nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Impacts of pulsed electric field and heat treatment on quality and sensory properties and microbial inactivation of pomegranate juice

Synergistic effects of pulsed electric field+mild heat on quality properties of pomegranate juice were modeled using the best-fit multiple (non-) linear regression models with inactivation kinetics parameters of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Staphylococcus aureus. No significant difference was detected between the control and the treated samples in terms of pH; °Brix; total antioxidant capacity; total monomeric anthocyanin content; total ascorbic acid concentration; and the sensory properties of flavor, taste, aftertaste, and overall acceptance (p > 0.05). An exposure of 65.3 J and 40 ℃ caused an increase on conductivity; titratable acidity; L*, a*, and b* values; and a decrease of browning index, total phenolic content, total antioxidant capacity, total monomeric anthocyanin content, total ascorbic acid concentration, and in the sensory properties of color and sourness in pomegranate juice. The goodness-of-fit for the best-fit multiple (non-) linear regression models in descending order belonged to E. coli O157:H7 (92.98%), S. aureus (84.06%), color a* (83.9%), titratable acidity (81.3%), color L* (78.5%), color b* (78.3%), conductivity (74.8%), total phenolic content (74.1%), and total ascorbic acid concentration (64.74%), respectively. De and ze values for E. coli O157:H7 and S. aureus ranged from 105.64 to 1093.25 and from 79.18 to 1057.73 µs with 27.39 and 30.80 J, consequently.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Primary-Secondary-Resolver Membership Proof Systems

We consider Primary-Secondary-Resolver Membership Proof Systems (PSR for short) and show different constructions of that primitive. A PSR system is a 3-party protocol, where we have a primary, which is a trusted party which commits to a set of members and their values, then generates public and secret keys in order for secondaries (provers with knowledge of both keys) and resolvers (verifiers who only know the public key) to engage in interactive proof sessions regarding elements in the universe and their values. The motivation for such systems is for constructing a secure Domain Name System (DNSSEC) that does not reveal any unnecessary information to its clients.

Field of study: Computer science, Mathematics
Determination of Limiting Flux and Threshold Pressure in Stirred Ultrafiltration of Colloidal Suspensions

The stationary permeate flux during ultrafiltration of colloidal suspensions reaches a limiting value, J l , at high pressure differences. According to the gel polarization model employed here, the existence of this limiting flux is a consequence of gelation of the solution at the membrane-solution interface. The limiting permeate flux, J l , can easily be determined from experimental data by plotting ∆ p/J s against ∆ p . Furthermore, the membrane resistance at zero pressure difference, R m 0 , and the pressure difference necessary to reach 95 per cent of the limiting flux, i.e. the threshold pressure, ∆ p t , may be calculated, too. The agreement between the model and experimental data is satisfactory. The laboratory-made silica sol consisting of uniform spherical particles with a surface average diameter of 18 nm was selected as a working fluid throughout this study.

Field of study: Chemistry
Interleukin-6 inhibits apoptosis of exocrine gland tissues under inflammatory conditions.

Interleukin (IL)-6 is a multi-functional cytokine that can either promote or suppress tissue inflammation depending on the specific disease context. IL-6 is elevated in the exocrine glands and serum of patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SS), but the specific role of IL-6 in the pathogenesis of this disease has not been defined. In this study, we showed that IL-6 expression levels were increased with age in C56BL/6.NOD-Aec1Aec2 mice, a primary SS model, and higher than the control C57BL/6 mice. To assess the role of IL-6 during the immunological phase of SS development, a neutralizing anti-IL-6 antibody was administered into 16 week-old female C56BL/6.NOD-Aec1Aec2 mice, 3 times weekly for a consecutive 8 weeks. Neutralization of endogenous IL-6 throughout the immunological phase of SS development led to increased apoptosis, caspase-3 activation, leukocytic infiltration, and IFN-γ- and TNF-α production in the salivary gland. To further determine the effect of IL-6 on the apoptosis of exocrine gland cells, recombinant human IL-6 or the neutralizing anti-IL-6 antibody was injected into female C57BL/6 mice that received concurrent injection of anti-CD3 antibody to induce the apoptosis of exocrine gland tissues. Neutralization of IL-6 enhanced, whereas administration of IL-6 inhibited apoptosis and caspase-3 activation in salivary and lacrimal glands in this model. The apoptosis-suppressing effect of IL-6 was associated with up-regulation of Bcl-xL and Mcl-1 in both glands. Moreover, IL-6 treatment induced activation of STAT3 and up-regulated Bcl-xL and Mcl-1 gene expression in a human salivary gland epithelial cell line. In conclusion, IL-6 inhibits the apoptosis of exocrine gland tissues and exerts a tissue-protective effect under inflammatory conditions including SS. These findings suggest the possibility of using this property of IL-6 to preserve exocrine gland tissue integrity and function under autoimmune and inflammatory conditions.

