nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
The role of multiwall carbon nanotubes on physical, mechanical and rheological properties of poly(lactic acid)/natural rubber/CNT hybrid systems

The main objective of the present work was to study the role of carbon nanotube (CNT) on the microstructure development and physical, mechanical, and rheological properties of poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/natural rubber (NR)/CNT hybrid nanocomposites. The PLA/NR blend samples with constant blend ratio (90/10) were prepared by melt mixing in a laboratory internal mixer at a temperature of 190°C. The behavior of the PLA/NR blend was examined depending on the CNT content (0.5–6 wt%). The droplet size and droplet size distribution of the NR phase decreases with the increase in CNTs content. This could be explained in terms of compatibilizing effect of CNT and the changing of the viscosity ratio of the blend phases. The development of the microstructure and the physical properties of the blend were also investigated according to the CNT contents by measuring the linear viscoelasticity. The elongational behavior and mechanical properties of the blends were strongly dependent on the location of the CNT. The CNT worked as an efficient compatibilizer and also it worked as a reinforcing filler making the matrix more rigid.

Field of study: Materials science
The First Enantioselective Approach to 13a‐Methyl‐14‐hydroxyphenanthroindolizidine Alkaloids – Synthetic Studies towards Hypoestestatin 2

The first enantioselective approach to 13a-methyl-14-hydroxyphenanthroindolizidine alkaloids was achieved in six linear steps from phenanthryl alcohol and features a highly substrate-dependent Parham cycloacylation and Seebach's enantioselective alkylation as the key steps. The route is concise, protecting-group free, provides access to all stereoisomers, and works on a gram scale. In addition to the putative structure of hypoestestatin 2, the other three stereoisomers and two structurally related analogues were synthesized, none of which shows identical NMR spectra to those reported for natural hypoestestatin 2, which indicates that further structure revision is required.

Field of study: Chemistry
Robust Design of Radar Doppler Filters

This paper considers the design of robust filters for radar pulse-Doppler processing when the interference is a wide sense stationary random process. The figure of merit which is optimized is the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the filter output under a multitude of constraints accounting for Doppler filter sidelobes as well as uncertainties both in the received useful signal component and interference covariance matrix. The design is analytically formulated as a constrained optimization problem whose solvability is thoroughly studied. Precisely, a polynomial-time solution technique to get the optimal filter is proposed exploiting the representation of non-negative trigonometric polynomials via linear matrix inequalities, the spectral factorization theorem, and the duality theory. Last but not least, a detailed analysis of the optimum filter performance is provided showing the tradeoffs involved in the design and the gain achievable over some already known counterparts.

Field of study: Engineering
River otters (Lontra canadensis) "trapped" in a coastal environment contaminated with persistent organic pollutants: Demographic and physiological consequences.

Productive coastal and estuarine habitats can be degraded by contaminants including persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as PCBs, dioxins, and organochlorine insecticides to the extent of official designation as contaminated sites. Top-predatory wildlife may continue to use such sites as the habitat often appears suitable, and thus bioaccumulate POPs and other contaminants with potential consequences on their health and fitness. Victoria and Esquimalt harbours are located on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia (BC) and are federally designated contaminated sites due mainly to past heavy industrial activities, such as from shipyards and sawmills. We collected scat samples from river otters (Lontra canadensis) throughout an annual cycle, and combined chemical analysis with DNA genotyping to examine whether the harbour areas constituted a contaminant-induced ecological trap for otters. We confirmed spatial habitat use by radio telemetry of a subsample of otters. Fifteen percent of otter scat contained PCB concentrations exceeding levels considered to have adverse effects on the reproduction of mink (Neovison vison), and there were significant positive correlations between concentrations of PCBs and of thyroid (T3) and sex (progesterone) hormones in fecal samples. Radio telemetry data revealed that otters did not show directional movement away from the harbours, indicating their inability to recognize the contaminated site as a degraded habitat. However, analysis and modeling of the DNA genotyping data provided no evidence that the harbour otters formed a sink population and therefore were in an ecological trap. Despite the highly POP-contaminated habitat, river otters did not appear to be adversely impacted at the population level. Our study demonstrates the value of combining chemical and biological technologies with ecological theory to investigate practical conservation problems.

