nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Lipomyelomeningocele for the urologist: Should we view it the same as myelomeningocele?

The primary urologic objectives for lipomyelomeningocele (LMM) and myelomeningocele (MM) are preserving renal integrity and achieving continence. Due to this common ground, LMM and MM are urologically treated the same. However, unlike MM, LMM may present with no evident functional concerns. Indications for and timing of tethered cord release (TCR) in LMM are therefore controversial. Long-term urologic outcomes are not well defined.



Expectations for continence and potential for intermittent catheterization (CIC) following TCR in LMM are important for realistically counseling families regarding future needs. The present study aimed to identify prognostic factors for continence and need for CIC in LMM.



The present study retrospectively identified 143 patients from the multidisciplinary clinic who underwent TCR for LMM between 1995 and 2010. Concomitant anorectal/genitourinary anomalies, filar lipoma, fatty filum, previous TCR, and follow-up <1 year were excluded. Analysis was limited to those toilet trained or aged ≥6 years at latest follow-up. Lipomyelomeningocele was classified as dorsal, distal, transitional or chaotic. Pre- and post-TCR urologic status was assessed. Ability to achieve urinary continence, with or without CIC, was the primary outcome, and need for CIC was the secondary outcome of interest.



A total of 56 patients met inclusion criteria. Median age at TCR was 4.4 months (range 1.0-224.0) with a median follow-up of 10.7 years (range 1.3-19.1); 68% were asymptomatic at presentation. Clinical symptoms were urologic in 7%. At the latest follow-up, 86% of patients were continent spontaneously or with CIC (. Of the four patients who presented with urologic symptoms, all were continent, but three required CIC. Overall, 23% of patients required CIC. Median age at CIC initiation was 7.6 years (range 1.6-17.4). Long-term continence was not associated with any demographic, anatomic, surgical or functional variable. Need for CIC at latest follow-up was associated with symptomatic presentation, partial TCR, transitional lipoma, and high-risk pre-operative urodynamics.



In this series of primary TCR for LMM, where 93% of patients were urologically asymptomatic before TCR, prospects for continence were excellent. No studied parameter clearly impacted continence; however, need for CIC was associated with multiple variables.



Clear predictors for continence after TCR will require additional long-term patient outcomes. Families can anticipate 23% likelihood of CIC, which is considerably less than in MM, but long-term urologic follow-up is still strongly recommended.

Field of study: Medicine
Prevention of TLR9 Pathway in Warm Ischemia in Porcine Donor Liver after Cardiac Death

To investigate effect of warm ischemia after cardiac death on activation of TLR9 pathway in porcine liver.  Donor of cardiac death (DCD) model was established with Duroc, Landrace, Large White crossbred pigs. Liver tissues from the animals were harvested at 0, 5, 10, 15, 25 and 30 minutes after warm ischemia for analysis of expression of TLR9, IRF7, IFN-β, and TNF-α at mRNA and protein levels by real-time PCR and western blot, respectively, and for assessment of NF-κB/DNA binding activity by western blot detection of p65 protein.  Ischemia induced TLR9, IRF7, IFN-β, and TNF-α expression at both mRNA and protein levels in an ischemic time dependent manner. Among them, expression of TNF-α and IFN- β was induced later than TLR9 and IRF7 did. Ischemia also enhanced NF-κB binding to DNA in the DCD liver tissue. Pretreatment with iCpG specifically blocked activation of TLR9 pathway triggered by ischemia in liver and protected the animals from ischemia-caused liver tissue damage.  Warm ischemia activates TLR9 pathways in the porcine liver tissue. Blocking TLR9 pathway could offer protection from ischemia-caused liver tissue in DCD liver transplantation.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry
Gasification of biomass model compounds in supercritical water

Gasification of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and their mixtures with K_2CO_ 3 as catalyst in supercritical water was conducted at 450℃ and 27.5MPa in a high-pressure batch autoclave.The experimental results showed that the gasification performance was in the order of cellulosehemicelluloselignin, which could be explained by the difference in molecular framework.The existence of lignin in the mixture could inhibit the generation of hydrogen and methane but had little effect on the generation of carbon dioxide.The inhibition effect weakened with decreasing amount of lignin.The reason might be associated with the hydrogenation of lignin in the course of hydrolysis.The interaction between cellulose and hemicellulose was so week that it could be ignored.In addition, equations to predict gas yield were developed.The results showed that the estimated values thus calculated agreed well with the values from actual gasification experiments and the deviation of prediction from experiment for hydrogen and methane was 5.77% and 4.74% respectively.

