nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
ANALYSIS OF LONG-TERM DEFLECTION OF EXTERNALLY PRESTERSSED STEEL-CONCRETE COMPOSITE BEAMS

Externally prestressed steel-concrete composite beams share the features of prestressed steel structures, prestressed concrete structures and non-prestressed steel-concrete composite beams. The theoretical model to compute the long-term deflection of externally prestressed steel-concrete composite beams was deduced in this paper, which considered the effects of steel bars in concrete slab, concrete shrinkage and creep, and tendon relaxation. The theoretical model was firstly validated through a comparison between the computed results with the test results. Then factors affecting the long-term deflections of externally prestressed steel-concrete composite beams were discussed, including the age to tension, initial effective pretension, normal longitudinal reinforcement ratio, concrete slab width, steel beam height, environmental relative humidity, concrete strength and prestressing tendon types. The results showed that the existing of externally prestress reduced the additional deflection of composite beam by an amount of 28.9% when the external prestress countervailed the deflection produced by dead loads. Besides, a larger initial effective pretension can decrease the ultimate additional deflection at the mid-span. This study provides useful references for the design and deflection control of externally prestressed steel-concrete composite beams.

Field of study: Engineering
An Exploration of the Preparation and Organization of Teaching Practice Exercise to Prospective Science and Mathematics Teachers toward Improving Teaching Profession at Morogoro Teachers’ College

This paper explored the preparation and organization of teaching practice exercise to prospective science and mathematics teachers in Tanzania teachers college specifically Morogoro Teachers’ College toward improving teaching profession. Due to the challenges stated by different scholars on preparation and organization of teaching practice exercise, the researcher doubt whether the teaching practice exercise prepared and organized at Morogoro teachers college during training helps the prospective science and mathematics teacher to improve their teaching professions. The study employed qualitative approach with a case study design. Key informant interview, documentary review and focus group discussion were the main methods of data collection where 32 respondents were purposively involved in data collection. Content analysis was used to analyze data thematically. The study found that the preparation and organization of teaching practice exercise at Morogoro teachers college was not effective to improve teaching profession of the prospective science and mathematics teachers, because the student teachers were not oriented practically to the teaching tools and towards proper teaching skills. On top of that the raking of the schools was not well conducted. Also the duration of teaching practices were not enough as well as inappropriate time planned for the exercise.  Preparation and Organization, Teaching Practice, Teacher Education, Science and Mathematics,  Teachers, Student Teacher, Tutors.

Field of study: Education
Adaptive Threshold Based on Lifting Wavelet for Fire Image Edge Detection

Presents the method of adaptive threshold based on lifting wavelet for fire image edge detection,aimming at the real-time character of fire image and many fire characters in fire edge.Lifting wavelet is used to detect the edge through multi-level wavelet decomposition,thus ibtaubs the image edges of different resolution.Then these edges are combined as an integrated edge.The experimental results show that this algorithm edge positioning accuracy,noise immunity,the detected image edge continuous,smooth,and is an effective method of edge detection.

Field of study: Computer science
Differentiation of surficial glacial drift in southeastern Michigan from 7-Å/10-Å X-ray diffraction ratios of clays

Woodfordian till deposited by the juxtaposed Saginaw and Huron-Erie glacial lobes in southeastern Michigan appears similar in many respects but may be differentiated on the basis of certain mineralogical characteristics of clay-sized particles. This is apparent from X-ray diffractograms of basally oriented, magnesium-saturated, and glycerol-solvated specimens. Thirty-five till samples from the converging Kalamazoo (Saginaw lobe) and Mississinewa (Huron-Erie lobe) moraines and their interlobate tract have 7-A/10-A peak height ratios that differ significantly according to provenance. Every sample from locations within and proximal to the Kalamazoo moraine has a ratio of 0.91 or more. All but one of the samples from the Mississinewa moraine and areas to the east have ratios less than 0.91. Data from several other sources indicate that the same relationships also exist on a larger scale in southeastern Michigan. The findings are consistent with previous interpretations of the area9s geology and may provide a reliable basis for the placement of the surficial boundary between drifts deposited in a complex interlobate area.

