nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
North American integration and plant closures in Ontario

One expected adjustment from increased North American integration was that there would be rationalization in Canada’s manufacturing industries. Proponents of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (CUSTA) argued that plant closings were part of a rationalization process that would yield large benefits to Canada as the manufacturing industry would become more competitive and would operate on a larger scale. The notion that Canada stood to gain significantly through rationalization was an extension of the success that was gained through the 1965 Auto Pact and was formalized in a model by Cox and Harris (1985). The notion was accepted by the MacDonald Commission and became the intellectual foundation of the proponents’ case for free trade with the United States. Opponents of CUSTA agreed that plants would close, but these would be branch plants operating in Canada that would pull out in the wake of CUSTA and destroy thousands of jobs. However, the impact of CUSTA on plant closings in Canada has not been carefully examined and data on plant closings are not available from Statistics Canada. At this point, we do not know if CUSTA resulted in rationalization. There is some empirical evidence that firms in small-scale Canadian industries realized losses with the advent of CUSTA. Brander (1991) and Thompson (1994) independently examined the stock market price reactions to events that increased the probability that CUSTA would succeed. They found that firms operating in industries with small-scale production experienced losses. More recently Head and Ries (1999) provide some direct evidence that rationalization occurred in Canadian manufacturing industries after 1988. Between 1988 and 1994 the number of plants decreased by 21 percent while output per plant increased by 34 percent.1 However, Head and Ries find that this rationalization is explained by a change in the structure of the Canadian manufacturing sector and an overvalued Canadian dollar. Moreover, they find that Canadian tariff reductions did lead to fewer plants as predicted, but also led to a reduction – rather than an increase – in plant scale. What role did CUSTA and NAFTA play in the Ontario plant closures? This is a difficult question to answer because other factors clearly affected business decisions in Canada during the period.

Field of study: Political science
Nonlocal interactions of nucleons and anomalous off-shell behavior of two-nucleon amplitudes

The problem of ultraviolet divergences that arise in describing low-energy nucleon dynamics is analyzed. By considering some examples of exactly solvable models, it is shown that, upon renormalization, the interaction that governs nucleon dynamics appears to be nonlocal in time. The effect of this nonlocality on the character of the dynamics of a nucleon system is investigated. It is shown that the time nonlocality of nucleon-nucleon interactions leads to an anomalous off-shell behavior of two-nucleon amplitudes and this anomalous behavior can significantly affect the dynamics of multinucleon systems.

Field of study: Physics
Aligning Expansion and Quality in Higher Education: An Imperative to Liberia's Economic Growth and Development

This paper highlights and discusses the need for aligning expansion and quality of higher education in Liberia.  It emphasizes that such initiative is inevitable to the sustainable economic growth and sociopolitical development of the country. Because with better education, Liberia as a country is sure to achieve political stability, create wealth and sustain growth. Honestly speaking, the existence of higher education institutions will make little or no impact on the nation’s national development agenda in the absence of quality as the ability to undertake initiatives and be innovative largely depends on the quality of knowledge acquired. Like other countries, this paper notes that Liberia’s higher education subsector continues to expand in various ways, intended to satisfy the access demand by the growing population. Consequently, there has been a tremendous increase from 3 to 30 tertiary institutions in the country. Capitalizing on Functionalist theorists’ view on HE expansion that universities can go a long way towards solving societal problems through development and use of new knowledge, this paper acquiesces, but underscores that ensuring quality is very vital in the fulfillment of HE purposes. It argues that balancing HE expansion and quality is not an option, but an obligation, noting that HE is not a cosmetic or a window-dressing endeavor, but one that ought to imbue every necessary ingredient encompassing value, excellence and quality. Furthermore, as experienced by some other nations, this paper is optimistic that Liberia’s sustainable economy growth and development would be immensely impacted based on increased enrollments and successful graduation of more Liberians from colleges and universities. Finally, in order to align HE expansion and quality, it recommends for establishment of legal framework and quality management and enhancement body, prioritization of higher education, proportionate provision of subsidies to private institutions, establishment of professional development center for administrators and teaching staff as well as their incorporation in bilateral and multilateral partnership programs for capacity building, improving the welfare of staff, furnishing of libraries and laboratories,  synchronizing and updating the curriculum, and the need for concerted efforts to deal with quality challenges in Liberia’s higher education subsector.  expansion, higher education, quality, economic growth and development

Field of study: Education
INTERACTION OF LASER RADIATION WITH MATTER. LASER PLASMA: Generation of magnetic fields as a result of interaction of pairs of radiation pulses with solid barriers

An analysis is made of the problem of generation of magnetic fields in a laser plasma jet formed as a result of the interaction of two consecutive radiation pulses of moderate intensity with a dielectric barrier. It is assumed that the source of an emf is the thermo-emf of the inhomogeneous plasma. The structure of gasdynamic streams and the parameters of magnetic fields in the plasma jet are found by numerical solution of a known system of equations considered in a two-dimensional cylindrical configuration. The profiles of the plasma parameters and the temporal and spatial distributions of the magnetic fields are presented. It is shown that the results of numerical calculations can be useful, for example, in the diagnostics of laser jets.