Field of study: Environmental science
Nonlocal Effects on the Surface Resistance of High-Temperature Superconductors with (100) and (110) Surfaces

The low-temperature surface resistance Rs of d-wave superconductors is calculated as function of frequency assuming normal state quasiparticle mean free paths l in excess of the penetration depth. Results depend strongly on the geometric configuration. In the clean limit, two contributions to Rs with different temperature dependencies are identified: photon absorption by quasiparticles and pair breaking. The size of nonlocal corrections, which can be positive or negative depending on frequency decreases for given l as the scattering phase shift δN is increased. However, except in the unitarity limit δN=0.5π, nonlocal effects should be observable.

Field of study: Physics
Wheat gliadin fractions and other cereal antigens reactive with antibodies in the sera of coeliac patients.

The mixed reverse solid phase passive antiglobulin haemadsorption test (MRSPAH) and the enzyme linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) were found equally sensitive and fitted for the measurement of serum IgG antibodies against alcohol soluble gliadins. Using the ELISA method, three coeliac sera with elevated antibody titres against gliadins and two control sera with low titres were tested for IgG antibodies against the main groups of wheat proteins (acetic acid soluble glutenins, salt soluble albumins and globulins and alcohol soluble gliadins), eight fractions of gliadin and the alcohol soluble proteins of barley, rye, oat, maize and rice. As rice contained little alcohol soluble protein, a test against acid soluble rice proteins was included. In all three patient sera, titres higher than or equal to that for crude gliadin were found for wheat glutenin and for gliadin fractions seven and eight, both containing alpha gliadins. Similar high titres were found when these coeliac sera were tested against rye, barley and oat prolamines. Maize prolamines gave only low titres and no antibodies could be detected against rice proteins, in line with the tolerance of these latter two cereals by patients with coeliac disease. It would appear that sera from coeliac patients react with more than one antigenic fraction of protein in wheat and other cereals. Also sera from two normal persons appeared to have the same spectrum of reactivity against these cereal proteins as did the three sera from coeliac patients. The titres in normal sera were however much lower.

Field of study: Biology, Medicine
Formation and Evolution of the Dust in Galaxies. I. The Condensation Efficiencies

The growing interest in the high-z universe, where strongly obscured objects are present, has determined an effort to improve the simulations of dust formation and evolution in galaxies. Three main basic ingredients enter the problem influencing the total dust budget and the mixture of the dust grains: the types and amounts of dust injected by AGB stars and SNae and the accretion/destruction processes of dust in the ISM. They govern the relative abundances of the gas and dust in the ISM. In this study, we focus on star-dust and present a database of condensation efficiencies for the refractory elements C, O, Mg, Si, S, Ca and Fe in AGB stars and SNae that can be easily applied to the gaseous ejecta, in order to determine the amount and kind of refractory elements locally embedded into dust and injected into the ISM. The best theoretical recipes available nowadays in literature to estimate the amount of dust produced by SNae and AGB stars have been discussed and for SNae compared to the observations to get clues on the problem. The condensation efficiencies have been analyzed in the context of a classical chemical model of dust formation and evolution in the Solar Neighbourhood and Galactic Disk. Tables of coefficients are presented for (i) AGB stars at varying the metallicity and (ii) SNae at varying the density n_H of the ISM where the SNa explosions took place. In particular, we show how the controversial CNT approximation widely adopted to form dust in SNae, still gives good results and agrees with some clues coming from the observations. A new generation of dust formation models in SNae is however required to solve some contradictions recently emerged. A simple database of condensation efficiencies is set up to be used in chemical models including the effect of dust and meant to simulate galaxies going from primordial proto-galaxies to those currently seen in the local universe.

Field of study: Physics
Removal of chlorophenolics and toxicity during high-rate anaerobic treatment of segregated kraft mill bleach plant effluents

The behavior of selected chlorinated phenols, guaiacols, catechols, and vanillins during the high-rate anaerobic treatment of segregated graft mill bleach plant effluents was investigated. Eleven of the 12 detected chlorinated catechols, guaiacols, and vanillins were removed at efficiencies of greater than 80% from an 80% v/v dilution of the wastewater, at a hydraulic retention time of 6 h when the influent was cosubstrate supplemented. The behavior of chlorinated phenol was influenced by the chlorine position and degree of chlorination. Supplementation of the reactor influent with a synthetic evaporator condensate containing methanol and ethanol improved the removal of a number of the compounds by greater than 80%

Field of study: Environmental science
Effect of freezing rate and storage on the texture and quality parameters of strawberry and green bean frozen in home type freezer

The focus of interest of this research was freezing preservation of green bean and strawberry in a home type freezer. Freezing time and freezing rates were determined from the cooling curves obtained experimentally. Home type freezing provided slow freezing rate. NMR Relaxometry measurements showed that freezing did not keep the cellular integrity in strawberries and green beans due to structural damage and extracellular ice formation. Packaged samples were stored at −27 °C for approximately 3 months. Although total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and color changes of samples were not significant, significant L-ascorbic acid losses were determined for 13 weeks’ frozen storage of strawberries and green beans. Home freezing should be done at appropriate freezing rate to preserve the texture and the nutritional content of fruits and vegetables.

