nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Soy-protein consumption and kidney-related biomarkers among type 2 diabetics: a crossover, randomized clinical trial.

Renal disease is a major problem among diabetic patients. The type of protein consumed may affect alterations in kidney-related biomarkers in these patients. This study sought to assess the effects of soy-protein consumption on renal-related markers among type 2 diabetic patients with nephropathy.



A crossover, randomized clinical trial was conducted among 14 patients (10 men and 4 women). One diet contained 0.8 g/kg protein (70% animal and 30% vegetable proteins), and a similar diet contained the same amount of protein with 35% animal protein, 35% soy protein, and 30% other vegetable proteins. These two diets were prescribed in each phase of the trial for 7 weeks. There was a 4-week washout between the two phases of the study.



Consumption of soy protein reduced urinary urea nitrogen (-0.9 +/- 0.8 vs. 0.2 +/- 0.6 mg/dL, respectively, SD; P < .001), proteinuria (-78 +/- 37 vs. 42 +/- 39 mg/day, respectively, SD; P < .001), blood sodium (-2 +/- 0.04 vs. 2.0 +/- 0.06 mg/dL, respectively, SD; P < .01), and serum phosphorus (-0.03 +/- 0.2 vs. 0.2 +/- 0.3 mg/dL, respectively, SD; P < .01) compared with animal protein. Serum and urinary creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, serum calcium, and potassium levels were not significantly changed in soy-protein versus anima-protein consumption.



Soy-protein consumption reduces proteinuria in type 2 diabetes with nephropathy.

Field of study: Medicine
Coral mucus-associated bacteria: a possible first line of defense.

Interactions among microorganisms found in coral mucus can be either symbiotic or competitive. It has been hypothesized that microbial communities found on the surface of coral play a role in coral holobiont defense, possibly through production of antimicrobial substances. Selected microorganisms isolated from the mucus layer of a number of coral species were grown using agar-plating techniques. Screening for antimicrobial substances was performed using overlay and drop techniques, employing several indicator microorganisms. Between 25% and 70% of cultivable mucus-associated bacteria from scleractinian corals demonstrated bioactivity. Higher percentages of activity were evident in mucus-associated cultivable bacteria from massive and solitary corals, as compared with bacteria from branching or soft corals. Isolates related to the genera Vibrio and Pseudoalteromonas demonstrated high activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus, Planomicrobium) demonstrated lower levels of activity, primarily against other Gram-positive bacteria. In some cases, inhibitory effects were confined to the cell fraction, suggesting the involvement of a cell-bound molecule, sensitive to temperature and most likely proteinaceous in nature. These results demonstrate the existence of microorganisms with antimicrobial activity on the coral surface, possibly acting as a first line of defense to protect the coral host against pathogens.

Field of study: Biology, Environmental science
Drug use and health-seeking behavior for childhood illness in Vietnam--a qualitative study.

To describe and understand health-seeking behavior and drug use among caregivers, in particular antibiotics, for childhood illnesses in Vietnam.



A total of six focus group discussions were conducted with child care providers. A thematised interview guide was used and qualitative content analysis was applied. Meaning units in the texts dealing with the same content material were identified, condensed and compared until several emerging themes were found. Finally, similarities and differences in the views between rural and urban groups were described.



Self-treatment and self-medication were prominent in the urban groups, whereas compliance and trust in doctors were more common among the rural participants. Misuse and misconceptions regarding the properties of drugs were reported leading to worries about irrational drug use in the community. Despite the widespread use of private services in both areas, the public health service was reported to be the most trusted recourse for serious cases.



Qualitatively different ways of using drug and health care services are reported for childhood sickness in rural and urban Vietnam. These results provide rich information for the development of quantitative studies on drug use for children and point to the need to involve all health facilities in consideration.

