nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Long-term follow-up of urethral reconstruction for blunt urethral injury at a young age: urinary and sexual quality of life outcomes.

Little is known about long-term patient-reported outcomes following surgical repair for pediatric blunt urethral trauma.



The purpose was to evaluate long-term urinary outcomes, sexual function, and quality of life (QOL) of patients who undergo urethroplasty for blunt urethral trauma in childhood.



After IRB approval, we retrospectively reviewed the records of patients who sustained blunt urethral injury at ≤18 years and underwent urethroplasty at our institution between 1978 and 2013. We then used a web-based survey to assess urinary/sexual/ejaculatory function and overall QOL using validated questionnaires.



Of 68 eligible patients, 15 were able to be contacted (table). Median age of injury, age at urethroplasty, and age at follow-up were 17 (4-18), 17 (5-20), and 19 (13.5-21.5) years, respectively. The stricture was membranoprostatic in eight and bulbar in seven patients, with median length of 2 (1.6-2.6) cm. Excision/primary anastomosis was performed in all but three patients who required a buccal graft. Overall, 80% were 'very satisfied' and 20% were 'satisfied' with surgery. One patient reported a subsequent urethral intervention. On urethral stricture surgery patient-reported outcome measurement, the median bother (0 least, 24 worst) was 10 (8-12.5). The force of urine stream (1 strongest, 4 weakest) was 2 (1.5-2), with no report of urinary incontinence. The median Sexual Health Inventory for Men score (0 worst, 25 perfect) was 24 (22.5-24). The median ejaculatory function score (0 worst, 15 normal) was 14 (13-14.75). Six patients had fathered children and none reported infertility. Three patients reported <30° penile curvature not interfering with sex. Median QOL (0 worse, 10 best) was 8 (7.5-8).



Urethroplasty after blunt urethral injury in young adult population is associated with a high long-term success rate with a low rate of long-term urinary and sexual consequences in adulthood.

Field of study: Medicine
Significant climate benefits from near-term climate forcer mitigation in spite of aerosol reductions

Near-term climate forcers (NTCFs), including aerosols and chemically reactive gases such as tropospheric ozone and methane, offer a potential way to mitigate climate change and improve air quality—so called ‘win-win’ mitigation policies. Prior studies support improved air quality under NTCF mitigation, but with conflicting climate impacts that range from a significant reduction in the rate of global warming to only a modest impact. Here, we use state-of-the-art chemistry-climate model simulations conducted as part of the Aerosol and Chemistry Model Intercomparison Project (AerChemMIP) to quantify the 21st-century impact of NTCF reductions, using a realistic future emission scenario with a consistent air quality policy. Non-methane NTCF (NMNTCF; aerosols and ozone precursors) mitigation improves air quality, but leads to significant increases in global mean precipitation of 1.3% by mid-century and 1.4% by end-of-the-century, and corresponding surface warming of 0.23 and 0.21 K. NTCF (all-NTCF; including methane) mitigation further improves air quality, with larger reductions of up to 45% for ozone pollution, while offsetting half of the wetting by mid-century (0.7% increase) and all the wetting by end-of-the-century (non-significant 0.1% increase) and leading to surface cooling of −0.15 K by mid-century and −0.50 K by end-of-the-century. This suggests that methane mitigation offsets warming induced from reductions in NMNTCFs, while also leading to net improvements in air quality.

Field of study: Environmental science
Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Insomnia Treatment in a Community Sample of Older Individuals: More Questions than Conclusions

Effectiveness of two modified stimulus control insomnia interventions plus daily sleep self-monitoring for managing insomnia was investigated in a community sample of older adults. Significant post intervention improvement was observed in both interventions as well as in a self-monitoring only control condition. This unexpected finding led us to question the role of self-monitoring as a potential mediator of therapeutic change. Therefore, we compared long-term follow-up data from treated participants to data from similarly poor sleepers who only completed the questionnaire battery at Pre-test and long term follow-up, with no intervening treatment or self-monitoring. Both groups of poor sleepers reduced their reported amount of nocturnal wakefulness. However, only treated participants improved on their perceived frequency of insomnia episodes and insomnia-related distress. Our findings have implications both for the definition and the treatment of insomnia.

