nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Studying Powerful Coronal Mass Ejections That Occurred in September 2017, According to Data from the URAGAN Muon Hodoscope

At the beginning of September 2017, the Sun was characterized by anomalously high solar activity (SA), which was unusual for the region of the minimum of the 11-year cycle. A great many powerful flares of the M- and X-classes were observed; these were accompanied by powerful coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These events caused strong magnetic storms on the Earth (the Kp index was as high as 8; the Dst index was <−140 nT). In this work, the effect these ejections had on the flux of cosmic rays (CRs) is considered using data from the URAGAN muon hodoscope at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. The study is based on an analysis of variations in the cosmic ray muon flux. Results are presented from processing flux intensity via flicker-noise spectroscopy in order to identify geoeffective disturbances of the Earth’s magnetosphere. A predictor that precedes by more than one day the emergence in near-Earth space of disturbances related to CME propagation is obtained.

Field of study: Physics
The biological archive

Increasing recognition of the importance of preserving genetic and other information of biological significance in potentially functional form over protracted periods of time has led many institutions to establish storage facilities in which living tissue, or its separated components, is maintained at temperatures below the freezing point of water, with or without accompanying changes of state. For at least two decades, the scientific and economic advantages of preserving bovine spermatozoa in the frozen state have been apparent, with the result that the practice of artificial insemination of dairy and beef cattle has assumed the proportions of a major industry. Essential to its technologically sound and financially profitable operations has been the creation of an infrastructure comprising carefully developed thermal processing protocols; the commercial availability of rugged refrigeration equipment suited to the demanding requirements of field distribution; effective inventory control methods and accessories; and, a variety of disposable products such as individual containers, protective media, cryogenic fluids and the like. The experience so obtained and its supporting technical base are now available for a large number of long term preservation missions many of which are of profound scientific importance, some involing materials that represent major investments in time and money in their original isolation and characterization, as well as anticipated expense associated with their indefinitely prolonged preservation and subsequent recovery and use. The implications of such operations are of great potential importance, not only to the scientific community and industrial groups, but to society at large. Critical evaluation of their methodologies, quality control procedures, performance standards, and results is essential.

Field of study: Engineering
Multi-decadal degradation and persistence of permafrost in the Alaska Highway corridor, northwest Canada

Changes in permafrost distribution in the southern discontinuous zone were evaluated by repeating a 1964 survey through part of the Alaska Highway corridor (56° N–61° N) in northwest Canada. A total of 55 sites from the original survey in northern British Columbia and southern Yukon were located using archival maps and photographs. Probing for frozen ground, manual excavations, air and ground temperature monitoring, borehole drilling and geophysical techniques were used to gather information on present-day permafrost and climatic conditions. Mean annual air temperatures have increased by 1.5–2.0 ° C since the mid-1970s and significant degradation of permafrost has occurred. Almost half of the permafrost sites along the entire transect which exhibited permafrost in 1964 do so no longer. This change is especially evident in the south where two-thirds of the formerly permafrost sites have thawed and the limit of permafrost appears to have shifted northward. The permafrost that persists is patchy, generally less than 15 m thick, has mean annual surface temperatures >0 ° C, mean ground temperatures between −0.5 and 0 ° C, is in peat or beneath a thick organic mat, and appears to have a thicker active layer than in 1964. Its persistence may relate to the latent heat requirements of thawing permafrost or to the large thermal offset of organic soils. The study demonstrates that degradation of permafrost has occurred in the margins of its distribution in the last few decades, a trend that is expected to continue as the climate warms.

Field of study: Environmental science
Analysis of photo-excited thin superconducting films for optoelectronic device applications

This paper introduces a steady state photoresponse analysis in superconducting thin films. A model is developed for investigating the capability of superconductors for potential optoelectronic applications. First, we consider the thermodynamical variation under the application of continuous optical radiation in superconducting state. Then, the photo-induced changes in electrical parameters are evaluated from thermodynamical variations using the electrodynamics based on the BCS theory. All variations are considered as a function of optical characteristics along with the material properties. The numerical simulation gives us the optimum range of applied optical frequency and absorbed radiation intensity required for sensitive control of superconducting properties for optoelectronic and microwave applications.