Field of study: Medicine, Political science
Verbal Aggressiveness: Conceptualization and Measurement a Decade Later

Verbally aggressive messages attack an individual's self-concept to inflict psychological pain. Infante and Wigley developed a trait measure of Verbal Aggressiveness; however, the psychometric qualities and validity of the Verbal Aggressiveness scale were not fully explored. In Study I, 119 targets (Mage = 46.2, SDage = 14.1) and 238 observers (Mage = 42.9, SDage = 14.4) participated. In Study II, 112 targets (Mage = 39.9, SDage = 12.9) and 236 observers (Mage = 37.7, SDage = 11.1) participated. In Study III, 153 college students participated (M age = 25.9, SD = 4.6). In these studies, temporal stability over two months, criterion-related validity (target-observer agreement), discriminant validity (employing structural equation models), and construct validity (correlations with the facet and domain scales of the NEO-Personality Inventory-R) were investigated. The results justify considering Verbal Aggressiveness as a personality trait and the Verbal Aggressiveness scale as a valid measure

Field of study: Psychology
A new platform for international collaboration on pharmacology and drug development: 2017 China-Canada-USA Pharmacology/Physiology Conference

This Special Issue attributes to the 2017 China-Canada-USA Pharmacology/Physiology Conference (CCUPPC), one of the initiatives of promoting scientific exchanges and research collaborations in the field of pharmacology, physiology and drug development. The conference brought scientists from China, Canada, and USA together, and created a new platform for international collaboration.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry, Medicine
Construction of Generalized Harish-Chandra Modules with Arbitrary Minimal -Type

Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be a semisimple complex Lie algebra and $\mathfrak{k}\,\subset \mathfrak{g}$ be any algebraic subalgebra reductive in $\mathfrak{g}$ . For any simple finite dimensional $\mathfrak{k}$ -module $V$ , we construct simple $\left( \mathfrak{g},\mathfrak{k} \right)$ -modules $M$ with finite dimensional $\mathfrak{k}$ -isotypic components such that $V$ is a $\mathfrak{k}$ -submodule of $M$ and the Vogan norm of any simple $\mathfrak{k}$ -submodule $V\prime \subset M,V\prime \ne \,V$ , is greater than the Vogan norm of $V$ . The $\left( \mathfrak{g},\mathfrak{k} \right)$ -modules $M$ are subquotients of the fundamental series of $\left( \mathfrak{g},\mathfrak{k} \right)$ -modules.

Field of study: Mathematics
Local Linear Embedding Algorithm with Adaptively Determining Neighborhood

Local linear embedding is a kind of very competitive nonlinear dimensionality reduction technique with good representational capacity for a broader range of manifolds and high computational efficiency. However, it is based on the assumption that the whole data manifolds are evenly distributed so that it determines the neighborhood for all points with the same neighborhood size. Accordingly, it fails to nicely deal with most real problems that are unevenly distributed. This paper presents a new approach that takes the general conceptual framework of Hessian locally linear embedding so as to guarantee its correctness in the setting of local isometry for an open connected subset, but dynamically determines the local neighborhood size for each point. This approach estimates the approximate geodesic distance between any two points by the shortest path in the local neighborhood graph, and then determines the neighborhood size for each point by using the relationship between its local estimated geodesic distance matrix and local Euclidean distance matrix. This approach has clear geometry intuition as well as the better performance and stability. It deals with the sparsely sampled or noise contaminated data sets that are often unevenly distributed. The conducted experiments on benchmark data sets validate the proposed approach

Field of study: Computer science
A note on cost-share equilibrium and owner-consumers

The contributions of J. Farrell (Econ. Letters 19, 1985, 303–306) and A. Mas-Colell and J. Silvestre ( 1989, 239–256) have studied the implications of two unanimity principles when a firm is owned by the consumers. Interestingly, both approaches lead to what J.E. Roemer and J. Silvestre (The proportional solution for economies with both public and private ownership, mimeo, University of California, Davis, 1991) call proportional allocations. We compare these approaches and analyze how well they serve as equilibrium foundations for proportional allocations. In a nutshell, the conclusion is that Farrell's unanimity principle is simpler than Mas-Colell and Silvestre's, but (assuming that the cost function is convex) the latter always works (i.e., equilibrium exists and yields proportional allocations) while the former may not (equilibrium may not exist, in other words, proportional allocations may not be supportable as equilibria).