Field of study: Psychology
Utilizing ITS1 and ITS2 to study environmental fungal diversity using pyrosequencing.

The shorter reads generated by high-throughput sequencing has led to a focus on either the ITS1 or the ITS2 sublocus in fungal diversity analyses. Our study aimed to determine how making this choice would influence the datasets obtained and our vision of environmental fungal diversity. DNA was extracted from different environmental samples (water, sediments and soil) and the total internal transcribed spacer (ITS) locus was amplified. 454-sequencing was performed targeting both ITS1 and ITS2. No significant differences in the number of sequences, operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and in the dominant OTUs were detected but less diversity was observed in the ITS2 dataset. In the soil samples, differences in the fungal taxonomic identification were observed, with more Basidiomycota in the ITS1 dataset and more Ascomycota in the ITS2 dataset. Only one-third of the OTUs were detected in both datasets which could be due to (1) more short sequences removed in the ITS2 dataset, (2) different taxonomic affiliation depending on the sublocus used as BLASTn query and/or (3) selectivity in how a primer amplifies the true community. Although ITS1 and ITS2 datasets led to similar results at the fungal community level, for further in-depth diversity analysis this study suggests the analysis of both ITS regions, as they provided different information and were complementary.

Field of study: Biology, Environmental science
Dynamic Formation of Metastable Intermediate State Patterns in Type-I Superconductors

Structure of the intermediate state in type-I superconducting lead (Pb) is shown to be very sensitive to the ramp rate of an applied magnetic field. The configurations of resulting static patterns depend sensitively on the shape of the specimen. In particular, geometric barrier, present in the samples with rectangular cross-section, plays an important role in determining the sharp boundary between the phases of different topology. We propose that seemingly laminar (stripe) pattern obtained as a result of the fast field ramp is simply an imprint left behind by the fast-moving flux tubes. Our results confirm that flux tube phase is topologically favorable.

Field of study: Physics
Environmental drivers of spider community composition at multiple scales along an urban gradient

Broad-scale modification of natural ecosystems associated with urbanisation often leads to localised extinctions and reduced species richness. Despite this, habitats within the urban matrix are still capable of supporting biodiversity to varying degrees. As species have different responses to anthropogenic habitat modification, the species composition of urban areas can depend greatly on the habitat characteristics of the local and surrounding areas. The aim of this study was to compare the community composition of spiders in private gardens, urban parks, patches of remnant vegetation and continuous bushland sites, so as to identify habitat variables associated with variation in spider populations along and within the urban gradient and matrix. Overall spider abundances and richness were highest in remnant vegetation patches and were associated with increased vegetation cover at microhabitat and landscape-scales. While gardens were not as diverse as remnant patches, they did support a surprisingly high diversity of spiders. We also found that species composition differed significantly between gardens and other urban green spaces. Higher richness within gardens was also associated with greater vegetation cover, indicating the importance of private management decisions on local biodiversity. Differences in community composition between land-use types were driven by a small number of urban-tolerant species, and spider guilds showed different responses to habitat traits such as vegetation cover and human population densities. This study demonstrates that urban land-uses support unique spider communities and that maintaining vegetation cover within the urban matrix is essential in order to support diverse spider communities in cities.

Field of study: Environmental science
A nuclear location for Ca2+-activated adenylyl cyclases I and III in neurones.

Calcium/calmodulin-sensitive adenylyl cyclases are increasingly recognised as important factors in memory formation and synaptic plasticity. We have examined the distributions of adenylyl cyclases types I, III, and VIII within rat primary sensory neurons. Immunofluorescence revealed distinct staining for adenylyl cyclases type I and III, but not adenylyl cyclase type VIII, within the cell nucleus. Western blots suggest that a processed form of adenylyl cyclase type III may be found within primary neurons and PC12 cells as a 70-kDa protein. We propose that the observed nuclear adenylyl cyclases are soluble forms of the cyclases.