Field of study: Chemistry, Environmental science
RAD18 polymorphisms are associated with platinum-based chemotherapy toxicity in Chinese patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Although targeted therapy is very efficient for lung cancer, traditional platinum-based chemotherapies are still the principal strategy in the absence of positive biomarkers. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the contribution of RAD18 polymorphisms to platinum-chemotherapy response and its potential side effects in Chinese patients with non-small cell lung cancer (A total of 1021 Chinese patients with histological diagnosis of advanced NSCLC were enrolled. Treatment responses were classified into 4 categories (complete response, partial response, stable disease and progressive disease). Gastrointestinal and hematological toxicity incidences were assessed twice a week during the first-line treatment. Ten RAD18 SNPs were genotyped. A logistic regression model was utilized to analyze the associations between RAD18 SNPs and treatment response or toxicity.Among the 10 SNPs tested, none was significantly correlated with the treatment response in a combined cohort. For gastrointestinal toxicity incidences, rs586014 was significantly associated with an increased risk of grade 3 or 4 gastrointestinal toxicity in non-smokers and in the combined cohort; rs654448 and rs618784 were significantly associated with gastrointestinal toxicity in non-smokers; rs6763823 was significantly associated with gastrointestinal toxicity in smokers. For hematological toxicity incidences, rs586014, rs654448 and rs618784 were significantly associated with hematologic toxicity in non-smokers; rs6763823 and rs9880051 were significantly associated with leukocytopenia in smokers.RAD18 polymorphisms are correlated with the side effects of platinum-chemotherapy in Chinese patients with advanced NSCLC.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry, Medicine
Synthesis of derivatives of new heterocyclic system 5,7-dioxo(4h,6h)-1,3-dithiolo[4,5-d]pyrimidine on the basis of barbituric acid

The 5-phenyliodonium betaine of barbituric acid reacts with sodium diethyldithiocarbamate to form 5-(diethylaminothiocarbonylthio)barbituric acid, which is cyclized in concentrated H2SO4 solution to form the cation of 5,7-dioxo(4H,6H)-1,3-dithiolo[4,5-d]pyrimidine, isolated in the form of the perchlorate and the chloride. These salts are split by sodium sulflde or selenide, forming 5-[diethylaminothio (seleno)carbonylthio]-4-thiobarbituric acids, which are cyclized by the action of concentrated HCl in an organic solvent to form 5,7-dioxo(4H,6H)-1,3-dithiolo[4,5-d]pyrimidinethione (selenone)-2. The thione and the selenone, as NH acids, form salts; alkylation of the tetrabutylammonium salt affords N(4)-alkyl and N,N′-dialkyl derivatives. The compounds that were obtained have been characterized by IR and PMR spectra.

Field of study: Chemistry
Production of Heavy Clusters with an Expanded Coalescence Model in CEM

The production of heavy clusters in nuclear reactions is important in a wide variety of applications: radiation shielding, space engineering and design, medical physics, accelerator design, and more. According to the Cascade Exciton Model (CEM), there are three ways high-energy heavy clusters can be produced. The first way is via coalescence of nucleons produced in the IntraNuclear Cascade (INC). The second way is via the preequilibrium model. The last way is via Fermi breakup. Previous work in CEM examines the impact of expansions of the preequilibrium model and Fermi breakup model on heavy cluster production. The present work studies the impact of expanding the coalescence model on heavy cluster spectra. CEM03.03, the default event generator in the Monte Carlo N-Particle transport code version 6 (MCNP6) for intermediate-energy nuclear reactions, is capable of producing light fragments up to He4 in its coalescence model. In the present study, we have expanded the coalescence model to be able to produce up to Be7. Preliminary results are promising.