Field of study: Physics
Cosmogenic exposure and erosion history of Australian bedrock landforms

Exceptionally high activities of in situ-produced 1 0 Be and 2 6 Al indicate that Australian bedrock surfaces are some of the most stable in the world. These cosmogenic nuclides demonstrate that Australian granite, exposed and sampled at 10 sites along a transect from the Eyre Peninsula (33°S) to the Kakadu area in the Northern Territory (14°S), has in some places eroded only decimeters over the past million years. However, nuclide activities are not saturated in any of the 61 exposed samples we analyzed, mandating that the surfaces we sampled are losing mass, albeit slowly, over time. Such mass loss indicates that inselbergs are dynamic landforms, confounding the assignment of discreet ages to inselberg surfaces. Nevertheless, the differential between slow rates of erosion measured on the very stable uppermost parts of these landforms and the more rapid rates measured below their flanks and below the adjacent grus-covered planes suggests that the forms of many large inselbergs, which stand meters to tens of meters high, must be at least Tertiary in age and possibly much older. Activities of 1 0 Be and 2 6 Al in 61 exposed Australian samples range from 5.1 ′ 0.1 × 10 6 to 5.3 ′ 0.6 x 10 5 atoms.g - 1 and 2.1 ′ 0.1 x 10 7 to 3.4 ′ 0.5 x 10 6 atoms.g - 1 , respectively (normalized to sea level, at latitudes of >60°, using only neutron scaling). Activities of 1 0 Be and 2 6 Al in seven shielded samples (3.5-13 m below the surface) are much lower, ranging from 3.4 ′ 0.2 x 10 4 to 7.0 ′ 0.1 x 10 4 atoms.g - 1 and 1.6 ′ 0.1 x 10 5 to 2.8 ′ 0.2 x 10 5 atoms.g - 1 , respectively. 2 6 Al/ 1 0 Be ratios of exposed samples range from 3.89 ′ 0.19 to 6.29 ′ 0.82. If 2σ uncertainty ranges and a nominal sea-level, high-latitude 1 0 Be-production rate of 5.17 atoms.g - 1 .yr - 1 are considered, ratio data for all but one surface sample are consistent with continuous surface or near-surface exposure and/or erosion. Rock surfaces farther north in Australia, where the climate is more humid, have lower nuclide activities; thus, we infer that surface stability is inversely related to mean annual precipitation. From 61 exposed samples, we calculated maximum limiting, single-nuclide, model erosion rates of 0.3 ′ 0.1 to 5.7 ′ 1.0 m/m.y. and minimum limiting, single-nuclide, model exposure ages of 105 ′ 16 to 1310 ′ 190 ka (by assuming a sea-level, high-latitude 1 0 Be-production rate of 5.17 atoms.g - 1 yr - 1 ). Seven shielded samples, in which the nuclide inventory is muon-generated, also have nuclide activities consistent with similarly low rates of erosion but over even longer time scales. It appears that the Eyre Peninsula inselbergs have been and are eroding so slowly that they may well be direct descendents of Cenozoic and perhaps even Mesozoic forms.

Field of study: Geology
The effect of overtraining on behavioral contrast and the peak-shift.

Following initial discrimination training between two wavelength stimuli and a subsequent generalization test to the wavelength dimension, Group 1 was "overtrained" for 105 days on the original discrimination. Group 2 was "overtrained" with the original positive stimulus and a new negative stimulus, a white line. Group 3 was "overtrained" with the original negative stimulus and a new positive stimulus, the white line. Each 15 days of extended training were followed by a wavelength generalization test similar to the first test. The results suggest that there is no consistent relationship between the response rate in positive stimulus immediately before the generalization test and whether or not a peak shift occurs during the test.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
156: IFN-γ and IL-17A drive distinct airway changes in a murine model of steroid-unresponsive severe asthma