Field of study: Biology
Multicomponent and domino reactions of 3-aroylacrylic acids in the synthesis of heterocycles

This review generalizes the data available on heterocyclizations of 3-aroylacrylic acids and their esters, published over the previous 15 years. Multicomponent, cascade, and domino reactions, as well as cycloaddition and electrocyclization reactions involving 3-aroylacrylic acids and their esters have been used to obtain five- and six-membered aromatic and non-aromatic (including chiral) oxygen- or nitrogen-containing monocyclic heterocycles, spiro compounds, as well as condensed bi- and tricyclic systems.

Field of study: Chemistry
Research on the large-aperture high power laser diode arrays end-pumped coupling system

Hollow lens duct is a good choice for the coupling system of the large-aperture high power diode arrays. With numerical analysis of three-dimension ray tracing, a computer simulation program was developed for end-pumped LD arrays coupling system. Based on the result of simulation, a coupling system for a large-aperture(100 cm2) high-power(48 kW) LD arrays was built, which has a hollow lens duct and a homogenizer. The pumping radiations was coupled into a laser crystal of only about 4 cm2, with coupling efficiency beyond 70% and perfect pumping-uniformity in the gain material.

Field of study: Physics
Cathodoluminescence and photoluminescence study of plastically deformed ZnTe bulk single crystals

Samples of zinc telluride bulk single crystals, which were deformed in uniaxial compression, have been studied by photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL). As a particular feature the deformed samples present a PL emission band peaked at 603 nm, whose intensity increases as the plastic deformation does. This band is related to the density of dislocations produced during the interaction of slip systems. This hypothesis is supported by CL images. which reveal the activation of the successive slip systems corresponding to different levels of deformation.

Field of study: Materials science
Medical education in a rural health centre.

A health centre located in an isolated community on the northeast coast of Newfoundland has taken medical students since 1965. Currently students in their first year, in their clinical clerkship, and in the second year of the family practice residency, visit the centre. Responses from students at all levels have been very positive. To assess if this rotation had an effect on their subsequent choice of practice, questionnaires were sent to the former students three to nine years after their clerkship rotation. Almost all of the students subsequently went into family practice and there was a tendency for them to select small towns. A rotation of this type has real benefits for the supervising physicians and the rural community. It is helping to correct the maldistribution of physicians by specialty and location of practice. It is still viewed by the former students as a very valuable learning experience.

Field of study: Medicine
Northern Ireland: Coming out of conflict?

Despite the considerable academic attention paid to the causes of conflict, relatively little has been devoted to the factors that underlie its diminution. The possible explanations for such a diminution range from those pertaining to the individuals engaged in conflict, to those relating to shifts in the international system. The extent to which these latter global trends help to explain cessations of violence has probably been underestimated. Northern Ireland provides a valuable case‐study because it has always appeared to be one of the most insoluble of conflict situations. Although the ending of the Cold War has been advanced as a likely explanation for ceasefires in Northern Ireland, it is argued here that the separate process of Europeanisation has been the most constructive. This is not to ignore, however, factors indigenous to the conflict that have played at least an ancillary role in a continuing, but fragile, peace process.

Field of study: History, Sociology
Nonequilibrium spin noise spectroscopy.

Spin noise spectroscopy is an experimental approach to obtain correlators of mesoscopic spin fluctuations in time by purely optical means. We explore the information that this technique can provide when it is applied to a weakly nonequilibrium regime when an electric current is driven through a sample by an electric field. We find that the noise power spectrum of conducting electrons experiences a shift, which is proportional to the strength of the spin-orbit coupling for electrons moving along the electric field direction. We propose applications of this effect to measurements of spin-orbit coupling anisotropy and separation of spin noise of conducting and localized electrons.