Field of study: Medicine
Optically and thermally tunable superconducting transmission lines

Using the method of time-domain optoelectronic sampling spectroscopy, we have tuned the ultrafast electrical pulse propagating through YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-x/ (YBCO) transmission lines as a function of temperature and optical pulse energy. Electrical pulses are generated by photoconductively shorting charged semiconducting optical switches with 70 psec optical pulses at 532 nm. The optically generated and detected electrical pulses have frequencies extending up to 100 GHz. The superconducting transmission lines are microstrip spiral lines on the LaAlO/sub 3/ substrates. By varying the optical pulse energy from 0 to 23 pJ, the delay time through the 66-mm-long superconducting line is tuned by 54 psec at 55 K and shows a quadratic dependence on the optical pulse energy. As for the 250 mm-long transmission line, the delay of 69 psec is observed as the temperature increases from 26 K to 63 K.

Field of study: Physics
Phase Formation Behavior and Thermoelectric Transport Properties of P-Type YbxFe3CoSb12 Prepared by Melt Spinning and Spark Plasma Sintering

Formation of multiple phases is considered an effective approach for enhancing the performance of thermoelectric materials since it can reduce the thermal conductivity and improve the power factor. Herein, we report the in-situ generation of a submicron-scale (~500 nm) heterograin structure in p-type Yb-filled (Fe,Co)4Sb12 skutterudites during the melt spinning process. Mixed grains of YbxFe3−yCo1+ySb12 and YbzFe3+yCo1−ySb12 were formed in melt spun ribbons due to uneven distribution of cations. By the formation of interfaces between two different grains, the power factor was enhanced due to the formation of an energy barrier for carrier transport, and simultaneously the lattice thermal conductivity was reduced due to the intensified boundary phonon scattering. A high thermoelectric figure of merit zT of 0.66 was obtained at 700 K.

Field of study: Materials science
Group Sparse Priors for Covariance Estimation

Recently it has become popular to learn sparse Gaussian graphical models (GGMs) by imposing l1 or group l1, 2 penalties on the elements of the precision matrix. This penalized likelihood approach results in a tractable convex optimization problem. In this paper, we reinterpret these results as performing MAP estimation under a novel prior which we call the group l1 and l1, 2 positive-definite matrix distributions. This enables us to build a hierarchical model in which the l1 regularization terms vary depending on which group the entries are assigned to, which in turn allows us to learn block structured sparse GGMs with unknown group assignments. Exact inference in this hierarchical model is intractable, due to the need to compute the normalization constant of these matrix distributions. However, we derive upper bounds on the partition functions, which lets us use fast variational inference (optimizing a lower bound on the joint posterior). We show that on two real world data sets (motion capture and financial data), our method which infers the block structure outperforms a method that uses a fixed block structure, which in turn outperforms baseline methods that ignore block structure.

Field of study: Computer science
Restoration of antioxidants in liver by methionine feeding in experimental rat urolithiasis.