Asthma is an inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by airway obstruction due to inappropriate immune responses against some environmental moieties like house dust mite (HDM) and pollens. Depending on the frequency and intensity of exacerbations experienced, asthma can be categorized as mild-moderate asthma (MMA) that is corticosteroid (CS)- responsive and severe asthma (SA) that is poorly managed by CS. SA constitutes only 5–10% of all asthmatics but accounts for 50% of the healthcare costs and morbidity associated with the disease. The presence of neutrophils in asthma has been correlated with refractoriness to CS, fatal exacerbations and severity. To date, our understanding of the pathological mechanisms central to neutrophil-prominent SA is minimal primarily because of the lack of a suitable animal model, limiting the development and testing of new therapeutics. Studies in our lab have shown that unlike patients with milder disease, SA patients consistently have a mixed Th1/Th2/Th17 immune phenotype in their airways despite high dose CS treatment. With the association of viral and bacterial infections with severity and frequency of asthma exacerbations, we hypothesized that the combination of an allergen, HDM, with agents that mimic infection would induce a SA phenotype in mice. As in human severe asthmatics, the immune response in this mouse model elicits mixed granulocytic airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness that are poorly responsive to CS. IFN-γ-deficient and IL-17A-deficient mice subjected to the SA model highlight the differential role played by each cytokine in modulating hallmark features of asthma such as airway inflammation, airway hyperreactivity and steroid responsiveness. To identify additional biomarkers for characterization of SA, total lung RNA from mice subjected to the SA model was analyzed by RNA-Seq. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis of the RNA-Seq data revealed potential intermediates (e.g., lipoproteins, proteases, etc.) in the IFN-γ and IL-17A signaling pathways that can be targeted for developing novel therapies for SA and potentially other steroid-refractory diseases.

Field of study: Medicine
Periodic solutions of a predator-prey model with stage structure for predator

A delayed periodic predator-prey model with stage structure for predator is proposed. It is assumed that immature individuals and mature individuals of the predator are divided by a fixed age, and that immature predators do not have the ability to attack prey. Sufficient conditions are derived for the existence, uniqueness and global asymptotic stability of positive periodic solutions of the model. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the feasibility of our main results.

Field of study: Mathematics
Purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction studies of recombinant calcium-binding domain of the small subunit of porcine calpain.

The calcium-binding domain of the small subunit of porcine calpain (domain VI) has been expressed in Escherichia coli, purified, and crystallized in the presence of Ca(2+). Two crystal forms have been obtained by the vapor-diffusion method using PEG 6000 as the precipitant. Crystal form I, belonging to trigonal space group P3(1)21 (or P3(2)21) with cell dimensions a = b = 79.8, c = 57.08 A, alpha = beta = 90.0 and gamma, = 120.0 degrees diffracted to 2.8 A. The second crystal form diffracts to 1.8 A and belongs to monoclinic space group P2(1) with cell dimensions a = 50.1, b = 79.7, c = 57.1 A and beta = 91.2 degrees.

Field of study: Chemistry
Laparoscopic excision of complete bladder duplication in a 1-year-old male.

Complete bladder duplication is a male predominant rare congenital malformation usually diagnosed at birth. Owing to the rarity of this anomaly, only few reports have discussed the surgical approach for this condition, with the open approach for excision being the most common. We hereby present a video of a laparoscopic resection of complete bladder and urethral duplication in a 1-year-old male.



The patient presented to our clinic with a red mucosal tissue protruding from a cutaneous opening at the dorsal base of the penis that has been present from birth. A normally located and functioning bladder and urethra were present. During work-up, a cystic mass located above the bladder was discovered in imaging examinations. No other anomalies were found. After a shared decision process, we performed a laparoscopic transperitoneal bladder duplication excision during which the accessory urethra and duplicated bladder were removed with preservation of the adjacent normal urethra. The patient had an uneventful recovery with excellent cosmetic results.



The minimally invasive approach can be utilized for treatment of complex urinary anomalies in young children.

Field of study: Medicine
Assessing genetic testing: who are the "lay experts"?

This paper addresses the question of expertise in relation to technology assessments, arguing both that "lay expertise" is necessary and that "lay expertise" should not be interpreted as equivalent to "patient expertise". It presents findings from a prospective study of the social implications of genetic testing for susceptibility to occupational disease and injury. The findings support the view that technologies cannot be adequately assessed in isolation from the socio-political context in which they will be utilised. Interviews with those possessing non-traditional, "lay" expertise in seeking compensation for occupational disease and/or long-term disability identified a range of institutional practices which, unless they are addressed, will significantly increase the dangers of utilizing genetic testing. The paper concludes that adequate assessment of a technology can be impeded by a focus on the technology itself, particularly when the impact of a technology may be to exacerbate already problematic aspects of existing social and political institutions.

