questions whether high quality compensation committee influences the design of executive remuneration towards the alignment of the contrasting interests between managers and shareholders. Relying on a comprehensive approach that captures the compensation committee quality based on different attributes (i.e. independence, interlocking directorates, directors appointed by minorities) we conduct a two-step empirical analysis. First, we illustrate the evolution over time of the stock option plan characteristics and construct an illustrative diagram that shows the linkages between the attributes of the compensation committee quality and the elements of the option plans. Second, we run a probit regression analysis to deeply investigate the picture emerging from the diagram. Our results document that the quality of compensation committee significantly affects the assignment of incentive stock option plans. The paper evidence advances the knowledge in the literature on compensation committee and executive remuneration, by highlighting that structural characteristics of the committee other than independence of its members play a pivotal role in writing effective remuneration contracts for the executives. Our findings are also useful for investors and policymakers.

Field of study: Business
Exploring Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching

Mathematical knowledge for teaching is a construct currently explored in research and is found to be one of the best predictors of student achievement in mathematics. This study assessed the readiness and characterized student teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching elementary mathematics. Data were collected through a teacher-made instrument measuring mathematical knowledge for teaching which consists of the domains common content knowledge, specialized content knowledge, knowledge of content and students and knowledge of content and teaching. Results of the study show that these pre-service teachers have very low performance in the test, an indication that they were not adequately equipped with the subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge needed for teaching elementary mathematics. In the light of the findings of the study, future elementary mathematics teachers should take courses that will help them acquire the subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge needed for teaching the subject during their teacher preparation program.  Mathematical knowledge for teaching, subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, pre-service teachers, elementary mathematics DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-12-08 Publication date : April 30 th 2019

Field of study: Education
DETERMINATION OF CHANGE POINTS OF NON-MONOTONIC FAILURE RATES

This paper was motivated by the problem of the determination of the change points of the failure rate of a mixture of two gamma distributions. For certain values of the parameters the existing methods are not applicable since, in this case, there are two turning points of the failure rate. Thus, we extend the results to models having two or more turning points of the failure rates. The extended procedure helps us to identify failure rates of more complex forms. Finally, the mixture gamma case is completely resolved employing theoretical, graphical and numerical techniques wherever necessary.

Field of study: Mathematics
Nearest neighbor ising model with added local 4-spin interaction

The effects of adding a local 4-spin term to the nearest neighbor Ising model are studied. The relevant parameter isx, the ratio of the four- to the two-spin interaction strength. We have evaluated the first six terms of the high temperature susceptibility expansion and found them to be consistent with the value 1.75 of the critical exponent γ. The critical exponent α is shown to remain zero to first order inx, provided that the free energy is analytic inx. We also demonstrate the equivalence of the model examined to an elastic spin system with pure two-spin interactions.

Field of study: Physics
OPARC: Optimal and Precise Array Response Control Algorithm—Part I: Fundamentals

In this paper, the problem of how to optimally and precisely control array response levels is addressed. By using the concept of the optimal weight vector from the adaptive array theory and adding virtual interferences one by one, the change rule of the optimal weight vector is found and a new formulation of the weight vector update is thus devised. Then, the issue of how to precisely control the response level of one single direction is investigated. More specifically, we assign a virtual interference to a direction such that the response level can be precisely controlled. Moreover, the parameters, such as the interference-to-noise ratio, can be figured out according to the desired level. Additionally, the parameter optimization is carried out to obtain the maximal array gain. The resulting scheme is called optimal and precise array response control (OPARC) in this paper. To understand it better, its properties are given, and its comparison with the existing accurate array response control algorithm is provided. Finally, simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed OPARC.

Field of study: Engineering
Dengxiaoping's view on International Strategies

Peace and development,which is the t opic of our age,are the basis of Deng Xiaoping' s international strategic think-ing.The content of the thinking includes maintaining independence and k eeping the initiative,seeking and d efend-ing the world peace,urging the estab lishment of the new order of international politics and economics,playing the important role of the multipolar world and fulfilling the obligation in t he international affairs.Our government adjust-ed the foreign policy and started a new phase of the diplomatic work under t he instruction of Deng' s thinking after the third central summit of the 11th C onvention of Chinese Communist Party.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Liu Shi-pei’s Outlook on the History of Literature

From the late Qing dynasty to the modern times, Liu Shi-pei observed and studied the literal history in the viewof pure literature; the theoretical bases of his study are the conventional outlook on the literature and the Darwinian concept, basing on his specialized knowledge of the classical works and historical works, under the influence of the Western learning. He held that literature was an ever changing dynamic process. He focused on the changes of literal history and found out the reasons for the changes. He explored the regular patterns in the development of Chinese literature, using the methodology of searching the "source" and "development",which is a great significance to the study of Chinese literal history.All theses tudies formed his systematic outlook on the history of literature, which reflects the features of the times distinguishing from the old Chinese learning.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Post-extinction diversification patterns of brachiopods in the early–middle Llandovery, Silurian