Field of study: Physics
Preparation and characterization of superionic materials in a new mixed system (Cu(1−x)AgxI)–(Ag2O)–(P2O5), (0.05≤x≤0.25)

In this paper attempts have been made to prepare superionic glassy electrolytes in the mixed system 30(Cu (1− x ) Ag x I)–46.66(Ag 2 O)–23.33(P 2 O 5 ), where x =0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2 and 0.25, respectively, using the melt quenching process. The solid samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and silver ionic transport number studies. XRD analysis and FT-IR spectroscopic results have provided details regarding the various phases present in the new system and also indicated the formation of composite materials consisting of glassy and crystalline phases. The transport number measurements have indicated the formation of superionic solids having Ag + ions as the mobile species in the present system.

Field of study: Materials science
Leucine toxicity in a neuronal cell model with inhibited branched chain amino acid catabolism.

Individuals with the inborn error of metabolism, maple syrup urine disease (MSUD), are identified by newborn screening programs and treated with protein-modified diets that allow near normal growth and development. However, regardless of cause, a protein insult leads to metabolic decompensation, resulting in brain cell damage. The mechanism responsible for the damage is not well characterized due, in part, to the lack of an appropriate experimental model system with impaired branched chain alpha-ketoacid dehydrogenase (BCKD) activity. Here, we describe the construction of a rat pheochromocytoma cell (PC12) model harboring a doxycycline-controlled BCKD-kinase transgene. When BCKD-kinase is over-expressed in these cells, the endogenous BCKD activity is decreased, blocking branched chain amino acid (BCAA) catabolism. In cells over-expressing BCKD-kinase, addition of 25 mM leucine to the medium results in cell death. This experimental cell model accurately mimics the neuronal dysfunction in maple syrup urine disease and should facilitate further understanding of the pathophysiology of this disease and neuronal cell branched chain amino acid metabolism in general.

Field of study: Biology
Acclimation of photosynthesis to irradiance and spectral quality in British plant species: chlorophyll content, photosynthetic capacity and habitat preference

Twenty-two common British angiosperms were examined for their ability to acclimate photosynthetically to sun and shade conditions. Plants were grown under low irradiance, far-red enriched light (50 μmol m−2 s−1), selected to mimic as closely as possible natural canopy shade, and moderately high light of insufficient irradiance to induce photoinhibitory or photoprotective responses (300 μmol m−2 s−1). Light-and CO2-saturated photosynthetic rates of oxygen evolution (Pmax) and chlorophyll content were measured. Large variation was found in both parameters, and two ‘strategies’ for long-term acclimation were identified: firstly a change in chlorophyll per unit leaf area which was found to correlate positively with photosynthetic capacity, and secondly changes in chlorophyll alb ratio and Pmax, indicative of alterations at the chloroplast level, which were not associated with a change in chlorophyll content per unit leaf area. Combinations of these two strategies may occur, giving rise to the observed diversity in photosynthetic acclimation. The extent and nature of photosynthetic acclimation were compared with an index of shade association, calculated from the association each species has with woodland. It was found that the greatest flexibility for change at the chloroplast level was found in those species possessing an intermediate shade association, whilst acclimation in ‘sun’ species proceeded by a change in chlorophyll content; obligate shade species showed little capacity for acclimation at either the chloroplast or leaf level. A framework for explaining the variation between plant species in leaf-level photosynthetic capacity, in relation to the natural light environment, is presented. This is the first time the potential for light acclimation of photosynthesis in different plant species has been satisfactorily linked to habitat distribution.