Field of study: Economics
Behavioural Study Of SmF3 Thin Films Due To AC And DC Voltages

Samarium fluoride thin films were prepared by vacuum thermal evaporation using tantalum boats. Film thickness was measured by Tolansky’s multiple beam interferometric method. The effect of DC voltage on capacitance and loss tangent was studied. The time dependent decay characteristic of the capacitor at a given DC voltage also studied. The effect of AC voltage and temperature (77K to above room – temperature) on capacitance and loss tangent were also studied and the results were discussed.

Field of study: Materials science
Pigeons' preference for variable-interval water reinforcement under widely varied water budgets.

Water budget of pigeons was varied to assess the dependence of risk-sensitive preferences upon economic context such as has been reported for energy-budget manipulations with small animals in behavioral ecology research. Fixed- and variable-interval terminal-link water schedules reinforced choice between equal variable-interval initial-link schedules arranged on two pecking keys. While keeping a severely restrictive budget the same across three phases of the experiment, a contrasting distinct ample budget was arranged in each. To mimic typical methods in behavioral ecology studies, in each ample budget a more than three-fold increase in amount of water per reinforcer presentation was instituted simultaneously with significantly increased overall access to water. Total choice response rates plummeted in the ample budgets, and body weights either increased significantly or remained unchanged in different phases as expected by the nature of the different manipulations. Clear preferences for the variable-interval schedule were found throughout the experiment, except for rare instances of key bias. The results agree with similar operant food-reinforcement studies and extend conditions under which risk preference apparently does not depend upon economic context.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Bioavailability of heavy metals in fresh water Tilapia nilotica (Oreachromis niloticus Linnaeus, 1758): Potential risk to fishermen and consumers

The study was undertaken to assess the accumulation of some heavy metals (Cr, Co, Cu, Ni, Zn, Pb and Cd) in different tissues (muscle, gills, heart, liver, brain, bone and skin) of Tilapia nilotica. It is one of the most edible fish species in Egypt and was collected from a commercial fish farm in order to evaluate their potential risk to fishermen and consumers. This fish farm is fed with discharged water containing agricultural, industrial, sewage and domestic wastes. The length-weight relation and condition factor calculation of Tilapia nilotica samples showed a significant linear regression (r2 = 0.920) and an average condition factor of 4.1 g/cm3. This indicated that the health status for the studied fish samples was good. Metal pollution index (MPI) values for the determined heavy metals in the different tissues reflected that the muscle was the only tissue that had the lowest content. Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) values for the investigated heavy metals were lower than those reported for the permissible limits. The data were evaluated by using ANOVA statistical analysis. For appraising the human health risk effects of heavy metals in fish muscle, estimated dietary intake (EDI) and hazard quotient (HQ) were determined. HQ levels indicated that Cr and Co were the only heavy metals among the determined ones that had values more than unity. Also, their relative contributions in fish consumptions were Cr> Co> Pb> Ni> Cu> Cd> Zn. The highest average HQ value of chromium determined in this study referred to the possible adverse effects of Cr on human health. Accordingly, the potential public health risks from dietary exposure to hazardous contaminants in fish species from fish farms must be continually subjected to research, regulation and debate.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Architecture and scalability of a high-speed traffic measurement platform with a highly flexible packet classification

Evolving network technologies, new web services and changing usage patterns continuously change traffic characteristics. But a thorough understanding of the traffic is the basis for many applications in networking. Thus, it is crucial to analyze up-to-date traffic traces collected by passive measurements in many relevant network contexts. As the traces' quality defines the significance of such analysis, the measured data is required to be complete, temporally accurate and reliable. This is especially challenging for measurements on high-speed links. In this paper, we present a scalable architecture for a high-speed, passive measurement platform for obtaining highly accurate packet traces. Its functional blocks are distributed to a specialized hardware unit and a commodity PC unit according to their specific requirements. For pre-processing, the hardware unit integrates a protocol-aware classification and filtering module which allows an easy definition of classification and filtering rules. We analyze the platform's scalability and support this by a implementation with current FPGA technology and a standard server PC.