The effect of methionine or citrate on antioxidant defense system has been studied in urolithic rat. Liver weight and its protein concentration did not change in the rats fed with calculi producing diet (CPD) when compared to normal diet fed rats. Feeding rats along with citrate (c-CPD) or methionine (m-CPD) improved their body weight gain. Liver microsomes and mitochondria fractions of CPD and c-CPD fed groups showed increased susceptibility for lipid peroxidation in presence of ascorbate and t-butyl hydroperoxide when compared to either control or m-CPD fed groups. Increased superoxide dismutase and xanthine oxidase activities, decreased catalase, glutathione peroxidase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activities, decreased concentrations of reduced glutathione, total thiols, ascorbic acid and vitamin-E and increased formation of hydroxyl radical, hydroperoxides and diene conjugates were observed in the liver of both CPD fed group as well as c-CPD fed group. Except SOD and xanthine oxidase, all other parameters were normalized in m-CPD fed group. This suggested that feeding methionine reduced the susceptibility for lipid peroxidation by restoration of the level of free radical scavengers.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry, Physics
Effect of Long-distance Connections Selection Method on Object Lookup in P2P Network

In order to improve the performance and reduce the cost of object lookup,the small-world paradigm is brought into P2P network by constructing some long-distance connections.The long-distance connections selection method based on history is proposed in this paper,according to the target distribution of object lookup in real P2P network.Our method is compared with the other two methods of long-distance connections selection.Simulation results show that the object lookup hops of our method are much shorter than those of other methods with lower cost and better robustness.

Field of study: Computer science
Classic conditioning in aged rabbits: delay, trace, and long-delay conditioning.

Young (0.5 years) and aged (2+, 3+, and 4+ years) rabbits underwent acquisition of the classically conditioned nictitating membrane response in a delay (500-ms conditioned stimulus [CS], 400-ms interstimulus interval [ISI]), long-delay (1,000-ms CS, 900-ms ISI), or trace (500-ms CS, 400-ms stimulus-free period) paradigm. Collapsing across age groups, there is a general tendency for animals to acquire trace conditioning more slowly than delay conditioning. Collapsing across conditioning paradigms, there is a general tendency for aged animals to acquire more slowly than younger animals. Of greater significance, however, are the age differences in the different conditioning paradigms. In the delay and long-delay paradigms, significant conditioning deficits first appeared in the 4(+)-year-old group. In the trace conditioning paradigm, significant conditioning deficits became apparent in the 2(+)-year-old animals.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Stability of Functional Rational Expectations Equilibria

In this paper we examine a representative agent forecasting prices in a first-order self-referential overlapping generations model. We first consider intermediate stage learning, where agents update the forecasting rule every periods. We show that, in theory and simulations, the learning rule does not converge to the rational expectations equilibrium (REE). We next consider two stage learning, where agents learn the functional mapping between the current forecast function and the previous forecast function. We show that in theory and simulations the two stage learning rule converges to the REE.

Field of study: Economics
MONITOR SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF SUSPENDED SEDIMENTS IN THE EAST CHINA AND YELLOW SEAS USING SEAWIFS DATA

Striking patterns of suspended sediments created by a complex interplay of physical, chemical, biological and geological processes in the East China Sea (ECS) and Yellow Sea (YS) have been investigated using SeaWiFS ocean color imagery. The structure of these patterns can reveal a great deal about the processes underlying their formation. Sea surface temperature (SST) analyzed from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) thermal infrared data and in-situ were used to elucidate the physical factors responsible for the evolution of such patterns in the inner and outer selves areas, whilst concomitant patterns of suspended sediment were tracked from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) ocean color imagery. A careful analysis of these patterns in conjugation with other data gave birth to the definition of the evolution of suspended sediments (SS) into four stages: (1) Infant Stage, (2) Younger Stage, (3) Mature Stage and (4) Old Stage. Each of these stages experiences the different characteristics of waters and numerous physical mechanisms that control pattern formation during the winter monsoon. Vertical and horizontal profiles of suspended sediments appear to be useful in predicting the evolution of these stages, of these, the younger stage is identified as important candidate to represent the intrusion of Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC) to the northwest of the Jeju-Island

Field of study: Biology, Environmental science
Failed epilepsy surgery for mesial temporal lobe sclerosis: a review of the pathophysiology.