Field of study: Physics
Decoupling the effects of composition and strain on the vibrational modes of GeSn semiconductors

We report on the behavior of Ge-Ge, Ge-Sn, Sn-Sn like, and disorder-activated (DA) vibrational modes in GeSn semiconductors investigated using Raman scattering spectroscopy. By using an excitation wavelength close to the E1 gap, all modes are clearly resolved and their evolution as a function of strain and Sn content is established. Previous Raman scattering studies mainly focused on the Ge-Ge peak position which is insufficient to evaluate the effects of lattice strain and Sn content. Herein to decouple the individual contributions of content and strain, the analysis was conducted on series of pseudomorphic and relaxed epitaxial layers with a Sn content in the 5-17 at.% range. The frequencies of all vibrational modes were found to display qualitatively the same behavior as a function of content and strain, viz. a linear downshift as the Sn content increases or the compressive strain relaxes. Simultaneously, the Ge-Sn and Ge-Ge peaks broaden, and the latter becomes increasingly asymmetric. The behavior of the integrated intensity, width, and asymmetry of each one of these vibrational modes was also evaluated. We found that an increase in Sn content is associated with an increase in the relative integrated intensity of Ge-Sn and DA modes. The latter also increases as the layers become more compressively strained and becomes more prominent under the x(zz)x configuration as the intensity of the adjacent LO modes decreases. The Raman mode asymmetry, coupled with the peak position, is exploited to implement an empirical approach to accurately quantify the Sn composition and lattice strain from Raman spectra.

Field of study: Materials science
Conjoint Analysis for Forecasting Tractor Design Features

Anew decision making technique, conjoint analysis, was used to forecast the saleability of various features of a 300 HP 4WD tractor. Based upon a sample of bonafide 4WD tractor owners and prospects, market-based guidelines were developed using the conjoint analysis technique. This technique made it possible to obtain quantitative insights regarding customer wants and needs. Thus, conjoint analysis holds promise for developing mathematical guidelines for the design of new services, added features, or even new products. The development of a market based guideline model could provide marketers and designers with a tool to design machines of higher profitability and provide an avenue of communication between engineering and marketing..

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Late Paleozoic (Late Mississippian–Middle Permian) sediment provenance and dispersal in western equatorial Pangea

Late Mississippian to middle Permian sediment-dispersal networks of regional to continental scale in western equatorial Pangea, depicted here in a series of paleogeographic maps, developed in response to temporally and spatially changing influences of climate, eustasy, and a continent-wide late Paleozoic orogenic system. The orogenic system included linked Alleghanian, Ouachita-Marathon-Sonora collisional belts and associated foreland basin systems on Laurentia and magmatic arcs on Gondwana, intracratonic basement uplifts and basins of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains, flexural arches and intracratonic basins of the US midcontinent region, and basins and uplifts of the southwestern Laurentian transcurrent continental margin. Consideration of new and published U-Pb detrital-zircon datasets permits delineation of Laurentian sediment-dispersal networks of the developing supercontinent. The Transcontinental Arch deflected Late Mississippian transcontinental rivers with Alleghanian headwaters toward the southern midcontinent and nascent, deep-marine foreland basins along the Ouachita collision orogen. Pennsylvanian rivers likewise headed in the Alleghanian Orogen, transporting sediment southwest across the midcontinent and along the Alleghanian foreland basin to empty into the Arkoma Basin and Fort Worth Basin, which also received voluminous sediment from Gondwana and the Ouachita Orogen. Concomitantly, major growth of Ancestral Rocky Mountains uplifts yielded basement-derived sediment, much of which was retained in local flexural basins. Increased aridity drove ascendant eolian transport in early Permian (Artinskian) time, just as lowstand desiccation of a midcontinent seaway exposed unconsolidated silt and sand derived from eastern, western, and southern sources in an extensive interior desert sink. Eolian transport within the interior desert further mixed and deflated the already-cosmopolitan sediment, pushing it southwest toward the Permian Basin and westward beyond the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. Intercepted by newly developed monsoonal circulation, the deflated sediment came to reside in erg systems along the western marine margin of Pangea. Subtropical Pennsylvanian transcontinental fluvial networks were similar to those of modern big river systems of the eastern and midcontinent United States that drain toward the Gulf of Mexico. In contrast, Permian drainage networks yielding sediment to a continental desert more resembled Pleistocene sediment routes of the Arabian Plate; there, intermittent wadis draining western rift highlands and big rivers of the Mesopotamian foreland contribute sediment to Arabian eolian sands via zonal and monsoonal surface winds to create widespread sand seas of mixed Eurasian and Arabian provenance.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
Perceived Importance of Social Skills

