nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Natural killer cells in cross‐regulation of IL‐12 by IL‐10 in Leishmania antigen‐stimulated blood donor cells

We have previously shown that natural killer (NK) cells play a role in protection against leishmaniasis. Furthermore, we have shown that NK cells in mononuclear cells derived from unexposed donors are induced to proliferate in vitro in response to leishmanial antigens. Since interleukin (IL)‐12, a strong inducer of NK cells, acts on the early events in NK cells and T‐cells, and is considered as an adjuvant for use in a potential antileishmaniasis antigen, we wished to investigate how this cytokine influences the in vitro Leishmania induced proliferative and cytokine response in healthy donors. We demonstrate that in an innate response to Leishmania antigen involving NK cells, a critical level of IL‐12 is required to induce interferon (IFN)‐γ secretion below which, IL‐10 is released in amounts which apparently inhibit IFN‐γ secretion and cellular proliferation. However, at higher IL‐12 levels, there is simultaneous secretion of IFN‐γ and IL‐10 as well as proliferation of cells. In a similar vein, exogenous IL‐10 in turn inhibited IFN‐γ secretion as well as proliferation when used at low/medium concentrations, but at high concentrations this effect was abolished and replaced by the simultaneous detection of IFN‐γ, IL‐10 and proliferation. The contribution of NK cells in cross regulation of these two very important immuneregulatory cytokines and the effect of exogenous IL‐12 in a Leishmania driven response are discussed.

Field of study: Biology, Medicine
Mercury risk in poultry in the Wanshan Mercury Mine, China.

In this study, total mercury (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in muscles (leg and breast), organs (intestine, heart, stomach, liver) and blood were investigated for backyard chickens, ducks and geese of the Wanshan Mercury Mine, China. THg in poultry meat products range from 7.9 to 3917.1 ng/g, most of which exceeded the Chinese national standard limit for THg in meat (50 ng/g). Elevated MeHg concentrations (0.4-62.8 ng/g) were also observed in meat products, suggesting that poultry meat can be an important human MeHg exposure source. Ducks and geese showed higher Hg levels than chickens. For all poultry species, the highest Hg concentrations were observed in liver (THg: 23.2-3917.1 ng/g; MeHg: 7.1-62.8 ng/g) and blood (THg: 12.3-338.0 ng/g; MeHg: 1.4-17.6 ng/g). We estimated the Hg burdens in chickens (THg: 15.3-238.1 μg; MeHg: 2.2-15.6 μg), ducks (THg: 15.3-238.1 μg; MeHg: 3.5-14.7 μg) and geese (THg: 83.8-93.4 μg; MeHg: 15.4-29.7 μg). To not exceed the daily intake limit for THg (34.2 μg/day) and MeHg (6 μg/day), we suggested that the maximum amount (g) for chicken leg, breast, heart, stomach, intestine, liver, and blood should be 1384, 1498, 2315, 1214, 1081, 257, and 717, respectively; the maximum amount (g) for duck leg, breast, heart, stomach, intestine, liver, and blood should be 750, 1041, 986, 858, 752, 134, and 573, respectively; and the maximum amount (g) for goose leg, breast, heart, stomach, intestine, liver, and blood should be 941, 1051, 1040, 1131, 964, 137, and 562, respectively.

Field of study: Environmental science
Direct evidence for role of anti-saliva antibodies against salivary gland homogenate of P. argentipes in modulation of protective Th1-immune response against Leishmania donovani.