Field of study: Environmental science
Network Consequences Due to Oligopolists and Oligopsonists in the Hog Industry, Pollution from Hog Production, and the Failure to Regulate Ecological Criteria

Humans have been in a symbiotic relationship with hogs since the time humans became a species. That relationship evolved into a set of transactional (as defined by instrumentalists) processes beginning with the hunter-gatherer tribes. The network of relationships has continued to become more numerous, intense, and complex. Hogs have served in social systems with humans as societal symbols for prowess for numerous groups (with wild boars, for example, on coats of arms in Europe), as religious symbols (both positive and negative), as a source of human disease in the hog-chicken-human cycle for generating flu in Asia, and, more recently, as a source of organs to be transplanted into humans. We usually think of the hog as a proven converter of waste material and low-cost crops into human food and leather. That use of hogs-which has become an inefficient system-is the area of concern here. This analysis is based on the transactional network of institutional economics, as outlined in figure 1. The purpose is threefold. The first is to review the model of the relationship between the oligopsonistic corporations which slaughter hogs and the farmer-feeder hog producer. The second is to further develop the normative theoretical connection between ecological systems and social institutions (NE in figure 1). Most analysis in ecological economics has concentrated on the impact of socioeconomic institutions on the ecological system. The analysis here emphasizes the delivery of ecological criteria (NE) to institutional organizations from the ecology. Glen Atkinson has emphasized the importance of investigations of real world problems for improving the theoretical base of the institutionalist paradigm (2003, 5). That is a purpose here with regard to

Field of study: Economics
Protective humoral immune responses to the human immunodeficiency virus induced in immunized pigs: a possible source of therapeutic immunoglobulin preparations.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) induces progressive and fatal disease in infected hosts. Initially the human immune response appears to control HIV infection. This hypothesis is supported by the long latency period observed during HIV infection prior to development of the active disease state. Similarly the observation of fetal protection from HIV infection in some pregnant women who have high titered neutralizing antibody responses to the virus underscores the importance of the humoral response to HIV in limiting infection. Therefore antibody replacement therapy is likely to provide substantial clinical benefits in this and other infected populations. However, currently there is no safe source for human antibodies with the desired protective qualities necessary for passive immune therapies. For a passive immune therapy to be valid it must protect against a diverse collection of viral isolates. Such a task is likely to require a complex mixture of human antibodies or human substitute antibodies which are available in large quantities and target conserved regions of the viral envelope, such that protection from diverse isolates are realized. Porcine products have been used extensively in many human therapeutic replacement regimens. Their use is primarily due to genetic similarity of the two species at the amino acid level which results in a high acceptance of grafted prosthetics and excellent tolerance of repeatedly administered biologicals. Accordingly we have examined the immunoglobulin responses to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1) of the Yorkshire mixed breed pig. Immunized animals developed significant humoral immunity as judged by ELISA, Western blot, radioimmunoprecipitation, flow microfluorimetry as well as in functional assays including neutralization and syncytia inhibition. The high neutralizing activity obtained and the immunological similarity between human and porcine immunoglobulin suggests that further investigation into the use of porcine immunoglobulin as human replacement antibodies for the therapeutic treatment of HIV is warranted.

Field of study: Biology
The chronology and structure of the western New Caledonian barrier reef tracts.

The mainland of New Caledonia (“Grande Terre”) is surrounded by one of the largest continuous barrier reef system in the world. In order to study the development history and internal structure of this system, drilling operations have been carried out at two sites (Amedee and Kendec islets), located on the barrier reef tract extending from the south-west 33 to the north-west of New Caledonia. The extracted cores are 128.50 and 148.75 m in length respectively. Lithological and paleoecological descriptions, combined with Uranium / Thorium dating, magnetostratigraphy and nannofossil-based biostratigraphy allowed a reef evolutionary scheme to be drawn. As a result of the interplay between margin subsidence and sea-level changes, 11 reef units formed successively during interglacial episodes at high sea levels in both sites. Depending on the subsidence rate of the western shelf-margin, major building in New Caledonia appears to have started during the MIS 11 (400,000 yr) from shallow-water carbonate platform deposits older than 780,000 yr. Comparing development patterns between the New Caledonian barrier reef and the Australian Great Barrier Reef clearly indicates that both global climate and regional tectonic history have been the major controls on reef initiation and growth along both sides of the Coral Sea. Climatic conditions are likely to have not been optimal before the late Quaternary, probably resulting in luxuriant reef expansion only during the last 400,000 yr.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
Service-Learning and Pharmaceutical Education: An Exploratory Survey