Field of study: Engineering, Physics
An assessment of the potential for natural flood management to offset climate change impacts

Natural Flood Management (NFM) aims to work with natural processes to reduce flood risk, and can potentially contribute to integrated flood risk management (alongside engineering solutions) by providing landscape-based resilience to climate change impacts. Here, two approaches are used to assess the extent to which NFM could offset the impacts of climate change on floods in Great Britain. The first looks at specific catchments where there is quantitative evidence for the effect of NFM measures on peak flows. The second takes a broad-brush national view, assuming two potential levels of NFM reductions in peak flows. Both approaches use flood impacts derived from climate change projections for a range of future time-slices and emissions scenarios. The results show that NFM measures are much less likely to be able to offset the impacts of climate change for later time-slices and for higher emissions scenarios, but also that the chance of offsetting the impacts of climate change in any individual catchment will depend on its type (how sensitive it is to climatic changes) and its location (due to spatial variation in climatic changes). Confounding factors in the analysis include any time lag associated with the NFM reduction in peak flows, and different effects of NFM on peak flows of different return periods. It is also unclear whether there is any relationship between a catchment's type and its practical potential for implementing NFM, or the level of peak flow reduction that NFM could achieve; any such relationship could be critical in determining the overall potential for NFM to offset climate change impacts in different catchments. Although the focus here is Great Britain, a similar approach could be applied internationally.

Field of study: Environmental science
Monoclonal antibodies specific for ohmefentanyl.

Ohmefentanyl (Ohm, N[1-(beta-hydroxy-beta-phenylethyl)-3-methyl-4- piperidyl]-N-phenylpro-pronamide), designed and synthesized by our laboratory, is a highly selective mu receptor agonist. After somatic cell fusion between splenocytes of BALB c mice, immunized by Ohm-BSA conjugate and NS-1 myeloma cells, 2 lines of hybridoma (D2 and F4) secreting monoclonal anti-Ohm antibodies (MAb) were obtained. Saturation and competition experiments showed that MAb-D2 and MAb-F4 bound to Ohm-BSA with high affinity and high specificity. Using radioligand binding assay and bioassay, we also found that MAb-D2 and MAb-F4 inhibited [3H] Ohm binding to rat brain opioid receptors in a dose-dependent manner and antagonized the effect of Ohm on the contraction of guinea pig ileum induced by electric field stimulation. These results suggested that MAb-D2 and MAb-F4 were 2 monoclonal antibodies specific for Ohm and could be useful as functional antagonists of Ohm.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry, Medicine
ORGANOBORANES IN SYNTHESIS AND ANALYSIS

Organoboranes which are important for preparative purposes include triethylborane, alkyldiboranes and in particular diethylborylpivalate and bis- (ethylpivaloyloxy) diboroxane (BEPDIB). — Several new boron-specific applications of organoboranes in synthesis of organic compounds will be given. Tri- and tetrasubstituted (Z/E) -alkenes are sometime obtained highly selectively on reaction of heteroatom containing electrophiles with substituted 1-alkinyl- borates. — Versatile aldol-additions and both homo- and mixed condensations of ketones and certain aldehydes can be carried out with the help of organoboranes — Stereoselective formation of erythro- and threo-ketoles can be performed using the easily obtainable vinyloxyboranes. — Separations, purifications and selective O-derivatisations of polyhydroxy compounds are possible via O-ethylboranediyl derivatives. The O-ethylboron protective groups are useful for the NMR-spectroscopic identification of polyalcohols, saccharides and their derivatives.

Field of study: Chemistry
Studies of binding and internalization of human recombinant monocyte chemotactic and activating factor (MCAF) by monocytic cells.

Recombinant human monocyte chemotactic and activating factor (MCAF) was iodinated and specific binding sites for this cytokine were detected on human peripheral blood monocytes, the monocytic leukemia cell line THP-1, and on PMA-differentiated HL60 and U937 cell lines. The binding sites were specific for MCAF since other polypeptide cytokines and the chemotactic peptide formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP) failed to compete for 125I-rhMCAF binding. Steady-state binding experiments at 4 degrees C revealed the presence of 13,000 and 18,000 receptor sites/cell on monocytes and THP-1 cells with Kd values of 22.5 nM and 25.7 nM, respectively. Compared to a human natural MCAF, rhMCAF was less potent in inducing maximal monocyte migration. Human natural MCAF similarly competed more efficiently for 125I-rhMCAF binding than unlabelled rhMCAF. The ligand-receptor association was highly temperature-dependent, with maximal ligand uptake at 37 degrees C accompanied by internalization of the ligand-receptor complexes. The internalized 125I-MCAF was progressively degraded and released into the culture medium starting at 30 min. Lysosomotropic ammonium chloride could inhibit the degradation of this ligand suggesting the involvement of lysosomal enzymes in the proteolytic digestion. Incubation with cycloheximide did not block the rapid reappearance of MCAF receptors within 20 min on the cell surface indicative of receptor recycling rather than new protein synthesis. These data indicate that monocytic cells express specific receptors for rhMCAF which can be dynamically regulated by MCAF.