Currently the main concerns regarding control of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by L. donovani are immunosuppression, relating toxicity of anti-leishmanial drug and little development in appropriate vaccine and vector (P. argentipes) control. Reports available from ex-vivo studies reflect significance of vector salivary gland homogenate (SGH) in reverting immunosuppression of infected VL subjects and as such the immunogenic nature of SGH can be a strategy to modulate immune system and anti-leishmanial function to enable immune response to control the disease. Several related studies also identified a better utility of vector anti-saliva antibodies in achieving such effects by an adoptive transfer approach instead of direct stimulation with SGH protein. However, conclusive evidences on VL cases are far beyond satisfactory to suggest role of SGH into modulation of host immune response in VL subjects in India. This study was under taken to make comparison on change in cytokines (TH1 and TH2) response pattern and anti-leishmanial macrophage (Mϕ) function following stimulation of their PBMCS with SGH protein derived from P. argentipes sand fly vector for VL or anti SGH antibodies raised in rabbit. This study reports for the first time that L. donovani sensitized healthy subject demonstrates an up-regulated Interferon-γ (TH1) and down regulate Interleukin-10 (TH2) production following stimulation of their PBMCs by P. argentipes anti-saliva antibodies accompanied with an improvement in anti-leishmanial Mϕ function for nitric oxide (NO) production. Subsequent experiments suggest that P. argentipes based anti-SGH antibodies when used to stimulate LD infected PBMCs in healthy subjects resulted in better clearance of Leishmania amastigotes load compare to SGH protein. Possibly the immunogenic components of anti-saliva an antibody maintains the level of protective cytokine (INF-γ) and seems to restrict the infection by host protection by vector saliva.

Field of study: Medicine
Twisted Edwards Curves

This paper introduces "twisted Edwards curves," a generalization of the recently introduced Edwards curves; shows that twisted Edwards curves include more curves over finite fields, and in particular every elliptic curve in Montgomery form; shows how to cover even more curves via isogenies; presents fast explicit formulas for twisted Edwards curves in projective and inverted coordinates; and shows that twisted Edwards curves save time for many curves that were already expressible as Edwards curves.

Field of study: Computer science, Mathematics
Common Practices Regarding Health and Status of Treatment Facilities in the Rural Areas of Sherpur Upazilla, Bogura, Bangladesh

A community based exploratory study was conducted among the villagers (sample size, n=75) of Kanopur, Shippur and Boraidaha village of Sherpur Upazila of Bogura district, Bangladesh to explore the common practices regarding health and treatment facilities in rural areas. This study was carried out through questionnaire, participatory rural appraisal and focus group discussion. The result showed that the socio-economic condition of these areas was average in terms of others villagers of Bogura region. The current health and treatment facilities of these areas were moderate and study found that about 80% people were aware about personal hygiene. The study reveals acidity and fever were the most frequent diseases and most of the people were happy about the service of doctors and Government health Centre. The study revealed that the half of the population of these areas knew about expanded programme on immunization and exclusive breastfeeding during lactation period. This study also exposed that around half of the respondents has no knowledge about Oral Rehydration Solution, extra salt used in eating, antibiotic course and even in danger sign during pregnancy of mothers and pneumonia among villagers. Besides, in case of family matters and during diseases condition, decision was taken by household head or sometimes husband and wife both. This study concluded that overall health care delivery system was moderate and actions should be taken to improve the overall scenario of health system of these regions.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Evolution of a Middle Jurassic back-arc basin, Cedros Island, Baja California: Evidence from a marine volcaniclastic apron

A rifted arc-ophiolite assemblage and over-lying volcaniclastic rocks, all of late Middle Jurassic age, represent a fragment of the frontal-arc margin of a back-arc basin, now exposed on Cedros Island in Baja California (Mexico). Ophiolite generation was immediately followed by progradation of a deep- marine volcaniclastic apron (Gran Cannon Formation) contemporaneous with the growth of island-arc volcanoes. This back-arc apron shows relatively simple, uniform sedimentation patterns that may be recognizable in other back-arc basins isolated from terrigenous sediment influx.