Field of study: Medicine, Political science
Rill Cross-sectional Geometry and Soil Erosion as Influenced by Soil and Tillage Part I. Empirical Study

Simulated rainfall was applied to several tillage systems on two soil types at slopes ranging from 1.6 to 10%. These experiments were conducted 0 to 10 days after planting corn in a corn-soybean rotation, and for fallow treatments, the experiments were conducted during the second growing season in which the soil was maintained in a fallow and relatively weed-free condition. Soil surface geometry was recorded using a pin-type rillmeter. Mean rill width, wetted perimeter, and hydraulic radius for each tillage system were characterized as functions of rill cross-sectional area using nonlinear regression. In the Catlin soil, rills appeared to widen as erosion progressed. In the Tama soil, rills appeared to become deeper with reduced width per unit of cross-sectional flow area as erosion progressed. Estimated mean rill widths were related to measured runoff rates and compared to rill width equations reported by Gilley et al. (1990) and Elliot (1988). The equation of Elliot appeared to be a better predictor of mean rill widths. For tillage systems with crop residue cover ranging from 15 to 54% in the Tama soil, both equations tended to underestimate rill width by 20 to 36%. In multiple linear regression equations, estimated mean rill width and hydraulic radius accounted for 2 to 20% of the variation in measured sediment discharge. These regression equations suggested that a 25% increase in rill width would lead to a 25 to 50% reduction in sediment discharge.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Use of electrochemical sensors for measurement of air pollution: correcting interference response and validating measurements

The environments in which we live, work, and play are subject to enormous variability in air pollutant concentrations. To adequately characterize air quality (AQ), measurements must be fast (real time), scalable, and reliable (with known accuracy, precision, and stability over time). Lower-cost air-quality-sensor technologies offer new opportunities for fast and distributed measurements, but a persistent characterization gap remains when it comes to evaluating sensor performance under realistic environmental sampling conditions. This limits our ability to inform the public about pollution sources and inspire policy makers to address environmental justice issues related to air quality. In this paper, initial results obtained with a recently developed lower-cost air-quality-sensor system are reported. In this project, data were acquired with the ARISense integrated sensor package over a 4.5-month time interval during which the sensor system was co-located with a state-operated (Massachusetts, USA) air quality monitoring station equipped with reference instrumentation measuring the same pollutant species. This paper focuses on validating electrochemical (EC) sensor measurements of CO, NO, NO2, and O3 at an urban neighborhood site with pollutant concentration ranges (parts per billion by volume, ppb; 5 min averages, ±1σ): [CO]  =  231 ± 116 ppb (spanning 84–1706 ppb), [NO]  =  6.1 ± 11.5 ppb (spanning 0–209 ppb), [NO2]  =  11.7 ± 8.3 ppb (spanning 0–71 ppb), and [O3]  =  23.2 ± 12.5 ppb (spanning 0–99 ppb). Through the use of high-dimensional model representation (HDMR), we show that interference effects derived from the variable ambient gas concentration mix and changing environmental conditions over three seasons (sensor flow-cell temperature  =  23.4 ± 8.5 °C, spanning 4.1 to 45.2 °C; and relative humidity  =  50.1 ± 15.3 %, spanning 9.8–79.9 %) can be effectively modeled for the Alphasense CO-B4, NO-B4, NO2-B43F, and Ox-B421 sensors, yielding (5 min average) root mean square errors (RMSE) of 39.2, 4.52, 4.56, and 9.71 ppb, respectively. Our results substantiate the potential for distributed air pollution measurements that could be enabled with these sensors.