Field of study: Medicine
Quantitative Study of Pulsed X-Ray-Induced Electromagnetic Response in Coaxial Cables

This article aims to quantify the radiation-induced electric responses of coaxial cables while irradiated by a pulsed X-ray flux. First, a precise characterization of the X-ray generator was performed using the 3-D Maxwell and Monte Carlo numerical simulations. These results were used to calculate the currents induced by the X-rays within the cables by using the 3-D Monte Carlo and 2-D transverse electromagnetic numerical codes. A systematic analysis of the responses of several cable references was performed by comparing the experimental and numerical results. This allows for the determination of gaps at the interface between the cable dielectrics and conductors. From these results, a parametric numerical extrapolation at high X-ray fluences was performed. It is shown that the system-generated electromagnetic pulse (SGEMP) responses are governed by photocurrents in gaps below 1011 rad/s, while for greater dose rates, conduction currents in the dielectrics govern the responses. The approach developed in this article is useful for investigating electrical responses of systems subjected to highly ionizing environment, which is of paramount importance for addressing hardening issues.

Field of study: Physics
Tracking temporal changes of bacterial community fingerprints during the initial stages of composting.

The initial phase of composting is the most dynamic part of the process and is characterized by rapid increases in temperature, large swings in pH, and the degradation of simple organic compounds. DNA samples were taken from an active compost system to determine the microbial 16S rRNA gene sequences that were present during this phase. We observed two significant shifts in the composition of the microbial community, one between 12 and 24 h and the other between 60 and 72 h into the process using automated 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer amplification (ARISA). The 16S rRNA gene sequences adjoining the most common ARISA fragments at each time point were determined. We found that sequences related to lactic acid bacteria were most common during the first 60 h and Bacillus-type sequences were most common between 72 and 96 h. While the temperature increased steadily over the first 96 h, the pH dropped after 12 h and increased after 60 h correlating with the shift from Bacillus to lactic acid sequences and the later return to Bacillus-type sequences.

Field of study: Biology, Environmental science
Dopamine transporter mRNA in autopsy studies of chronic cocaine users.

The effects of chronic cocaine abuse on transcriptional regulation of human dopamine transporter (DAT) mRNA in midbrain dopaminergic neurons was assessed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). DAT/cyclophilin mRNA ratios in the substantia nigra (SN) were unchanged in cocaine overdose (CO) victims as compared to age-matched and drug-free control (CTRL) subjects. In contrast, DAT mRNA levels were decreased significantly in agitated cocaine delirium victims (67%, p<0.05). These findings demonstrate the lack of a regulatory influence by cocaine on the steady state content of DAT mRNA in cocaine abusers. In contrast, DAT gene expression was altered significantly in cocaine abusers at risk for agitated delirium.

Field of study: Biology
The Paradigm Shift of Enterprises' Core Values

Traditional core values of enterprises can be summarized as maximization of their profits.This value has caused very serious social consequences.Direct consequence is economic crisis,while indirect damage is more serious,which has made economic and social development away from the direction of development of human civilization.In modern times,a paradigm shift in enterprises' core values has become inevitable.It is irreversible for the core values of enterprises to transform from maximizing their profits to human,responsibility,and win-win,which can be realized in two ways:one is passive or natural,the other active.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Correlation between Scores on Integration of Scientific Knowledge and Achievement in a Course in Educational Research Methods

The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlations between students' scores on integrating science knowledge and their conceptual knowledge of educational research concepts, methods, and applications. Participants were 124 graduate students enrolled in several sections of a required introductory course in educational research methods. Students' integration of science knowledge was measured via the Test of Integrated Process Skills II, and performance in the educational research methods class was assessed via midterm and final examinations. Analysis indicated that correlations between scores on the Test of Integrated Process Skills II and achievement in the course on midterm and final examinations were .36 and .42, respectively, suggesting that those who were more able to integrate science knowledge also tended to exhibit higher performance on the examinations.

Field of study: Psychology
Effects of in vitro ethanol and fetal ethanol exposure on glutathione stimulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor function.

