nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Risk-Sensitive Particle Filters for Mitigating Sample Impoverishment

Risk-sensitive filters (RSF) put a penalty to higher-order moments of the estimation error compared to conventional filters as the Kalman filter minimizing the mean square error (MSE). The result is a more cautious filter, which can be interpreted as an implicit and automatic way to increase the state noise covariance. On the other hand, the process of jittering, or roughening, is well known in particle filters to mitigate sample impoverishment. The purpose of this contribution is to introduce risk-sensitive particle filters (RSPF) as an alternative approach to mitigate sample impoverishment based on constructing explicit risk functions from a general class of factorizable functions. It is first shown that RSF can be done in nonlinear systems using a recursion of an infinite dimensional information state which involves general risk functions. Then, this information state calculation is carried out using particle approximations. Some alternative approaches, generalizations, specific cases, comparison to existing methods of sample impoverishment mitigation and issues related to the selection of risk functions and parameters are examined. Performance of the resulting filter using various risk functions is illustrated on a simulated scenario and compared with the roughening method.

Field of study: Engineering
Structure of the northern Brazilian continental margin

Results from two-ship seismic refraction profiles and supplementary data from several sonobuoys show that typical oceanic crust underlies both the landward and seaward sides of the North Brazilian Ridge. The Ceara Rise is also an oceanic structure, probably formed by local tectonic activity. Sediments of the upper Amazon Cone are more than 11 km thick, but they thin both landward and seaward. Owing to the great sedimentary thickness, refraction arrival times from oceanic basement could not be identified, but basement is assumed to extend under the cone.

Field of study: Geology
Irrational analysts' expectations as a cause of excess volatility in stock prices

This paper investigates whether excess stock price volatility may be due in part to a failure of the market to form rational expectations. Using data on analysts' expectations of long run earnings growth for individual companies, we report a number of interelated results which lend support to this hypothesis. First we show that there is no statistically significant relationship between analysts' long run forecasts and subsequent earnings growth, suggesting that analysts' earnings expectations are excessively dispersed. Secondly, we provide evidence that analysts' expectations are reflected in market prices. These two results together imply that the cross-section of stock prices will also be excessively dispersed, so that stocks with low earnings expectations are underpriced and stocks with high earnings expectations are overpriced. As analysts' forecasts errors become apparent, stock prices should adjust accordingly and so excess returns should accrue. We demonstrate that analysts' forecasts are indeed negatively correlated with subsequent excess returns. All hypothesis testing uses panel regression techniques, and to circumvent the problem of cross-sectional dependence in the data we use a generalised method of moments estimator of the parameter covariance matrix.

Field of study: Economics
Predictability of China's Stock Market Returns Based on Combination of Distribution Forecasting Models

No consensus exists in the literature on whether stock prices can be predicted, with most existing studies employing point forecasting to predict returns. By contrast, this study adopts the new perspective of distribution forecasting to investigate the predictability of the stock market using the model combination strategy. Specifically, the Shanghai Composite Index and the Shenzhen Component Index are selected as research objects. Seven models – GARCH-norm, GARCH-sstd, EGARCH-sstd, EGARCH-sstd-M, one-component Beta-t-EGARCH, two-component Beta-t-EGARCH, and the EWMA-based nonparametric model – are employed to perform distribution forecasting of the returns. The results of out-of-sample forecasting evaluation show that none of the individual models is “qualified” in terms of predictive power. Therefore, three combinations of individual models were constructed: equal weight combination, log-likelihood score combination, and continuous ranked probability score combination. The latter two combinations were found to always have significant directional predictability and excess profitability, which indicates that the two combined models may be closer to the real data generation process; from the perspective of economic evaluation, they may have a predictive effect on the conditional return distribution in China’s stock market.

Field of study: Computer science
Optimization of extrusion process for production of nutritious pellets

A blend of 50% Potato Starch (PS), 35% Quality Protein Maize (QPM), and 15% Soybean Meal (SM) were used in the preparation of expanded pellets utilizing a laboratory extruder with a 1.5 × 20.0 × 100.0 mm die-nozzle. The independent variables analyzed were Barrel Temperature (BT) (75-140 °C) and Feed Moisture (FM) (16-30%). The effect of extrusion variables was investigated in terms of Expansion Index (EI), apparent density (ApD), Penetration Force (PF) and Specific Mechanical Energy (SME), viscosity profiles, DSC, crystallinity by X-ray diffraction, and Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM). The PF decreased from 30 to 4 kgf with the increase of both independent variables (BT and FM). SME was affected only by FM, and decreased with the increase in this variable. The optimal region showed that the maximum EI was found for BT in the range of 123-140 °C and 27-31% for FM, respectively. The extruded pellets obtained from the optimal processing region were probably not completely degraded, as shown in the structural characterization. Acceptable expanded pellets could be produced using a blend of PS, QPM, and SM by extrusion cooking.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Evaluation of CMIP5 and CMIP6 simulations of historical surface air temperature extremes using proper evaluation methods