The progradational back-arc apron sequence includes, from base to top, (1) the tuff lithofacies—thin-bedded, well-sorted, laterally continuous tuffs that thicken into basement paleo-lows. These were deposited from dilute sediment gravity flows generated by eruptions from a deeply submerged, nascent arc. (2) the lapilli tuff-tuff breccia lithofacies—medium- to very thick-bedded lapilli tuffs and tuff breccias. These were deposited from debris flows on proximal parts of the apron, and high-density turbidites were deposited on more distal parts. This lithofacies records increasing generation and resedimentation of scoriaceous and hyaloclastic debris as the summits of the arc volcanoes grew nearer to sea level. (3) the primary volcanic lithofacies—monolithologic dacite pyroclastic flows were produced during the eruption of differentiated magmas, which climaxed the growth of the island arc. Basalt lava flows were fed from fissures that extended down the apron within the back-arc basin.

Pyroclastic rocks of the back-arc apron were blanketed with silty basinal turbidites (epiclastic facies) that record abrupt cessation of volcanism and erosion of the arc within about 10 m.y. of ophiolite generation, reflecting the temporal episodicity of back-arc basins.

It is predicted from this study that the frontal-arc side of back-arc spreading centers is preferentially preserved in the geologic record relative to the center of the basin. It is suggested that the "hot" frontal-arc side of the basin is prone to intra-plate volcanism but is unaffected by faulting subsequent to basin initiation. Several factors lead to slumps occurring more frequently on the arc flank of back-arc basins than in any other tectonic setting, except perhaps intra-arc marine basins.

Field of study: Geology
Innovative Admission Practices for the Liberal Arts College

Caught between an inflating economy and increasing tuition, between the draft and compensatory education, and between student involvement and campus violence, the private liberal arts college has few prospects of gaining large numbers of students. At the rate of gain being made by public higher education over private, the overall rate of growth in college attendance will not be enough to offset decreasing enrollment in the private sector. It is entirely possible that within a decade there will be fewer than four hundred rather than more than eight hundred private colleges in the United States. Survival, then, becomes an overarching consideration that shapes curriculum, faculty, facilities, manner of management, and admission program. The question which most small liberal arts colleges and even some of the larger ones are asking is, will we be one of the ones to survive? No one can accurately predict the answer, but colleges can quickly be separated into those which may have a chance and those which probably do not, on the basis of the answers to three fundamental questions. Until these questions can be answered positively, there is no point in wasting time on

Field of study: Education
FEL performance achieved at PAL-XFEL using a three-chicane bunch compression scheme.

PAL-XFEL utilizes a three-chicane bunch compression (3-BC) scheme (the very first of its kind in operation) for free-electron laser (FEL) operation. The addition of a third bunch compressor allows for more effective mitigation of coherent synchrotron radiation during bunch compression and an increased flexibility of system configuration. Start-to-end simulations of the effects of radiofrequency jitter on the electron beam performance show that using the 3-BC scheme leads to better performance compared with the two-chicane bunch compression scheme. Together with the high performance of the linac radiofrequency system, it enables reliable operation of PAL-XFEL with unprecedented stability in terms of arrival timing, pointing and intensity; an arrival timing jitter of better than 15 fs, a transverse position jitter of smaller than 10% of the photon beam size, and an FEL intensity jitter of smaller than 5% are consistently achieved.

Field of study: Physics
Concurrent schedules of interresponse time reinforcement: probability of reinforcement and the lower bounds of the reinforced interresponse time intervals.

Data were obtained with rats on the effects of interresponse time contingent reinforcement of the lever press response using schedules in which interresponse times falling within either of two temporal intervals could be reinforced. Some of the findings were (a) the mode of the interresponse time distribution generally occurred near the first lower bound when the maximum reinforcement rate for the two lower bounds was equal; this also frequently occurred even when the reinforcement rate was less for the first lower bound; (b) as is the case with schedules using a single interval of reinforced interresponse times the values of the lower bounds partially determined the location and spread of the distributions; but the particular pair of values used did not seem to influence the effects of the probabilities of reinforcement; (c) although the modal interresponse time was usually at the lower bound of one of the two intervals of reinforced interresponse times, no simple relation existed between either the probability or rate of reinforcement of interresponse times in these two intervals and the location of this mode.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Cultivation and identification of 3TC-resistant HIV-1 strain