Field of study: Environmental science
VLBI-Gaia offsets favor parsec-scale jet direction in active galactic nuclei

The data release 1 (DR1) of milliarcsecond-scale accurate optical positions of stars and galaxies was recently published by the space mission Gaia .  We study the offsets of highly accurate absolute radio (very long baseline interferometry, VLBI) and optical positions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) to see whether or not a signature of wavelength-dependent parsec-scale structure can be seen.  We analyzed VLBI and Gaia positions and determined the direction of jets in 2957 AGNs from their VLBI images.  We find that there is a statistically significant excess of sources with VLBI-to- Gaia position offset in directions along and opposite to the jet. Offsets along the jet vary from 0 to tens of mas. Offsets in the opposite direction do not exceed 3 mas.  The presense of strong, extended parsec-scale optical jet structures in many AGNs is required to explain all observed VLBI- Gaia offsets along the jet direction. The offsets in the opposite direction shorter than 1 mas can be explained either by a non-point-like VLBI jet structure or a “core-shift” effect due to synchrotron opacity.

Field of study: Physics
Gas compression and stellar feedback in the tidally interacting and ram-pressure stripped Virgo spiral galaxy NGC 4654

NGC 4654 is a Virgo galaxy seen almost face-on, which undergoes nearly edge-on gas ram pressure stripping and a fly-by gravitational interaction with another massive galaxy, NGC 4639. NGC 4654 shows a strongly compressed gas region near the outer edge of the optical disk, with HI surface densities (HSDR), exceeding the canonical value of 10-15 Msun/pc2.  data of NGC 4654 are used to study the physical conditions of the ISM. The CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor was estimated and found to be one to two times the Galactic value with significant decrease in the ratio between the molecular fraction and the total ISM pressure in the HSDR, self-gravitating gas, a Toomre parameter below $Q=1$ and star-formation efficiency 1.5-2 times higher. Analytical models were used to reproduce radial profiles of the SFR and the atomic and molecular surface densities. A Toomre parameter of $\rm Q \sim 0.8$ combined with an increase in the velocity dispersion of 5 km/s are necessary conditions to simultaneously reproduce the gas surface densities and the SFR. A dynamical model was used to reproduce the gas distribution of NGC 4654. The comparison between the velocity dispersion given by the moment 2 map and the intrinsic 3D velocity dispersion from the model were used to discriminate between regions of broader linewidths caused by a real increase in the velocity dispersion and those caused by an unresolved velocity gradient only. We found that the 5 km/s increase in the intrinsic velocity dispersion is compatible with observations. During a period of gas compression through external interactions, the gas surface density is enhanced, leading to an increased SFR and stellar feedback. Under the influence of stellar feedback, the gas density increases only moderately. The stellar feedback acts as a regulator of star-formation, increasing the turbulent velocity within the region.

Field of study: Physics
Obscuration properties of mid-IR selected AGN

The goal of this work is to study the obscuration properties of mid-infrared (mid-IR) selected AGN. For that purpose, we use {\it{WISE}} sources in the Stripe 82-XMM area to identify mid-IR AGN candidates, applying the Assef et al. criteria. Stripe 82 has optical photometry $\approx$\,2 times deeper than any single-epoch SDSS region. XMM-Newton observations cover $\sim$26\,deg$^2$. Applying the aforementioned criteria, 1946 IR AGN are selected. $\sim 78\%$ have SDSS detection, while 1/3 of them is detected in X-rays, at a flux limit of $\rm \sim 5 \times 10^{-15}\,erg\,s^{-1}\,cm^{-2}$. Our final sample consists of 507 IR AGN with X-ray detection and optical spectra. Applying a $\rm r-W2>6$ colour criterion, we find that the fraction of optically red AGN drops from 43\% for those sources with SDSS detection to $23\%$ for sources that also have X-ray detection. X-ray spectral fitting reveals 40 ($\sim8\%$) X-ray absorbed AGN ($\rm N_H>10^{22}~cm^{-2}$). Among the X-ray unabsorbed AGN, there are 70 red systems. To further investigate the absorption of these sources, we construct Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) for the total IR AGN sample. SED fitting reveals that $\sim20\%$ of the optically red sources have such colours because the galaxy emission is a primary component in the optical part of the SED, even though the AGN emission is not absorbed at these wavelengths. SED fitting also confirms that $12\%$ of the X-ray unabsorbed, IR AGN are optically obscured.

Field of study: Physics