Network and frequency distribution analyses of global brachiopod occurrences in the earliest Silurian (Rhuddanian–Aeronian) revealed that brachiopod recovery from the end-Ordovician mass extinction during the early–late Rhuddanian was represented mainly by the reestablishment of Late Ordovician cosmopolitan holdover taxa. Brachiopods nearly doubled their generic diversity from Rhuddanian to Aeronian, owing to the radiation of both endemic and cosmopolitan taxa, associated with an overall post-glacial amelioration of global environment and increased habitat heterogeneity as a result of marine transgressions and expansion of epeiric seas. A drastic turnover from the Ordovician-type to Silurian-type brachiopod faunas took place in the Aeronian, several million years after the terminal Ordovician mass extinction. Compared with the orders of orthides and strophomenides that radiated and predominated in the Ordovician, the atrypides and pentamerides displayed pulses of drastic diversification from the Rhuddanian to Aeronian, mainly in tropically located paleoplates, to become the most abundant and diverse brachiopod orders in the Silurian. Atrypides recovered in the early Rhuddanian, whereas diversification of pentamerides was delayed until the Aeronian and becoming widespread in South China, Kazakhstan terranes, Baltica, Avalonia, and Laurentia.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
Epidemiology of adult-onset hydrocephalus: institutional experience with 2001 patients.

Adult-onset hydrocephalus is not commonly discussed in the literature, especially regarding its demographic distribution. In contrast to pediatric hydrocephalus, which is related to a primary CSF pathway defect, its development in adults is often secondary to other pathologies. In this study, the authors investigated the epidemiology of adult-onset hydrocephalus as it pertains to different etiologies and in reference to age, sex, and race distributions.  The authors retrospectively reviewed the clinical notes of 2001 patients with adult-onset hydrocephalus who presented to Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center within a 25-year span. Significant differences between the groups were analyzed by a chi-square test; p < 0.05 was considered significant.  The overall mean (± SEM) incidence of adult hydrocephalus in this population was 77 ± 30 per year, with a significant increase in incidence in the past decade (55 ± 3 [1990-2003] vs 102 ± 6 [2004-2015]; p < 0.0001). Hydrocephalus in a majority of the patients had a vascular etiology (45.5%) or was a result of a tumor (30.2%). The incidence of hydrocephalus in different age groups varied according to various pathologies. The incidence was significantly higher in males with normal-pressure hydrocephalus (p = 0.03) or head injury (p = 0.01) and higher in females with pseudotumor cerebri (p < 0.0001). In addition, the overall incidence of hydrocephalus was significantly higher in Caucasian patients (p = 0.0002) than in those of any other race.  Knowledge of the demographic variations in adult-onset hydrocephalus is helpful in achieving better risk stratification and better managing the disease in patients. For general applicability, these results should be validated in a large-scale meta-analysis based on a national population database.

Field of study: Medicine
High Gamma Ray Tolerance for 4H-SiC Bipolar Circuits

A high gamma radiation hardness of 4H-SiC circuits is performed. The OR NOR circuits are based on emitter coupled logic (ECL), using integrated bipolar NPN transistors. Gain degradation in individual bipolar junction transistors (BJT) is minimal up to a dose of 38 Mrad (SiO2), but for the dose of 332 Mrad (SiO2) a degradation of 52% is observed. The SiC BJTs show higher radiation hardness than existing Si-technology and high stability under temperature stress. It is proposed that the oxide charge-dominated recombination is the key base current recombination mechanism contributing to gain degradation. An improvement in the gain is seen after annealing at 400 °C for 1800 s due to the possible annealing of some of the oxide defects contributing to the oxide charge.

Field of study: Physics
Sternoclavicular joint septic arthritis and osteomyelitis caused by Aggregatibacter aphrophilus.

A 62-year-old lady was referred to the Infectious Diseases outpatients clinics with a 3-week history of right shoulder pain and a 1-week history of progressive swelling and erythema of the soft tissue overlying the right sternoclavicular joint (SCJ). No systemic symptoms were reported. No triggering event could be recalled and there was no recent travel, no animal exposure and no known contact with tuberculosis.

On examination, temperature was normal and the patient appeared systemically well. There was an indurated, tender, erythematous, warm swelling over her right SCJ with associated decreased range of movement of the right shoulder. Cardiac examination revealed a soft systolic murmur. No other peripheral stigmata of endocarditis were identified. The patient was admitted for investigation and work up of a suspected SCJ septic arthritis arising either as a consequence of an undocumented bacteraemia or due to a contiguous extension from overlying skin and soft tissue infection.