Field of study: Geology
Monitoring crayfish using a mark-recapture method: potentials, recommendations, and limitations

Crayfish are regarded as useful indicators of environmental quality and freshwater biodiversity. However, reliable methods for monitoring their populations are needed so that this potential can be fully utilised. We report and discuss methodological aspects of the white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes complex) survey conducted in Piedmont, Italy, with the use of mark-recapture. The results suggest that the method can serve as a convenient tool for estimating the size of crayfish populations and inferring their temporal trends. The two populations investigated appeared closed except for wintertime and July. Consequently, the Robust Design, which is regarded as the most reliable mark-recapture approach, can be easily applied. The minimum effective sampling plan for monitoring purposes should comprise one primary period per year, conducted in the summer–autumn season, and consisting of three capture sessions. If gaining insight into the ecology of the investigated species is the prime objective and sufficient resources are available, the optimal plan should include two primary periods (in spring and the summer–autumn season) of five capture sessions each. Capture sessions need to be separated by roughly 2-week intervals in order to avoid the strong, but short-term, negative effect of capturing crayfish on their recapture chances. As the model without heterogeneity in capture probabilities ensures better estimate precision we recommend that data collected for both sexes are analysed separately. Taking into consideration higher male catchabilities and sex ratio being invariably 1:1, it also seems beneficial to estimate only male numbers and double them to achieve total population sizes.

Field of study: Environmental science
Management accounting use and financial performance in public health-care organisations: evidence from the Italian National Health Service.

Reforms of the public health-care sector have emphasised the role of management accounting (MA). However, there is little systematic evidence on its use and benefits. To fill this gap, we propose a contingency-based model which addresses three related issues, that is, whether: (i) MA use is influenced by contextual variables and MA design; (ii) top-management satisfaction with MA mediates the relationship between MA design and MA use; and (iii) financial performance is influenced by MA use. A questionnaire was mailed out to all Italian public health-care organisations. Structural equation modelling was performed to validate the research hypotheses. The response rate was 49%. Our findings suggest that: (i) cost-containment strategies encourage more sophisticated MA designs; (ii) MA use is directly and indirectly influenced by contingency, organisational, and behavioural variables; (iii) a weakly significant positive relationship exists between MA use and financial performance. These findings are relevant from the viewpoint of both top managers and policymakers. The former must make sure that MA is not only technically advanced, but also properly understood and appreciated by users. The latter need to be aware that MA may improve performance in ways and along dimensions that may not fully translate into better financial results.

Field of study: Medicine, Political science
IgE plasma cells in human jejunum demonstrated by immune electron microscopy.

An immune electron microscopy technique has been employed to detect IgE plasma cells in histologically normal human jejunal biopsies. Anti-IgE-labelled plasma cells have been found in the lamina propria of three out of eight biopsies studied. Thus this report ends speculation regarding the presence of IgE plasma cells in human jejunum and supports other data indicating local IgE production in mucosal tissues.

Field of study: Biology, Medicine
Effect of short-term interferon-β treatment on cytokines in multiple sclerosis: significant modulation of IL-17 and IL-23.

Therapeutic effect of interferon-β (IFN-β) treatment has been associated with modulation of the balance between Th1, Th17, Th2 and regulatory T (Treg) cells, whereas the impact of disease modifying drugs on Th9-immunity in multiple sclerosis (MS) has not been studied. To investigate the short-term effects of IFN-β treatment on cytokines in MS, we determined serum levels of IL-17, IL-23, IL-10, IL-4, IFN-γ, IL-9 and TGF-β in relapsing remitting MS patients before and 2 months after IFN-β treatment by ELISA. MS patients showed increased IL-17, IL-23 and IL-4 levels and decreased IL-9 levels as compared to healthy controls. IFN-β treatment only reduced IL-17 and IL-23 levels, whereas the levels of other cytokines remained unchanged. IFN-β treatment appears to exert its earliest therapeutic effect on Th17-immunity. The influence of IL-9 on MS pathogenesis needs to be further studied.

Field of study: Medicine
Digital Simulaiion of a Commercial Scale High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR) Steam Power Plant

A nonlinear dynamic model of a commercial scale high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) steam power plant was derived in state-space form from fundamental principles. The plant model is 40th order, time-invariant, deterministic and continuous-time. Numerical results were obtained by digital simulation. Steady-state performance of the nonlinear model was verified with plant heat balance data at 100, 75 and 50 percent load levels. Local stability, controllability and observability were examined in this range using standard linear algorithms. Transfer function matrices for the linearized models were also obtained. Transient response characteristics of 6 system variables for independent step disturbances in 2 different input variables are presented as typical results. Simulation of the HTGR steam power plant provides the basis for (a) understanding the complex and highly interactive process dynamics, (b) designing an interactive multivariable controller, and (c) studying plant dynamic performance under various operating and upset conditions. Modeling and simulation techniques developed in the work from which this paper is abstracted have general applicability, and can be readily adapted to the study of gas-cooled steam power plants.

Field of study: Physics
A Novel Attribute Reduction Algorithm Based on GA

Attribute reduction is a key problem for the rough set theory and to solve the minimum reduction belongs to the NP-Hard problem.In order to achieve effectively relative attribute reduction,proposes a rough set attribute reduction algorithm based on GA.The core is joined initial population in GA in order to accelerate capacity.And introduces the dependence degree of decision attribute in the condition attribute in the fitness function,so as the algorithm can not only ensure the global optimization performance but strengthen the local search ability,obtain optimal search performacnce.Experiential result shows the algorithm is fast and effective.