OBJECT
The object of the current study was to review the electrophysiology and pathological substrate of failed temporal lobe surgery in patients with mesial temporal sclerosis.



A systematic review of the literature was performed for the years 1999-2010 to assess the cause of failure and to identify potential reoperation candidates.



Repeat electroencephalographic evaluation documenting ipsilateral temporal lobe onset was the most frequent cause for recurrent epileptogenesis, followed by contralateral temporal lobe seizures. Less frequently, surgical failures demonstrated an electroencephalogram that was compatible with extratemporal localization. The generation of occult or new epileptogenic zones as well as residual epileptogenic tissue could explain these findings.



The outcome of temporal lobe surgery for epilepsy is challenged by a somewhat consistent failure rate. Reoperation results in improved seizure control in properly selected patients. A detailed knowledge of the pathophysiology is beneficial for the reevaluation of these patients.

Field of study: Medicine
Construction of a display vector based on the CS3 pili of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli

To construct the display vector based on the CS3 pili of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli.  The secondary structure antigen epitopes, hydrophilicity and flexibility of CS3 subunit were predicted with the Goldkey software. Based on the prediction, the site for inserting heterologous epitopes was chosen. Mutation was done using the overlapping extention PCR. The gene fragment coding for the VP1 of foot mouth disease virus (FMDV) was synthesized and inserted into CS3. The surface expression of hybrid protein was examined using whole cell ELISA, electron microscopy and immuno electron microscopy. Mice were immunized by injecting the recombinant bacteria intraperitoneally to evaluate the immunogenicity of the hybrid proteins.  The VP1 of FMDV was displayed on the surface of the recombinant cells. The fusion proteins were expressed as hybrid pili. Mice produced antibody response against CS3 and the VP1 of FMDV.  The CS3 pili can be a vector to express the foreign epitopes on the surface of the recombinant cells, and it may probably be an expression vector for the construction of the live gene engineering vaccine.

Field of study: Biology
Influence of ghrelin on rat pituitary GH3 cell line proliferation

Human ghrelin is the endogenous ligand of the growth hormone secretagogue receptor type 1a (GHSR1a). It is suggested that ghrelin is involved in pituitary adenomas pathogenesis. There are inconsistent data regarding the effect of ghrelin on cell proliferation. In this study the outcome of ghrelin in the rat pituitary adenoma GH3 cell line on morphology and proliferation ratio was evaluated. The ghrelin receptor (Ghsr) mRNA expression in GH3 cell line was established as well, because it was found that heterogeneous expression pattern characterized physiological and pathological conditions of tissues of different origin.  Suitable experimental model pituitary tumor (rat GH3 cell line) was stimulated with ghrelin in the final concentrations 10–12 M, 10–9 M and 10–6 M. Reverse transcription followed by real time polymerase chain reaction was used for ghrelin receptor gene transcript detection. The morphology as well as cell cycle of those cells were analyzed using Axio Vert.A1 Microscope (Zeiss) and BD FACSCalibur™ flow cytometer (Beckton Dickinson), respectively. The percentages of cells in the G0/G1, S, G2/M cycle phases were evaluated using the ModFit™ software (Verity Software, Inc., USA).  Ghsr mRNA presence was confirmed in GH3 cells. Ghrelin did not affect conspicuously GH3 cells morphology, however the ghrelin‑induced proliferation index increase was caused by both decline of G0/G1 phases cells count and increase those being in S+G2/M (p < 0.05).  In conclusion, this study indicates that ghrelin stimulates GH3 cells proliferation and may play role in pituitary tumorigenesis via an autocrine/paracrine pathway.