Field of study: Computer science
An Unusual Association between Familial Mediterranean Fever and IgM Nephropathy

To report a case with the diagnosis of IgM nephropathy and familial Mediterranean fever (FMF).  A 9-year-old boy was admitted to our hospital with recurrent abdominal pain since the age of 4 years. Laboratory investigations revealed a sedimentation rate of 88 mm/h, C-reactive protein: 83.2 mg/l (0–10 mg/l), white blood cell count: 12,700/mm3, fibrinogen: 622 mg/dl (200–400 mg/dl) and serum amyloid A: 186 mg/l (0–5.8 mg/l). Urinalysis revealed +2 proteinuria. A 24-hour urinary protein excretion was 12 mg/m2/h. M694V homozygous mutation was identified in exon 10. Percutaneous renal biopsy showed mesangial cell proliferation and increased mesangial matrix in the glomeruli, without amyloid accumulation. Immunofluorescence study showed IgM (+1) and C1q (+1) deposits. Treatment with 1 mg/day colchicine was started. Six weeks later, proteinuria had disappeared and the patient was asymptomatic.  This case illustrates the unusual association of FMF with non-amyloid glomerulopathy. Glomerular diseases such as IgM nephropathy may be seen as a manifestation of FMF.

Field of study: Medicine
Paleomagnetic and astronomical dating of sediment core BH08 from the Bohai Sea, China: Implications for glacial–interglacial sedimentation

Sediments from the continental shelf/coastal region bear significant signals of sea-level, climate change as well as local tectonic information. This study presents a high-resolution magnetostratigraphic and rock magnetic study of a 212.4 m core (BH08, with a basal age of 1.06 Ma) recovered from the shallow ( 18 O records at 40- and 100-kyr cycles, indicating that the sediments in the study area are continuous at least at orbital timescales regardless of significant base-level variations. This is likely due to continued subsidence in the basin and creation of accommodation space. The significant lower sedimentary accumulation rates since 750 ka might be due to the deviation of the depositional locus from core site because of extreme low sea-level stands during the glacials since the Mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT). Especially the glacial sea-level lowstands might have resulted in bypassing or erosion of sediments on the BH08 core site during peak glacials (MIS 6, MIS 10 and MIS 16), limiting the sediment preservation potential. This study documents the longest Quaternary sedimentary succession in the Bohai Sea and provides, for the first time, a clear link between sedimentation in the area and glacial–interglacial climate-driven sea-level changes. This study also highlights the feasibility of astronomical tuning to obtain high-resolution chronology for shallow shelf deposits, which is otherwise very difficult to be achieved on the basis of magnetostratigraphic data alone.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS: Influence of temperature on the polarization and frequency characteristics of stimulated emission from a ring laser with a 90° Faraday rotator

An analysis is made of the factors determining the thermal sensitivity of a ring laser. For a laser having a 90° Faraday rotator and a linear phase plate in an isotropic three-mirror resonator, calculations are made of the influence of temperature on the azimuths and ellipticity of the laser oscillations and on the frequency difference between orthogonally polarized waves.

Field of study: Engineering, Physics
Host Suitability and Biology of Paratheresia Claripalpis Wulp. (Tachinidae: Diptera)

The biology and host suitability of Paratheresia claripalpis Wulp was studied by employing 6 host species, viz. Acigona steniellus (Hampson), Chilo partellus (Swinhoe), Chilo infuscatellus Snellen, Chilo auricilius (Dudgeon), Tryporyza nivella Fabricius and Galleria mellonella Linnaeus. The A. steniellus proved to be most suitable host. On A. steniellus the larval, prepupal and pupal period was completed in 8.6 ± 0.06, 1.4 ± 0.06 and 18.13 ± 4–0.42 days respectively.