The University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, prior to introduction of Service-Learning into its curriculum, decided to seek information on the status of Service-Learning in the Pharmaceutical education community. In order to accomplish this, a direct-mail survey of the AACP member Schools of Pharmacy was conducted. Forty-two of the seventy-eight schools surveyed responded. Seventeen reported some form of Service-Learning as already being in place. Respondent school’s comments on the requirements for implementation and difficulties encountered are presented, as well as discussion of the benefits of Service-Learning. The broad disparity in implementations of Service-Learning and the relatively few institutions who have adopted Service-Learning into their curriculum is presented as evidence that further discussion of this educational strategy amongst the Pharmaceutical education community is needed.

Field of study: Education, Medicine
Linear time-variant transformations of generalized almost-cyclostationary signals .I. Theory and method

The problem of linear time-variant filtering is addressed in the fraction-of-time (FOT) probability framework. The adopted approach, which is an alternative to the classical stochastic one, provides a statistical characterization of the system in terms of time averages of functions of time rather than ensemble averages of stochastic processes. Thus, it is particularly useful when stochastic systems transform ergodic input signals into nonergodic output signals, as it happens with several channel models encountered in practice. The analysis is carried out with reference to the wide class of the generalized almost-cyclostationary signals, which includes, as,a special case, the class of almost-cyclostationary signals. In this paper, systems are classified as deterministic or random in the FOT probability framework. Moreover, the new concept of expectation in the FOT probability framework of the impulse-response function of a system is introduced. For the linear time-variant systems, the higher order system characterization in the time domain is provided in terms of the system temporal moment function, which is the kernel of the operator that transforms the additive sinewave components contained in the input lag product into the additive sinewave components contained in the output lag product. Moreover, the higher order characterization in the frequency domain is also provided, and input/output relationships are derived in terms of temporal and spectral moment and cumulant functions. Developments and examples of application of the theory introduced here are presented in part II of this two-part paper.

Field of study: Engineering
A covariant model of the electromagnetic current for the study of two-body scalar systems

We present a procedure to derive a covariant electromagnetic current operator for a system made up by two scalars constituents. Using different wave functions we fitted their parameters to the experimental data of the pion form factor, obtainig great discrepancy at low momentum transfer. Introducing the Vector Meson Dominance corrective factor, we obtained a better fit to the data.

Field of study: Physics
Evaluating E-Learning: A Case Study

As e-learning proliferates in the business and academic communities, there is an ongoing need to evaluate its effectiveness. This paper investigates the experiences and perceptions of students who completed self-paced, independent study online courses as a project within a traditional, instructorled graduate course. This project was conducted over two semesters utilizing both technical and non-technical learning units. While the project produced some positive outcomes, participants' reactions provide important insight about the challenges, limitations, and benefits of e-learning. Among the intriguing findings is that technical e-learning units were evaluated less favorably by users than non-technical units. The results raise implications for online learning unit design and future e-learning research.

Field of study: Computer science
Untersuchungen über die Umwandlung des amorphen in kristallinen Kohlenstoff

ZusammenfassungEs wurde amorpher Kohlenstoff dargestellt, dessen Leitfähigkeit etwa 2,5 · 1010-mal kleiner war als der kleinste bisher in der Literatur angegebene Wert. Erwärmt man diese Modifikation, so beginnt bei etwa 600° C eine Umwandlung, die von einer sprunghaft einsetzenden Leitfähigkeitssteigerung begleitet ist und die der Umwandlung der amorphen Metallmodifikationen entspricht. Bemerkenswert ist, daß in dieser amorphen Kohle bei einer reproduzierbaren Feldstärke Stromübergänge stattfinden können, die dem Funkenübergang in Luft entsprechen.

Field of study: Physics