To gain stable 3TC-resistant HIV-1 strain originated from Chinese HIV-1 B′ strain. Methods HIV-1 B′ strain isolated from Henan province, China was cultured and passaged with the medium containing double increased 3TC. by 3-5 generations of passage, the 50% inhibitory concentrations of cultures(IC_ 50) were tested. The partial HIV-1 pol gene were amplified and sequenced, the sequence were interpreted with genotypic drug resistance result by the tool from Stanford.  After 6 generation of passage, the IC_ 50 to 3TC had increased 8.3-fold from 0.008 μmol/L to 0.15 μmol/L. In the 7 th generation, the IC_ 50 dramatically increased to more than 110 000-fold(2048 μmol/L), genotypic analysis showed that a significant mutation had happened in the position of 184(Met→Ile) of pol gene, the genotype and phenotype of 3TC resistance remained stable after the 5 th generation of cultivation in the absence of drug.  A rather stable 3TC-resistant variant was established from HIV-CNHN24. This strain can be used for the assessment of the new drug effect and the research of HIV-1 drug resistance.

Field of study: Biology
The Diagnostic Value of Subscapularis Clinical Tests in the Postoperative Diagnosis of Subscapularis Retears: An Ultrasound-Comparative Trial

An Ultrasound-Comparative Trial Emmanouil Fandridis, Michael-Alexander Malahias, Athena Plagou, Antonio Orgiani, Flaviis Luca and Alessandro Castagna Hand-Upper Limb and Microsurgery Department, Hospital KAT, Athens, Greece Istituto Clinico Humanitas, Milano, Italy Studio di Radiologia De Flaviis, Milano, Italy

Field of study: Medicine
Integrated software for macromolecular crystallography synchrotron beamlines II: revision, robots and a database.

This manuscript chronicles the evolution of software used originally to control a diffractometer at a macromolecular crystallography beamline. The system has been augmented and rewritten. A modular and carefully organized suite of programs now handles the whole experimental environment from a single vantage point. It provides automatic logging of the experiment and communication with the user, all the way from an initial proposal to perform the work to the end of data collection. This has included construction of a relational database to organize all details of the experiment and incorporation of a robotic specimen changer to provide automation for high-throughput applications.

Field of study: Chemistry
The influence of educational factor capital on the tangible career outcomes of MBA graduates

By the year 2020, Malaysia hopes to achieve the main objective of becoming a high-income advanced nation through the launching of New Economic Model (NEM). To achieve this objective, the country needs quality human capital among its graduates that commensurate with higher tangible rewards. This study looks at the scholastic, social, cultural, and inner-value capital of individuals, gained during the attainment of MBA studies, and their relationships to the tangible career outcomes of salary gain, number of promotion, and managerial rank. 156 MBA alumni returned the self-administered online survey. Multinomial logistic regression is employed to test the hypotheses and the results are found to be partially supported. A major finding reveals that cultural capital is significantly associated with the likelihood of higher tangible career outcomes. Findings from this study allow educational providers and policy makers to have better understanding in assessing specific educational capital, gained through a specific educational program such as MBA, on tangible career success outcomes.

Field of study: Business
Differential integrin expression by cardiac fibroblasts from hypertensive and exercise-trained rat hearts.

