nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Circulation of copper in the biotic compartments of a freshwater dammed reservoir.

This study concerns a chronic copper release in an aquatic ecosystem: Mirgenbach reservoir; which is characterized by high salinity, conductivity and hardness, a eutrophic state and a high temperature. To study the bioavailability of copper in the biotic compartments, the sampling covered the entire food chain (phyto- and zooplankton, macroalgae, aquatic plants, crustaceans, mollusks, and fish). Of the organisms present, the filter feeder Dreissena polymorpha, the detritivorous Bithynia tentaculata and Orconectes limosus were most contaminated by copper. The level of copper found in fish was the lowest. Body copper concentrations recorded in the present study show large variability between species even in some that are closely related. In most cases, however, the metal handling strategy, feeding habits, morphology and ecology can, at least partially, explain the metal content recorded. Pollution factors have been used to assess the state of contamination of the food chain. This study showed finally that the copper in the lake is bioavailable and bioaccumulated by organisms up to high levels and some effects of long-term toxicity of copper on benthic community and planktonic biomass were pointed out.

Field of study: Environmental science
Lesions of the lateral parabrachial nucleus block the aversive motivational effects of both morphine and morphine withdrawal but spare morphine's discriminative properties.

This study examined if the aversive properties of morphine, the aversive properties of morphine withdrawal, and the discriminative properties of morphine are mediated by common neurobiological substrates. Lesions of the lateral parabrachial nucleus, which blocked the aversive properties of morphine in the conditioned taste aversion paradigm, also blocked the acquisition of conditioned place aversions to environments paired with the aversive properties of morphine withdrawal in morphine-dependent rats. When morphine and saline were used as cues in a discrimination task, however, both sham-operated and lesioned rats were able to solve the task.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Calcium-Sensing Receptor Activation Increases Cell-Cell Adhesion and β-Cell Function

The extracellular calcium-sensing receptor (CaR) is expressed in pancreatic β-cells where it is thought to facilitate cell-to-cell communication and augment insulin secretion. However, it is unknown how CaR activation improves β-cell function.  Immunocytochemistry and western blotting confirmed the expression of CaR in MIN6 β-cell line. The calcimimetic R568 (1µM) was used to increase the affinity of the CaR and specifically activate the receptor at a physiologically appropriate extracellular calcium concentration. Incorporation of 5-bromo-2’-deoxyuridine (BrdU) was used to measure cell proliferation, whilst changes in non-nutrient-evoked cytosolic calcium were assessed using fura-2-microfluorimetry. AFM-single-cell-force spectroscopy related CaR-evoked changes in epithelial (E)-cadherin expression to improved functional tethering between coupled cells.  Activation of the CaR over 48hr doubled the expression of E-cadherin (206±41%) and increased L-type voltage-dependent calcium channel expression by 70% compared to control. These changes produced a 30% increase in cell-cell tethering and elevated the basal-to-peak amplitude of ATP (50µM) and tolbutamide (100µM)-evoked changes in cytosolic calcium. Activation of the receptor also increased PD98059 (1-100µM) and SU1498 (1-100µM)-dependent β-cell proliferation.  Our data suggest that activation of the CaR increases E-cadherin mediated functional tethering between β-cells and increases expression of L-type VDCC and secretagogue-evoked changes in [Ca2+]i. These findings could explain how local changes in calcium, co-released with insulin, activate the CaR on neighbouring cells to help ensure efficient and appropriate secretory function.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry
Quality management and patient safety: survey results from 102 Hungarian hospitals.

The aim of this study is to describe the development of quality management systems in Hungarian hospitals. It also aims to answer the policy question, whether a separate patient safety policy should be created additional to quality policies, on national as well as hospital level.



In 2005, a questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate the existing quality management systems in all Hungarian hospitals. The relationship between the level of the development of quality management systems, the certification status and the current level of patient safety activities was investigated using linear regression. Quality was measured with the quality management system development score (QMSDS), and patient safety by the number of patient safety activities.