Field of study: Computer science
Symptoms and social adjustment in Jewish depressives.

In 25 Jewish and 26 non-Jewish depressives resident in Hackney, the PSE revealed that 'hypochondriasis' and 'tension' were more common in the Jewish group, and special features of depression, containing symptoms connected with guilt, was less common. These differences could not be explained by variation in severity of illness as both groups had similar scores on the HRSD. The 'social maladjustment' scores were similar, very probably reflecting an elderly, deprived, inner-city population.

Field of study: Medicine, Psychology
Phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) in EMR-linked pediatric cohorts, genetically links PLCL1 to speech language development and IL5-IL13 to Eosinophilic Esophagitis

We report the first pediatric specific Phenome-Wide Association Study (PheWAS) using electronic medical records (EMRs). Given the early success of PheWAS in adult populations, we investigated the feasibility of this approach in pediatric cohorts in which associations between a previously known genetic variant and a wide range of clinical or physiological traits were evaluated. Although computationally intensive, this approach has potential to reveal disease mechanistic relationships between a variant and a network of phenotypes.  Data on 5049 samples of European ancestry were obtained from the EMRs of two large academic centers in five different genotyped cohorts. Recently, these samples have undergone whole genome imputation. After standard quality controls, removing missing data and outliers based on principal components analyses (PCA), 4268 samples were used for the PheWAS study. We scanned for associations between 2476 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) with available genotyping data from previously published GWAS studies and 539 EMR-derived phenotypes. The false discovery rate was calculated and, for any new PheWAS findings, a permutation approach (with up to 1,000,000 trials) was implemented.  This PheWAS found a variety of common variants (MAF > 10%) with prior GWAS associations in our pediatric cohorts including Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA), Asthma, Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) and Type 1 Diabetes with a false discovery rate < 0.05 and power of study above 80%. In addition, several new PheWAS findings were identified including a cluster of association near the NDFIP1 gene for mental retardation (best SNP rs10057309, p = 4.33 × 10−7, OR = 1.70, 95%CI = 1.38 − 2.09); association near PLCL1 gene for developmental delays and speech disorder [best SNP rs1595825, p = 1.13 × 10−8, OR = 0.65(0.57 − 0.76)]; a cluster of associations in the IL5-IL13 region with Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) [best at rs12653750, p = 3.03 × 10−9, OR = 1.73 95%CI = (1.44 − 2.07)], previously implicated in asthma, allergy, and eosinophilia; and association of variants in GCKR and JAZF1 with allergic rhinitis in our pediatric cohorts [best SNP rs780093, p = 2.18 × 10−5, OR = 1.39, 95%CI = (1.19 − 1.61)], previously demonstrated in metabolic disease and diabetes in adults.  The PheWAS approach with re-mapping ICD-9 structured codes for our European-origin pediatric cohorts, as with the previous adult studies, finds many previously reported associations as well as presents the discovery of associations with potentially important clinical implications.

Field of study: Biology
Liberal and Conservative Differential Item Functioning Detection Using Mantel-Haenszel and SIBTEST: Implications for Type I and Type II Error Rates

The aim of this work was to determine, in terms of Type I and Type II error rates, the risks of applying various statistical procedures for evaluating differential item functioning. To this end, the authors carried out a simulation study in which the Mantel-Haenszel and SIBTEST procedures were applied in conjunction. The variables manipulated were sample size and distribution of ability between groups. Results indicated that, although there was a high rate of agreement between the procedures, the joint Type I and Type II error rate may vary substantially from that obtained when each of the procedures was applied separately. Furthermore, the authors analyzed empirical data to obtain information complementary to the Monte Carlo study. Two strategies that minimize each type of error and some issues of a practical nature are discussed.

Field of study: Education
Kragtige kuilvoerraad uit Noordwes : bedryf

MPO Noordwes en Biomin se praktiese kuilvoerdag buite Lichtenburg het Sakkie Roode se plaas, Doornhoek, in 'n klein Nampo omskep, kompleet met meganisasie uitstalling, produkverskaffers by dosyne en 'n stewige dosis teoretiese en praktiese kennis.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Forced Illiteracy of Women, the Incidence of the Rural Areas

The purpose of this paper is to identify the illiteracy of women in rural areas of Albania in the past two decades. The reasons that led to forced child illiteracy of peripheral areas will be also considered, especially focusing on the consequences that illiteracy left among women. Their illiteracy affects the next generation through their children's education. The comparative approach is what dominates the paper, referring to the comparison of the educational system in two periods, the communist and the post-communist regime in Albania. It is an interstate comparison, only in a few cases will be referred to regional and global comparisons concerning certain parameters of compulsory education. References of the paper will be mainly based on statistics fro the Institute of Statistics and the Ministry of Education and Science. Cases published in the print will also be to the attention of this paper, as well as standards and strategies regarding compulsory education in the country and in Europe. The paper seeks to attain an in-depth look at the problem and an approach from all angles, the factors and actors that have led to such a rate of female illiteracy in rural areas. One of the expectations of the paper will be the connection between reality and educational reforms in the country, the non-objective/biased approach and as a result the failure of the educational reform in the whole territory, in cases when specifics, social groups and gender are not taken into account. Illiteracy of women is not a sum of unfortunate cases, but a failed educational reform.