Reliable projections of extremes by climate models are becoming increasingly important in the context of climate change and associated societal impacts. Extremes are by definition rare events, characterized by a small sample associated with large uncertainties. The evaluation of extreme events in model simulations thus requires performance measures that compare full distributions rather than simple summaries. This paper proposes the use of the integrated quadratic distance (IQD) for this purpose. The IQD is applied to evaluate CMIP5 and CMIP6 simulations of monthly maximum and minimum near-surface air temperature over Europe and North America against both observation-based data and reanalyses. Several climate models perform well to the extent that these models' performance is competitive with the performance of another data product in simulating the evaluation set. While the model rankings vary with region, season and index, the model evaluation is robust against changes in the grid resolution considered in the analysis. When the model simulations are ranked based on their similarity with the ERA5 reanalysis, more CMIP6 than CMIP5 models appear at the top of the ranking. When evaluated against the HadEX2 data product, the overall performance of the two model ensembles is similar.

Field of study: Environmental science
Strangeness s = -6 dibaryon

The structure of $(\Omega\Omega)_{0^+}$ dibaryon with strangeness $s=-6$ is studied in the extended chiral SU(3) quark model, in which vector meson exchange dominates the short range interaction. The resonating group method (RGM) is adopted, in which the $\Omega\Omega$ and $CC$ (hidden color) channels are involved. The color screening effect and the effects of mixing of scalar mesons on $(\Omega\Omega)_{0^+}$ are also investigated.

Field of study: Physics
Deep probabilistic human pose estimation

The authors consider the problem of human pose estimation using probabilistic convolutional neural networks. They explore ways to improve human pose estimation accuracy on standard pose estimation benchmarks MPII human pose and Leeds Sports Pose (LSP) datasets using frameworks for probabilistic deep learning. Such frameworks transform deterministic neural network into a probabilistic one and allow sampling of independent and equiprobable hypotheses (different outputs) for a given input. Overlapping body parts and body joints hidden under clothes or other obstacles make the problem of human pose estimation ambiguous. In this context to get accurate estimation of joints' position they use uncertainty in network's predictions, which is represented by variance of hypotheses, provided by a probabilistic convolutional neural network, and confidence is characterised by mean of them. Their work is based on current CNN cascades for pose estimation. They propose and evaluate three probabilistic convolutional neural networks built on top of deterministic ones with two probabilistic deep learning frameworks - DISCO networks and Bayesian SegNet. The authors evaluate their models on standard pose estimation benchmarks and show that proposed probabilistic models outperform base deterministic ones.

Field of study: Computer science
The impact of international economic sanctions on Iranian cancer healthcare.

In 2012, Iranian's economy collapsed under strain from sanctions instituted to stop Iran from violating the International Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Sanctions have indirectly led to serious healthcare concerns, specifically cancer treatment. This is the first report to evaluate Iranian cancer healthcare while under international economic sanctions.



Data and information were identified by searches of MEDLINE, PubMed, and references from relevant articles using the search terms: "Iran", "health policy", "sanctions", "ethics", and "cancer". Articles published in the English language between 1966 and present were included, based on relevance to sanctions or the specific case of sanctions in Iran.



The Program of Action for Cancer Therapy evaluated Iran's National Cancer Control Program (NCCP), reporting it has substantial deficits, including prevention, diagnosis/treatment, palliative care, monitoring, and technology, with a serious drug shortage for cancer care. Sanctions have exemptions for medicines and food, but lead to disruption of health services through complications in transportation, transferring currencies or lack of money.



There is increasing evidence that sanctions harm vulnerable populations, while blocking globalization and not creating political or social change quickly. Improvement of Iran's NCCP is not feasible, and the health of cancer patients will continue to decline while the sanctions are in effect. The solution is complex, but a modern and innovative approach to diplomacy, which includes human rights, is necessary.

Field of study: Medicine, Political science
Geologic sections across the onshore Senegal–Mauritania basin derived from geoelectric studies

On the basis of magnetotelluric two-dimensional models along three traverses, the regional electrical structure within the Senegal–Mauritania basin sediments has been studied. Correlation of the computed models with the wells drilled in the region shows that the main gross lithologic units were detected. The models can be generalized into three resistivity layers: (i) post-Turonian; (ii) pre-Senonian; and (iii) basement. In the southern part of the basin, there are relatively conductive formations below the Mesozoic that are interpreted as sediments of the Paleozoic Bove basin sequence. By combining the information that has been provided by the geoelectric cross sections and the lithologic and electric log data, a schematic model for the generalized sedimentary structure of Senegal has been generated. The interpretation that emerges shows that the basin is a westward-sloping, open homocline in which the structure is controlled by north–south-trending basement faulting that portrays a staircase structural ...