102 of 134 (76%) of the hospitals have returned the questionnaire. The average hospital has 24.5 of 35 core quality activities, and 4 of 11 patient safety activities. There is a statistically significant but weak relationship between the QMSDS and the number of patient safety activities, explaining 12% of the latter's variance. Certification (International Standards Organisation (ISO) and professional standard based) is not significantly related to patient safety.



In our study quality by QMSDS is weakly related; however, certification is not significantly related to patient safety. We conclude that separate patient safety policies seem worthwhile to be created for the hospital sector in addition to the ongoing quality improvement efforts in Hungary.

Field of study: Medicine, Political science
Prolongation of diestrus after removal of pups in lactating rats.

The recurrence of diestrus following removal of pups on day 10 of lactation was studied in lactating rats. Pituitary responsiveness to LHRH, and plasma LH, prolactin and progesterone levels were determined after removal of pups. Diestrous periods following romoval of pups were 8.61±0.36 and 3.33±0.21 days in the females which had been nursing 12 and 2 pups, respectively. Seventy-eight % of animals that had nursed 12 pups exhibited typical vaginal smear of pro-estrus on day 2 or 3 of post-weaning, but none of these animals ovulated on the following day. The number of follicles over 550μm in diameter rapidly in-creased from day 1 (1.7±1.2) to day 2 of post-weaning (7.6±1.9) in females that had nursed 12 pups. On day 2 or 3 of post-weaning obvious LH surge occurred in females that had nursed 2 pups, but not in animals that had nursed 12 pups. The rise of plasma LH levels following LHRH injection was less and the ovulatory responsiveness to LHRH injection was lower in females nursing 12 pups than those in rats nursing 2 pups on day 2 or 3 of post-weaning. High plasma progesterone levels were maintained until day 6 of post-weaning in animals that had nursed 12 pups, while concentration decreased to the basal level within 18 h after removal of pups in females nursing 2 pups. In accordance with the high level of plasma progesterone, the fluctuation of prolactin levels was observed following removal of pups in animals that had nursed 12 pups. It was suggested that the prolongation of the diestrous period following removal of pups in the rats nursing a large litter was attributable to the reduced responsiveness of pituitary to LHRH and to the maintenance of functional corpora lutea formed at post-partum ovulation.

Field of study: Biology
A process for producing lignocellulosic flocs from NSSC spent liquor.

Presently, the spent liquor (SL) of neutral sulfite semi chemical (NSSC) pulping process is treated in the waste water system. In this work, a new process for isolating lignocelluloses from the SL of an NSSC process is proposed and the effectiveness of this process is evaluated on industrially produced SL. The results showed that under the optimal conditions of pH 6, 30°C and 15mg/g poly ethylene imine (PEI) concentration in the SL, a maximum of 37% lignin and 37% hemicelluloses could be removed from SL. Alternatively, the dual system of poly diallyldimethyl ammonium chloride (PDADMAC) and PEI (7.5mg/g each) was evaluated in removing lignocelluloses from the SL; and the results showed that lignin and hemicellulose removals were improved to 47% and 50%, respectively. The turbidity and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of SL, as well as the elemental analysis of generated flocs were also assessed in this work.

Field of study: Biology, Engineering
The emergence of proprietary medical facilities in China.

This paper analyzes the evolution and development of market conditions and government policies that have favored the emergence of proprietary medical facilities in China. Excess and differentiated demand for medical services, the existent profitability and supply of the investment capital in health care market, and favorable government policies have encouraged the entrance of proprietary facilities in health care market. The paper further analyzes why nonprofit health organizations are not an optimal organizational form in the current Chinese health care market. After discussing the strengths and weaknesses of proprietary ownership in health care market in China, the paper concludes with important managerial and policy suggestions.