The cardiac fibroblast is the principal cell type responsible for extracellular matrix (ECM) synthesis in the heart during growth and pathophysiological conditions. A dynamic interaction exists between the cardiac ECM and fibroblasts that is sensitive to the local mechanical and chemical tissue environment. We propose here that cardiac fibroblasts structurally and functionally adapt to changing local environments by altering their expression of receptor integrins. Changes in the extracellular environment are communicated in part by integrins, which link the ECM to the cell and regulate phenotype and function. In this report, we analyze integrin protein expression, migration and gel contraction by cardiac fibroblasts from rats subjected to 10 weeks of treadmill exercise (XTR), experimental hypertension (HYP) or controls (CONT). Immunoprecipitation shows that beta1 protein increases in XTR and HYP. Also, alpha1 and alpha2 integrins are lower in XTR and HYP, and alpha5 integrin is higher in XTR and lower in HYP. Functional assays show that XTR and HYP migrate slower on collagen, while XTR migrate faster and HYP slower on fibronectin. Cell isolation procedure, population expansion number or a general adaptation to culture conditions does not explain the differences observed. No significant differences in collagen gel contraction are detected. These results indicate that cardiac fibroblasts retain their in vivo patterns in vitro for a limited number of population expansions. This tissue-specific phenotype is exhibited in early passage (< or =6). However, by late passage (>8), cells begin to show adaptation to the in vitro conditions. These results show that cardiac fibroblasts respond to changing environments in pathophysiological conditions by modulating integrin expression, which is associated with changes in cell migration. They also suggest a pragmatic use for primary cardiac fibroblasts as a model to study the cardiac matrix remodeled by physiological (exercise) and pathological (hypertension) stressors.

Field of study: Biology, Medicine
Kinetics of non-catalyzed decomposition of fructose in high temperature liquid water

The kinetics of non-catalyzed decomposition of fructose in high temperature liquid water was studied at temperatures from 453.15 K to 493.15 K and under pressure at 10 MPa.The main products of fructose decomposition were glucose, formic acid, acetic acid, levulinic acid, furfural and 5-hydroxymethyl furfural,etc.The evaluated energy of activation of fructose decomposition was 126.16 kJ·mol -1.In addition, the effects of temperature and reaction time on the yield distributions of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural were investigated.Selective decomposition of fructose in high temperature liquid water was possible.

Field of study: Chemistry, Environmental science
Emulated laser-acupuncture system.

A novel laser-acupuncture system was developed that can be used to implement the manipulation methods of traditional acupuncture, such as lifting and thrusting. A 780 nm laser diode with a maximum power of 90 mW was used as the light source. The focus point of the laser beam was adjustable by changing the position of the lens, facilitating the implementation of the lifting and thrusting methods of traditional Chinese medicine and achieving various stimulation depths at the acupuncture point. The images for the light spots from the outlet of the emulated laser acupuncture were captured at various distances and their sizes were calculated. The result showed that the diameter of the focused light spot (i.e., at the focus point) was 0.11 mm, which is close to the diameter of commonly used needles (with diameters of approximately 0.22 mm). The area of the light spot 1 cm from the focus point was approximately 50 times larger, indicating that the unit power might be 1/50 of the power of the focus point. To study the effect of emulated laser acupuncture on human meridians, after stimulating the Shenmen point (HT7) of five subjects and obtaining their Ryodoraku values of the heart meridian and the small-intestine meridian, a paired t test showed that the laser stimulation incorporating lifting and thrusting was significantly higher than the laser stimulation without lifting and thrusting (p<0.05). The result is consistent with traditional acupuncture in that acupuncture incorporating lift and thrust is more effective than that without lift and thrust.

Field of study: Physics
Public Finance and Wisconsin Institutionalism, 1892-1929

This paper examines the development of public finance as a subfield of study at the University of Wisconsin from 1892 through 1929. Considered is the historical evolution of faculty and course work in public finance at Wisconsin, with comparisons offered to Harvard, Chicago and Columbia. While Wisconsin economists made notable contributions to both the theory and practice of public finance in the United States during this period, we conclude that the failure to develop a particularly "Wisconsin Institutionalist" version was due to (1) the absence of a dominant proponent/advocate during a pivotal time, (2) the necessity to differentiate graduate programs, (3) the number of competing subject areas providing contemporary economics problems to study, and (4) the co-opting of the department of economics at Wisconsin to serve Commons's labor research program.

Field of study: Economics