Field of study: Medicine
Protons in Al doped BaZrO3 escape dopant traps to access long range proton conduction highways

January 2013Received in revised form 18 May 2013Accepted 21 May 2013Available online 13 June 2013Keywords:Proton conductionAluminumYttriumDopantPerovskiteLong range pathways A combination of electronic structure methods, graph theory, and kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) shows thatdoping BaZrO 3 with aluminum instead of yttrium at the Zr site changes the long range proton conductionpathways by altering local geometry. When the zirconium ion is replaced by the smaller aluminum ion,there is a small contraction which decreases the degree of octahedral tilting possible. The decreased octahe-dral tilting results in a greater contrast in energies close to the dopant and farther from it. The greater con-trast leads to such high barriers to escape the dopant region that the most probable long range protonconduction pathways avoid the dopant region. KMC trajectories show long periods of proton trapping nearthe dopant followed by rare excursions away from it during which the proton accesses the high probabilitylong range proton conducting pathways enabling long range conduction. In contrast, in yttrium dopedsystems where the barrier to get away from the dopant is lower, earlier work has shown that the probablelong range proton conducting pathways include sections near the dopant.

Field of study: Materials science
Development and Application of a Stepwise Assessment Process for Rational Redesign of Sequential Skills-Based Courses

To develop and apply a stepwise process to assess achievement of course learning objectives related to advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) preparedness and inform redesign of sequential skills-based courses.  Four steps comprised the assessment and redesign process: (1) identify skills critical for APPE preparedness; (2) utilize focus groups and course evaluations to determine student competence in skill performance; (3) apply course mapping to identify course deficits contributing to suboptimal skill performance; and (4) initiate course redesign to target exposed deficits. Assessment. Focus group participants perceived students were least prepared for skills within the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education’s pre-APPE core domains of Identification and Assessment of Drug-related Problems and General Communication Abilities. Course mapping identified gaps in instruction, performance, and assessment of skills within aforementioned domains.  A stepwise process that identified strengths and weaknesses of a course, was used to facilitate structured course redesign. Strengths of the process included input and corroboration from both preceptors and students. Limitations included feedback from a small number of pharmacy preceptors and increased workload on course coordinators.

Field of study: Education, Medicine
Mobile robots in wireless sensor networks: A survey on tasks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) provide a virtual layer where the information about the physical world can be accessed by computational systems. Mobile robots have long been playing a vital role in WSNs and tremendous research efforts have been devoted to how to make use of mobile robots to enhance system performance during the last decades. This paper reviews a range of techniques related to mobile robots in WSNs. We have divided the literature into three categories according to the tasks that are executed by mobile robots: 1) Collection, where mobile robots collect information from sensor nodes; 2) Delivery, where mobile robots give things such as energy to sensor nodes; 3) Combination, where mobile robots simultaneously collect and deliver. The existing solutions are described following the proposed taxonomy. To help readers comprehend the flow within each category, the relationship among different solutions is outlined, with detailed descriptions as well as in-depth analysis. More importantly, we compare the differences and similarities between the available approaches across various categories in terms of mathematical formulation, application, etc. Finally, we are able to identify several open issues that receive little attention up to now or remain unexplored yet.

Field of study: Computer science
Increasing global crop harvest frequency: recent trends and future directions

The world’s agricultural systems face the challenge of meeting the rising demands from population growth, changing dietary preferences, and expanding biofuel use. Previous studies have put forward strategies for meeting this growing demand by increasing global crop production, either expanding the area under cultivation or intensifying the crop yields of our existing agricultural lands. However, another possible means for increasing global crop production has received less attention: increasing the frequency of global cropland harvested each year. Historically, many of the world’s croplands were left fallow, or had failed harvests, each year, foregoing opportunities for delivering crop production. Furthermore, many regions, particularly in the tropics, may be capable of multiple harvests per year, often more than are harvested today. Here we analyze a global compilation of agricultural statistics to show how the world’s harvested cropland has changed. Between 2000 and 2011, harvested land area grew roughly 4 times faster than total standing cropland area. Using a metric of cropland harvest frequency (CHF)—the ratio of land harvested each year to the total standing cropland—and its recent trends, we identify countries that harvest their croplands more frequently, and those that have the potential to increase their cropland harvest frequency. We suggest that a possible ‘harvest gap’ may exist in many countries that represents an opportunity to increase crop production on existing agricultural lands. However, increasing the harvest frequency of existing croplands could have significant environmental and social impacts, which need careful evaluation.

Field of study: Environmental science