The present studies investigated the effects of glutathione (GSH; gamma-glutamylcysteinylglycine) and its oxidized form (GSSG) on neuronal N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor activation in both acute and chronic preparations of ethanol exposure. It was demonstrated using fura-2-loaded dissociated brain cells from newborn rat pups that both GSH and GSSG (0-4 mM) produced concentration-dependent increases in intracellular calcium similar to those produced by NMDA and other agonists of the NMDA receptor. GSH-stimulated calcium entry was not inhibited by low intoxicating concentrations of ethanol, which contrasts with ethanol's typical inhibitory effect on NMDA-stimulated receptor activation. Behavioral studies in adult rats demonstrated that ethanol-induced sleep times were significantly decreased when 10 microliters of GSSG (20 mM) were administered intracerebroventricularly approximately 5 min before an intraperitoneal injection of 20% (w/v) ethanol (3 g/kg). These findings suggest that the less potent effect of ethanol on GSH-stimulated calcium entry as well as the reduction in ethanol-induced sleep times may be related to the presence of glycine in the peptide. The glycine found in GSH may activate the glycine site and block or reduce ethanol's action on this site. It appears that although GSH may play an important role in the activation of the NMDA receptor, this action does not involve a process that is sensitive to acute ethanol exposure. In contrast, when rat pups were chronically exposed to ethanol via prenatal exposure before the fura-2 preparation, increases in NMDA- and GSH-stimulated calcium entry were significantly decreased relative to those in pair-fed and ad libitum-fed controls.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Field of study: Medicine
Climate change and artificial barrier effects on the Venice Lagoon: Inundation dynamics of salt marshes and implications for halophytes distribution

Transitional areas such as lagoons are among the most impacted and delicate environments, threatened by the combined effects of climate change and human action. The integrated management of these specific systems would require the possibility to investigate and cope with induced changes in the hydrodynamics, morphodynamics and ecosystem characteristics. The main goal of the present work is to examine, by means of a modeling tool, the effects of the combined action of sea level rise, climate changes and human activities, such as the building of structures for coastal defense (mobile barriers), on transitional area habitats. The finite element coastal model SHYFEM was applied on the Venice Lagoon, which fully represents the example of a natural-anthropogenic environment, due to the continuous action of humans in changing it for preservation. The model was forced by a regional downscaling from a global climate atmospheric model, simulating both the control century (1960–1990) and three periods (2010–2039, 2040–2069, 2070–2100) of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) A1B scenario that corresponds to a very rapid economic and demographic growth combined with the introduction of more efficient technologies. A relation on the interaction between salt marshes inundation and growth and salt marshes halophytes distribution was discussed. Results showed a tendency of the system to marine physical characteristics, in terms of an increase in salinity. The hypothetic increase of sea level tends to produce a decrease of areas like salt marshes, up to a total extinction for the most extreme scenario. The modeling results identified the correlation of halophytes growth and specific physical conditions of the environment (salinity, exposure time, soil depth respect to mean sea level), leading to the preliminary conclusion that the halophyte more resilient to the increase of flooding and of salinity (Salicornia veneta) would be the only one present in the future. The modeling implementation allowed the investigation of the whole lagoon, providing an hypothesis of the evolution of halophytes population in future scenarios and a precious tool also for the integrated management of these typologies of environment, in a climate change perspective.

Field of study: Environmental science
Expression, crystallization and phasing of vacuolar H(+)-ATPase subunit C (Vma5p) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The expression, crystallization and phasing of subunit C (Vma5p) of the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) vacuolar proton-translocating ATPase (V-ATPase) is described. The expressed protein consists of 412 residues: 392 from the reading frame of Vma5p and 20 N-terminal residues originating from the plasmid. Diffraction-quality crystals were obtained using the hanging-drop and sitting-drop vapour-diffusion methods assisted by streak-seeding, with PEG 3350 as precipitant. The crystals formed in hanging drops diffracted to 1.80 A and belong to space group P4(3)2(1)2(1), with unit-cell parameters a = b = 62.54, c = 327.37 A, alpha = beta = gamma = 90 degrees. The structure was solved using SIRAS with a Lu(O2C2H3)2 heavy-atom derivative.

Field of study: Chemistry
EVALUATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL INPUT AND OUTPUT IN HAINA PROVINCE

This paper, based on the historical data available, analyzes and evaluates the agricultural input and output in Hainan from 1978 to 1992 by means of the Micro-TSP soft-ware.A model of production function has been establis-hed and the level of Hainan agricultural input and output has been evaluated and forecasted,It also discusses some problems concerning the development of agriculture in Hainan.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
A formal treatment of the consequences of the Second Law of Thermodynamics in Carathéodory's formulation

The consequences of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, as enunciated in the Principle of Carathéodory, are developed by means of a largely formal argument. The need for the introduction of the Theorem of Carathéodory does not arise. One virtue of the method is the immediacy with which it leads to the Principle of Increase of Entropy.

Field of study: Physics