Field of study: Environmental science
Silver for the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology-SCVP Turns 25.

It is 25 years since the inception of the society in 1985! Conceived in a conference room on the 6th floor of the Medical Sciences Building at the University of Toronto, the Society was officially born the following year at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) meeting. Since then, the Society has flourished. Educationally, it has been achieving its aims and goals, meeting annually at the USCAP and holding symposia of its own, and in conjunction with the USCAP. In the early years, the Society had an additional meeting at the American Heart Association. However, this was not very productive and was soon canceled. In the last 3 years, the Society has been putting on its own additional symposia on the Saturday evening preceding the USCAP annual meeting. These have covered contemporary topics and have been very successful under the able stewardship of Professor Gaetano Thiene. One of the early objectives of the society was to have a regular publication of its own, geared to the study of cardiovascular pathology. Initially, this function was served by Cor Notes. In a few years, the Society launched its own journal with a lot of the work done by the founding Editor, Dr. Stephen Factor, and the Publications committee chaired by Dr Fred Schoen. We are indebted to them for bringing the journal to the stage of being indexed in Index Medicus. Our publishers have been a consistent and constant help in advancing cardiovascular pathology and in publishing materials related to the science. We, the current Editors-in-Chief, Drs. Avrum Gotlieb and Jagdish Butany, are proud of the opportunity offered us by the Society to become the second CoEditors-in-Chief of the journal. The journal has grown and continues to grow with an impact factor which is now an honorable 1.9. It is our hope that the journal will continue to grow.

Field of study: Biology, Medicine
Morphology of an oxide layer on aluminum after ion bombardment

Surface electron microscopy is used to show that bombardment by argon ions with energies lower than the Al2O3 sputtering threshold results in the accumulation of bombarding ions in interstitial hollows of the surface, leading to the formation of oversaturated solid solutions of target atoms, bombarding argon ions, and nitrogen ions captured by the ion beam from the residual gas of the working chamber of the spectrometer. It is established that this effect produces surface roughness of submicron size, the amount of which depends on the length of exposure.

Field of study: Physics
Antibodies specific to deoxythymidine 5'-phosphate.

Antibodies to deoxythymidine 5'-phosphate (dpT) were elicited in rabbits using bovine serum albumin conjugate of the nucleotide. To det. the specificity of the antibodies, binding of tritiated hapten, [3H]dpT, to the g-globulins prepared from the antisera and inhibition of this binding by nonradioactive dpT and related compds. was measured by nitrocellulose filter assay. The results showed that the antibodies (i) were specific for the whole molecule of dpT, (ii) had very high steric requirement for recognizing the hapten, (iii) showed negligible cross reactivity with other mononucleotides, and (iv) recognized dpT residue in an oligonucleotide but showed preference for the dpT at the 3' end over the one at the 5'-end of the oligonucleotide. The property (iii) was used in developing a sensitive radioimmunoassay for the quantitation of dpT in the presence of all the 4 normal mononucleotides. The relability of this method was demonstrated by quantitating the amts. of dpT in oligonucleotides and DN samples of known base component.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry, Physics
Response to commentary by Goedele M.A. Beckers.

We thank the commentator for their kind comments on our paper on fetal megacystis, which we believe to be the first systematic review of this topic. The inclusion of case reports in systematic reviews is contentious. Some systematic reviews have by necessity had to include case reports because these represent the only available data, but single case reports tend not to be included in systematic reviews that can incorporate case series or higher levels of evidence [1,2]. In our study design, we followed the advice of systematic review experts who suggest first asking the question “Will case reports provide valid and useful information to address the key questions in our study?” We considered that bias from inclusion of single case reports would skew our data, and therefore conclusions . The aim of our study was not to review specific prenatal diagnoses but to address the spectrum of fetal megacystis. Conditions such as megacystisemicrocoloneintestinal hypoperistalsis syndrome (MMIHS) are the subject of reviews in their own right [4e7]. The OEIS complex (omphalocele, exstrophy, imperforate anus, spinal defects) is rarely associated with megacystis; we identified only two potential cases  from among more than 1000 cases of fetal megacystis. We acknowledge that many of the manuscripts included in our review were from Western Europe but others were from the United States , Brazil [11], Saudi Arabia , India [13], and Australia . We reject the suggestion that the distribution of countries represented was due to “lack of access to other databases.” Scopus, PubMed, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar are all major internationally recognized databases. Finally, prenatal karyotyping has an established role in the work-up of fetal megacystis . Our review indicates a relatively high incidence of trisomies among other chromosomal anomalies.