Field of study: Engineering
Primary Current Lineation or Parting Lineation

The terms “primary current lineation” and “parting lineation” have both been applied to the same depositional feature of sedimentary rocks. It is agreed that the origin is a streamlining effect on loose sand grains parallel with current direction. A superficially similar effect is seen on parting planes of certain metamorphic rocks and is due to the intersection of s-surfaces. This lineation is at right angles to the tectonic movement. It is suggested that the term “primary current lineation” be retained for the sedimentary depositional feature to avoid confusion with the lineation imposed by movement within metamorphic rocks.

Field of study: Geology
Time and temperature dependence on rapid thermal annealing of molecular beam epitaxy grown Ga0.8In0.2N0.01As0.99 quantum wells analyzed using photoluminescence

GaInNAs has received a great deal of attention among the scientific community, owing to its ability to be grown pseudomorphically on GaAs substrates and, thus, to extend the possibility of using GaAs based materials for technologically important wavelengths such as 1.3 µm. Annealing was found to be a very useful tool in improving the optical characteristics of as-grown GaInNAs films. This work presents a systematic statistical analysis of two annealing parameters, time and temperature, for Ga0.8In0.2N0.01As0.99 quantum wells. Annealing, in general, has resulted in decreasing the emission wavelength by at most 0.08 µm, narrowing the peaks by at most ∼25 meV and increasing the intensity by at most 90 times. However, from the statistical analysis, it is observed that the temperature is the dominant factor among time and temperature in recovering the optical properties.

Field of study: Materials science
In vivo alteration of antibody production in patients with IgA nephropathy.

Augmentation of IgA production has been postulated for the development of IgA nephropathy. An influenza HA vaccine was administered to healthy adults and patients with IgA nephropathy to elucidate if there was any in vivo alteration of antibody production in response to antigenic stimulation in these patients. The vaccine was administered s.c. in a dose of 350 CCA units at an interval of 4 weeks. IgG, IgA and IgM class antibodies to influenza HA antigens and three classes of rheumatoid factors (RF) were determined using a solid phase fluorescence immunoassay. The titres of IgG class antibodies to influenza HA antigens did not change significantly in either group after the vaccination. No significant differences were observed in the titres of IgG antibodies between the two groups. IgA antibodies were significantly increased only in patients in the 4th week and continued to the 8th week. The titres of IgA antibodies were always higher in patients than in controls during the study period. IgM antibodies were significantly increased stepwise in both groups to an equal degree. IgG and IgA RF were always higher in patients than in controls. IgM RF were significantly increased and higher than in controls in the 8th week in patients. It is concluded that patients with IgA nephropathy might be high responders for IgA antibody production, and that polyclonal activation might be associated with increased IgA production following in vivo antigenic stimulation in these patients.

Field of study: Biology, Medicine
Robustness of optimal mixed strategies

Mixed strategies, or variable phenotypes, can evolve in fluctuating environments when at the time that a strategy is chosen the consequences of that decision are relatively uncertain. In a previous paper, we have shown several examples of explicit forms of optimal mixed strategies when an environmental distribution and payoff function are given. In many of these examples, the mixed strategy has a continuous distribution. In a recent study, however, Sasaki and Ellner proved that, if the distribution of the environmental parameter is modified in certain ways, the exact ESS distribution becomes discrete rather than continuous. This forces us to take a closer look at the robustness of optimal mixed strategies. In the current paper we prove that such strategies are indeed robust against small perturbations of the environmental distribution and/or the payoff function, in the sense that the optimal strategy distribution for the perturbed system, converges weakly to the optimal strategy distribution for the unperturbed system as the magnitude of the perturbation goes to zero. Furthermore, we show that the fitness difference between the two strategies converges to zero. Thus, although optimal strategies in ‘ideal’ and perturbed systems can be qualitatively different, the difference between the distributions (in a measure theoretic sense) is small.

Field of study: Biology, Mathematics
Macrophage migration inhibitory factor is essential for osteoclastogenic mechanisms in vitro and in vivo mouse model of arthritis.