The importance of social skills instruction within the curriculum has long been recognized and discussed in the literature. The implementation of this area of instruction has been sporadic over the years, and reasons for this have been hypothesized by both researchers and teacher trainers. This study investigated the importance ratings and rankings of social skills by 263 parents, teachers, and other professionals from around the country. Personal interviews with teachers were conducted and Individualized Education Program documents were inspected in an effort to relate perceptions of importance to actual implementation of social skills instruction. Barriers to implementation also were recorded and analyzed. The results and recommended directions for future research are discussed.

Field of study: Education
Minimax Results for IFRA Scale Alternatives

Let X sub 1, ..., X sub m and Y sub 1, ..., Y sub n be two independent random samples from populations with continuous IFRA distributions F(.) and F(./delta) respectively, and let s sub 1, ..., s sub n denote the ranks of the Y's in the combined sample. For testing H sub o: delta = or 1 vs. H sub 1 delta 1 it is shown that the error probabilities of each monotone rank test phi are bounded by the error probabilities for exponential alternatives. Inequalities are used to derive tests that maximize the minimum power in the class of all rank tests. The results are extended to censored samples, sequential sampling, distributions ordered by skewness, the problem of combining independent test statistics, and the goodness of fit problem.

Field of study: Mathematics
Meeting the Challenge of Mathematics Reform for Students with LD

The purpose of this article was to examine the sustained effort to reform K through 12 mathematics instruction in this country over the last 10 years and the implications of this reform for students with learning disabilities. We begin by describing three forces that have driven mathematics reform: shifting theoretical paradigms, disappointing levels of mathematics performance of students in the United States, and the impact of rapidly changing technologies. We then discuss concerns about this reform from the special education community. In the second half of the article, we provide synthesized special education research relevant to mathematics reform, along with thoughts about future directions in mathematics education for students with learning disabilities.

Field of study: Education
Study of Ebola Virus Outbreak Dynamics, Impact of Vaccination and Other Preventive Measures on Transmission Control

Ebola virus disease (EVD) is an emerging and remerging zoonosis associated with high fatality rate, mainly caused by the Zaire Ebola virus (ZEBOV) and Sudan Ebola virus (SEBOV) strains. Approximately 20 epidemics of EVD have been documented mainly in Central African countries since 1976. Currently, there are no therapeutics agents and vaccines yet approved for EVD. However, several promising therapeutics and vaccines candidates are actively undergoing various phase of clinical development. This study aims to study the EVD dynamics and evaluate the potential impacts of vaccines and other preventive measures on EVD transmission control and significance of medical intervention on outcome of the disease. An initial branch chain model of EVD dynamics was built based on data obtained from previous study. Different epidemiological scenarios for EVD with impacts of intervention were simulated using Berkeley-Madonna Version 8.3.18 software. Every reduction in the exposure rate of EBV infection by 10% produces two- to five-fold improvement in protection against EVD. Transmission control is optimum when the rate of exposure to EBV infection is reduced below 1%. Optimal control of EVD transmission can be achieved through strategic implementation of successful vaccination programme, and other preventive measures as well as rapid delivery of supportive medical care.

Field of study: Medicine