Field of study: Education, Sociology
Sediments of the Northern Middle America Trench

The Middle America Trench is a tectonically unstable area in which sediments have accumulated rapidly. Sediments from the upper part of the continental flank are folded and faulted within a perched basin and impounded by a ridge at the outer part of the basin. Little sediment accumulates permanently on the continental flank seaward of this basin. Sediments from the seaward flank have more biogenous material due to a lower rate of terrigenous deposition. Heavy minerals, coarse sands in the trench, facies similarities, displaced Foraminifera, and a textural gradation along the trench axis suggest that the sediments in the trench were deposited by turbidity currents. Carbon-14 dates indicate sedimentation rates as high as 146cm/1000 yrs in the trench bottom. Assuming constant conditions, the sediments found in the trench bottom would have taken only 4.5 × 10 6 yrs to accumulate. Sediment thicknesses vary along the trench axis but are consistent with present ideas of plate tectonics. Sedimentary facies of the Middle America Trench and the Gulf of California are similar due to the predominance of tectonic factors over depositional factors in these areas. In the Gulf of Mexico, the opposite is true, since the source regions have low relief and are subjected to stronger weathering.

Field of study: Geology
Thermalization in Heavy-Ion Collisions

We propose a model for isotropization and corresponding thermalization in a nucleon system created in the collision of two nuclei. The model is based on the assumption: during the fireball evolution, two-particle elastic and inelastic collisions give rise to the randomization of the nucleon-momentum transfer which is driven by a proper distribution. As a first approximation, we assume a homogeneous distribution where the values of the momentum transfer is bounded from above. These features have been shown to result in a smearing of the particle momenta about their initial values and, as a consequence, in their partial isotropization and thermalization. The nonequilibrium single-particle distribution function and single-particle spectrum which carry a memory about initial state of nuclei have been obtained.

Field of study: Physics
Dependency Rate and Savings: The African Evidence with Panel Data

This study examines the impact of the age dependency ratio on domestic savings rates. We test this issue for 16 African countries using annual panel data. The empirical analysis was conducted using the panel unit roots, panel cointegration and panel causality tests. The empirical findings indicate evidence of panel cointegration. Furthermore, results from panel causality analysis reveal that dependency ratio causes savings rate negatively. Overall, our findings support the view that changes in non-working population size are important in explaining the future path of domestic savings rates in Africa.

Field of study: Business
On the transience of egocentric working memory: evidence from testing the contribution of limbic brain regions.

Rats trained on a nonmatching-to-turn rule revealed that egocentric working memory is readily disrupted, hard to use, and transient. In Experiment 1, rats failed to acquire the rule in a plus-maze. Experiment 2 used 2 different plus-mazes to remove any intramaze cues. Task acquisition occurred only when rats could use direction cues (i.e., nonegocentric cues). In Experiments 3 and 4, a J maze was used to minimize the retention interval and eliminate handling rats within a trial. All rats acquired the nonmatching rule, although a 3-s retention delay severely impaired performance. Fornix lesions transiently disrupted performance of the J-maze task (Experiments 3 and 4), but neither fornix (Experiment 1) nor retrosplenial (Experiment 2) lesions impaired the plus-maze tasks.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Effect of nanoclusters induced by Si implantation on total dose radiation response of a SOI wafer

Si ion implantation with subsequent annealing was used to improve the irradiation hardness of SOI wafers. The reduced negative shifts in the threshold voltage of the n-channel transistors showed that the total dose radiation hardness was remarkably enhanced by this modification process, and the pseudo-MOS method was used to test the Id–VG characteristics of the SOI samples before and after irradiation. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra demonstrated that Si nanoclusters were formed during annealing in the buried oxide of the implanted samples, which were possibly the main candidates for charge compensation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results also suggested that reduction of the threshold voltage shifts was accompanied with the formation of Si nanoclusters near the peak of the implants. Furthermore, the effect of positive charge buildup can be partly reduced as a result of the improvement on proton trapping in the bulk of the oxide due to the implantation induced nanoclusters.

Field of study: Materials science