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) enhances activation of leukocytes, endothelial cells and fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS), thereby contributing to the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A MIF promoter polymorphism in RA patients resulted in higher serum MIF concentration and worsens bone erosion; controversially current literature reported an inhibitory role of MIF in osteoclast formation. The controversial suggested that the precise role of MIF and its putative receptor CD74 in osteoclastogenesis and RA bone erosion, mediated by locally formed osteoclasts in response to receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL), is unclear. We reported that in an in vivo K/BxN serum transfer arthritis, reduced clinical and histological arthritis in MIF(-/-) and CD74(-/-) mice were accompanied by a virtual absence of osteoclasts at the synovium-bone interface and reduced osteoclast-related gene expression. Furthermore, in vitro osteoclast formation and osteoclast-related gene expression were significantly reduced in MIF(-/-) cells via decreasing RANKL-induced phosphorylation of NF-κB-p65 and ERK1/2. This was supported by a similar reduction of osteoclastogenesis observed in CD74(-/-) cells. Furthermore, a MIF blockade reduced RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis via deregulating RANKL-mediated NF-κB and NFATc1 transcription factor activation. These data indicate that MIF and CD74 facilitate RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis, and suggest that MIF contributes directly to bone erosion, as well as inflammation, in RA.

Field of study: Medicine
The Application of Personal Media in the Agricultural Informational Construction

As a representative of the new media in the 21th century,personal media is leading the development trend of agricultural informationization construction.Under the background,what we should do is to figure out the connotation of personal media and dig out ways to improve the construction of agricultural information.In order to employ personal media in the promotion of agricultural informatization construction,we put forward strategies for the application of agricultural informationization construction from the perspectives of subject,resources and administrative levels, which would be supplemented by building of mobile learning model,setting-up of graphic video module structures and the concrete implementation plan for interaction and communication security.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Studying the interplay of strong and electromagnetic forces in heavy-ion collisions with NICA

In the following we stress the advantages of the NICA research programme in the context of studying the spectator-induced electromagnetic phenomena present in heavy-ion collisions. We point at the specific interest of using these phenomena as a new, independent source of information on the space-time evolution of the reaction and of the non-perturbative process of particle production. We propose an extended series of measurements of well-defined observables to be performed in different types of nuclear reactions and in the whole range of collision energies available to NICA. We expect these measurements to bring very valuable new insight into the mechanism of non-perturbative strong interactions, complementary to the studies made at the SPS at CERN, RHIC at BNL, and the LHC.

Field of study: Physics
Mechanism of interaction between cellulase action and applied shear force, an hypothesis.

An overview is given of what is known in literature concerning the structure of both cellulose and cellulase enzymes and the enzymatic degradation of cellulose. Based on this knowledge, a hypothesis is formulated about the relation between cellulase performance and required applied shear force on the fabric. In short, the specific cellulase activity is highest on the flexible amorphous cellulose when compared to that with the more rigid crystalline cellulose. When applying cellulase activity on damaged, fuzzy fabric, the connection point of cellulose material oriented away from the fiber axis, which is partly amorphous due to the damage, will be turned again to a more rigid, mainly crystalline structure. Due to this shift, this connection point will function as a primary point of application for shear force, resulting in removal of the fuzz.

Field of study: Biology, Engineering
Nuclear Pore Complex Components Have Temperature-Influenced Roles in Plant Growth and Immunity.

Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are main channels controlling nucleocytoplasmic transport and are composed of approximately 30 nucleoporins (NUPs). Emerging evidences suggest that some NUP genes have specialized functions which challenges the traditional view of NPCs as structures of uniform composition. Here we analyzed the role of six outer-ring components of NPC at normal and warm growth temperatures by examining their loss-of-function mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana. All six NUP subunits, NUP85, NUP96, NUP 133, NUP 160, SEH1 and HOS1, have a non-redundant temperature-influenced function in one or more of the processes including rosette growth, leaf architecture and intracellular immune receptor mediated disease resistance. At the molecular level, NUP85 and NUP133 are required for mRNA export only at warm temperature and play a larger role in localization of transcription factor at warm temperature. In addition, NUP96 and HOS1 are essential for the expression of high-temperature responsive genes, which is correlated with their larger activity in facilitating nuclear accumulation of the transcription factor PIF4 at warm temperature. Our results reveal that subunits of NPC have differential roles at different temperatures, suggesting the existence of temperature-influenced NPC complexes and activities. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Field of study: Environmental science