Field of study: Biology
Time-Frequency Design and Processing of Signals Via Smoothed Wigner Distributions

The Wigner distribution (WD) and WD-based sig- nal synthesis can be used for designing and processing signals in a joint time-frequency domain. Unfortunately, the perfor- mance of this method is adversely affected by the occurrence of interference terms (IT'S) in the WD. This paper provides an analysis of IT effects in WD-based signal synthesis, and shows that IT effects can be substantially reduced by using a smoothed Wigner distribution (SWD) instead of the WD. An iterative al- gorithm for SWD-based signal synthesis is presented, and the improvement over WD-based signal synthesis is verified via computer simulation.

Field of study: Engineering
Paleo- to Mesoarchean polymetamorphism in the Barberton Granite-Greenstone Belt, South Africa: Constraints from U-Pb monazite and Lu-Hf garnet geochronology on the tectonic processes that shaped the belt: Discussion

[Cutts et al. (2014)][1] combined thermodynamic modeling of compositional change in metamorphic garnet with metamorphic peak and retrograde pressure-temperature ( P - T ) data derived from quantitative P - T pseudosections to determine clockwise P - T paths for several samples from the Tjakastad

Field of study: Geology
Stellar density profile and mass of the Milky Way Bulge from VVV data

We present the first stellar density profile of the Milky Way bulge that reaches latitude b = 0◦. The profile was derived by counting red clump stars within the colour-magnitude diagram that was constructed using the new PSF-fitting photometry from VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) survey data. The new stellar density map covers the area between |l| ≤ 10◦ and |b| ≤ 4.5◦ with unprecedented accuracy, allowing the stellar kinematics from the Giraffe Inner Bulge Spectroscopic Survey (GIBS) to be linked to the stellar mass density distribution. In particular, the location of the central velocity-dispersion peak from GIBS matches a high over-density in the VVV star count map. By scaling the total luminosity function (LF) obtained from all VVV fields to the LF from Zoccali et al.(2003), we obtain the first fully empirical estimate of the mass in stars and in remnants of the Galactic bulge. Within (|b| < 9.5◦, |l| < 10◦), the Milky Way bulge stellar mass is 2.0 ± 0.3 × 1010 M .

Field of study: Physics
Olfactory recognition memory in mice depends on task parameters.

We use a simple two-trial odor recognition paradigm to test memory duration, span, and specificity in adult mice. Our paradigm allows mice to encode and/or recall multiple odors in one trial and necessitates no training or food/water deprivation. We show that this paradigm can be used for encoding and/or testing of multiple odors in single trials, leading to shorter behavioral testing. Using this simple paradigm, we show that mice can remember a single odor for up to 10 but no more than 15 min and two odors for up to 5 min. Mice could not remember 3 odors at any delays tested here. We also show that specificity for the encoded odor decreases as delay increases. Our results are important for setting baseline levels of testing for experiments in which memory parameters are expected to be modulated.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Fast prime field elliptic-curve cryptography with 256-bit primes

This paper studies software optimization of elliptic-curve cryptography with $$256$$256-bit prime fields. We propose a constant-time implementation of the NIST and SECG standardized curve P-$$256$$256, that can be seamlessly integrated into OpenSSL. This accelerates Perfect Forward Secrecy TLS handshakes that use ECDSA and/or ECDHE, and can help in improving the efficiency of TLS servers. We report significant performance improvements for ECDSA and ECDH, on several architectures. For example, on the latest Intel Haswell microarchitecture, our ECDSA sign is $$2.33\times $$2.33× faster than OpenSSL’s implementation.

Field of study: Computer science, Mathematics