Field of study: Medicine
Friendship ties and geographical mobility: evidence from Great Britain

A common finding in analyses of geographic mobility is a strong association between past movement and current mobility. We argue that one of the driving forces behind this pattern is the strength of local social ties outside the household. We use data from the British Household Panel Survey on the location of the three closest friends and the frequency of meetings with them. We estimate the processes of friendship formation and residential mobility jointly, allowing for correlation between the two processes. Our results show that a larger number of close friends living nearby substantially reduces movement of 20 miles or more.

Field of study: Mathematics
Time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation time structure.

Synchrotron radiation time structure is becoming a common tool for studying dynamic properties of materials. The main limitation is often the wide time domain the user would like to access with pump-probe experiments. In order to perform photoelectron spectroscopy experiments over time scales from milliseconds to picoseconds it is mandatory to measure the time at which each measured photoelectron was created. For this reason the usual CCD camera-based two-dimensional detection of electron energy analyzers has been replaced by a new delay-line detector adapted to the time structure of the SOLEIL synchrotron radiation source. The new two-dimensional delay-line detector has a time resolution of 5 ns and was installed on a Scienta SES 2002 electron energy analyzer. The first application has been to characterize the time of flight of the photoemitted electrons as a function of their kinetic energy and the selected pass energy. By repeating the experiment as a function of the available pass energy and of the kinetic energy, a complete characterization of the analyzer behaviour in the time domain has been obtained. Even for kinetic energies as low as 10 eV at 2 eV pass energy, the time spread of the detected electrons is lower than 140 ns. These results and the time structure of the SOLEIL filling modes assure the possibility of performing pump-probe photoelectron spectroscopy experiments with the time resolution given by the SOLEIL pulse width, the best performance of the beamline and of the experimental station.

Field of study: Physics
Construction and expression of multiple epitopes DNA vaccines of influenza A virus H3579 subtypes

To construct DNA vaccines which express influenza A viruses multiple epitopes, and to study the bioactivity of the expression products in BHK cells.  Selecting the main antigen (HA, NA, NP, M) dominant epitopes of influenza A viruses, a sequence was synthesized containing multiple epitopes of influenza A viruses. A box co-expressing H7H5HA and Epi gene was contructed by inserting the Epi gene in H7H5HA ORF. The box was then cloned into pVAX1. To detect the mRNA of the gene of interest the whole RNA of the BHK cells transfected with the reconstructed plasmids pVAX1, pVAX1-H7HA-Epi-H5HA by liposome method were extracted. 1FA was also utilized to detect the bioactivity of the expression products.  The gene of interest was identified by RT-PCR, and the antibody specificity of expression products was detected by IFA.  The reconstructed plasmid could express product efficiently, and the product can specially rec- ognized by the corresponding antibodies. This proved the reconstructed eukaryotic expression vector pVAX1-H7HA- Epi-H5HA might be a candidate vaccine strains for influenza A viruses.

Field of study: Biology
Heterojunction impact avalanche transit-time diodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy

The authors' present the results of a study into the potential benefits of including heterostructures within single-drift impact avalanche transit-time (IMPATT) diodes. One particular heterostructure device, which exploits the change in saturated drift velocity in going from one material to another (the double-velocity avalanche transit-time (DOVATT) diode), is examined in detail using a series of GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs devices grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Contrary to claims in the literature, they conclude that there is little prospect for realizing high-performance DOVATT diodes using this materials system. The authors' note, however, that a novel InxGa1-xAs heterojunction technique to reduce series resistance appears promising and is deserving of further study.

Field of study: Materials science
Wellness and Stigma: Pharmacy’s Ongoing Conflict

One in five Americans has a diagnosable mental illness and pharmacists encounter these patients daily. This commentary addresses the conflict between the profession’s wellness movement and its contributions to mental illness stigma. The need for improved pharmacist wellness is based in the profession’s risk for burnout and development of related mental illness. The presence of stigma towards patients with mental illness by pharmacists is multi-factorial and complex. Risk for mental illness stigma from the profession could be diminished by curricula that provide greater opportunities for students to learn more completely about mental illness, how to effectively engage persons with mental illness, and how to take care of themselves, express vulnerability, and talk about mental illness. While reducing mental illness stigma through curricular revision is best achieved through in-person learning experiences, elective coursework and co-curricular activities may also help achieve this goal. Examples of evidence-based best practices are provided.

Field of study: Education, Medicine