Initial laboratory investigations revealed a normal white cell count and differential. Inflammatory markers were elevated with an ESR of 94 mm/h (<36) and a CRP of 84 mg/l (<5). Serial blood cultures were obtained prior to therapy commencement. A targeted ultrasound (US) of the SCJ was performed urgently. This identified a small pocket of fluid adjacent to the right SCJ, intimately associated with the joint space. This fluid was aspirated under US guidance. Treatment comprising high-dose intravenous (IV) flucloxacillin and benzylpenicillin was subsequently commenced.

Imaging with computed tomography and magnetic resonance (MR) revealed marked soft tissue oedema surrounding the SCJ associated with oedema and inflammatory changes in the adjacent bone and parietal pleura (Figure 1a and b). A transthoracic echocardiogram did not identify any features suggestive of endocarditis. This finding was later confirmed with a trans-oesophageal echocardiogram. 



Figure 1. 
( a ) Computed tomography image. Marked …

Field of study: Medicine
The Effectiveness of Educational Games on Scientific Concepts Acquisition in First Grade Students in Science

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of educational games on scientific concepts acquisition by the first grade students. The sample of the study consisted of (53) male and female students distributed into two groups: experimental group (n=26) which taught by educational games, and control group (n=27) which taught by traditional method. To achieve the purpose of the study, the researcher developed a teaching guide included eight educational games, and a test to measure scientific concepts acquisition. Results showed that there were statistically significant differences in students’ scientific concepts acquisition due to the method of teaching in favor of the experimental group. Also, there were no statistically significant differences in students’ scientific concepts acquisition due to the gender or the interaction between method of teaching and gender. The study recommended using educational games in teaching science in primary education.  Educational Games, Scientific Concepts,

Field of study: Education
Interactive effects of aluminium and phosphorus on microbial leaf litter processing in acidified streams: a microcosm approach.

Decline in pH, elevated aluminium (Al) concentrations, and base cations depletion often covary in acidified headwater streams. These parameters are considered as the main factors reducing microbial activities involved in detritus processing, but their individual and interactive effects are still unclear. In addition to its direct toxicity, Al can also reduce the bioavailability of phosphorus (P) in ecosystems through the formation of stable chemical complexes. A three week microcosm experiment was carried out in acid conditions to assess the interactive effects of Al (three levels: 0, 200, and 1,000 μg L(-1)) and P (25, 100, and 1,000 μg L(-1)) on alder leaf litter processing by an aquatic hyphomycete consortium. Our results showed that Al alone reduced fungal growth and altered fungal decomposer activities. High P levels, probably through an alleviation of Al-induced P limitation and a reduction of Al toxic forms, suppressed the negative effects of Al on detritus decomposition.

Field of study: Environmental science
The Request of the Venezuelan Colonial Government for the Extradition of Bolivar

The recent discovery of an unknown document in the Archivo General de la Nacion, Caracas, Venezuela, revealed a new detail concerning the life of Simon Bolivar. This document shows the effort exerted by the Spanish colonial government in Venezuela to extradite Bolivar from Haiti in 1816. Bolivar was forced to seek refuge abroad following a cycle of military defeats. In early 1815, Bolivar found himself outside the walls of Cartagena in need of supplies from the revolutionary forces holding that city. General Manuel del Castillo, military commander of Cartagena and an enemy and rival of Bolivar, refused to furnish the supplies or to permit Bolivar's entrance into the city. While the two rivals glared at each other in costly stalemate, Spanish troops marched victoriously toward Cartagena, pinching Bolivar between them and the hostile Castillo forces. Under these circumstances, Bolivar concluded that it would be better to leave the scene of battle and, thus, to avoid dividing the patriot army in the presence of a strong Spanish force. Bolivar resigned his commission, and on May 9, 1815, he sailed for Jamaica aboard a British vessel.

Field of study: History
Microstructural effects on the 1/fα noise of thin aluminum based films

The 1 /fα noise was measured on a variety of Al-based thin metal films with widely varying microstructure using an ac bridge technique. The magnitude of the current noise in response to a small, non-destructive ac signal was found to vary several orders of magnitude between 0.01 and 10 Hz and was correlated to the microstructural differ-ences of the films. These differences have a strong affect on film lifetimes as measured in an accelerated electromigration test. Variation in microstructure was accomplished by different deposition temperatures and annealing parameters, and verified using TEM micrographs. Following fabrication, the current noise magnitude was measured and found to be sensitive to film width and grain size. The use of this technique to discriminate differences in film microstructure is discussed along with the correlations between ex-cess noise and the quality of the thin film as a metallic interconnection.

Field of study: Materials science