Field of study: Medicine, Political science
A nonlinear, recurrence-based approach to traffic classification

The ability to accurately classify and identify the network traffic associated with different applications is a central issue for many network operation and research topics including Quality of Service enforcement, traffic engineering, security, monitoring and intrusion-detection. However, traditional classification approaches for traffic to higher-level application mapping, such as those based on port or payload analysis, are highly inaccurate for many emerging applications and hence useless in actual networks. This paper presents a recurrence plot-based traffic classification approach based on the analysis of non-stationary ''hidden'' transition patterns of IP traffic flows. Such nonlinear properties cannot be affected by payload encryption or dynamic port change and hence cannot be easily masqueraded. In performing a quantitative assessment of the above transition patterns, we used recurrence quantification analysis, a nonlinear technique widely used in many fields of science to discover the time correlations and the hidden dynamics of statistical time series. Our model proved to be effective for providing a deterministic interpretation of recurrence patterns derived by complex protocol dynamics in end-to-end traffic flows, and hence for developing qualitative and quantitative observations that can be reliably used in traffic classification.

Field of study: Computer science
Grain Boundary Penetration of Various Types of Ni Layer 
by Molten Metals

The grain boundary penetration of three types of Ni layer, Ni foil, electroplated Ni, and electroless Ni, by molten Pb and 95Pb5Sn (wt.%) is investigated. The average grain sizes of Ni foil and electroplated Ni are 10 μm and 1 μm, respectively, while the electroless Ni is amorphous. The purpose of using two molten metals is to study the effect of intermetallic formation on grain boundary penetration. Molten Pb was able to penetrate or disintegrate all three types of Ni, including amorphous Ni, which does not contain any grain boundaries. On the other hand, the addition of merely 5 wt.% Sn into molten Pb was able to slow the penetration down substantially for all three types of Ni layer, with the greatest suppression found in electroless Ni where a grain boundary penetration event did not take place. The mechanism for the Sn effect is due to the formation of a protective Ni3Sn4 intermetallic compound at the interface acting as a barrier against grain boundary penetration.

Field of study: Materials science
Temporal changes of radiocesium in irrigated paddy fields and its accumulation in rice plants in Fukushima.

About half of the total paddy field area, which is the dominant agricultural land in Fukushima Prefecture, was contaminated by radiocesium released by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. In this study, we investigated the temporal changes of radiocesium in soil, irrigation water, and rice plant in two adjacent rice paddies, with and without surface-soil-removal, in Fukushima Prefecture for over three years (2012-2014) after the nuclear accident. Our results showed that radiocesium migrated into 24-28 cm soil layers and that the activity concentration of radiocesium in paddy soils showed a significant reduction in 2014. The newly added radiocesium to paddies through irrigation water contributed only a maximum value of 0.15% and 0.75% of the total amount present in control and decontaminated paddies, respectively, throughout the study period. The radiocesium activity concentration in suspended sediment in irrigation water exponentially decreased, and the effective half-lives (Teff) for (137)Cs and (134)Cs were 1.3 and 0.9 years, respectively. Additionally, the average suspended sediment concentration in irrigation water increased between 2012 and 2014, suggesting that enhanced soil erosion had occurred in the surrounding environment. Radiocesium accumulation in rice plant also decreased with time in both paddies. However, the concentration ratio of radiocesium for rice plant in the decontaminated paddy increased compared with control paddy, despite approximately 96% of fallout radiocesium removed in paddy soil. Further analysis is required to clarify the reasons of high concentration ratio of radiocesium for rice plant in the decontaminated paddy.

Field of study: Environmental science
A Model for Ex Ante Real Interest Rates and Derived Inflation Forecasts

A methodology for estimating expected real interest rates and making inflation forecasts, together with appropriate confidence intervals, is presented. The role of price expectations in determining real interest rates is also analyzed. Structural breaks in the process generating real interest rates are detected in 1980 and 1983 by tracking the accuracy of interest-rate forecasts. Analysis of these structural breaks reveals that the break at the beginning of 1983 returns the process to its pre-1980 formulation. During 1953-1985, price forecasts derived from the interest-rate model are found to be unbiased once the structural breaks in the real rate process are handled through heteroscedastic corrections. Invoking the rational-expectations hypothesis, we construct a general yet parsimonious dynamic model for estimating economic agents' anticipations of the real rate of interest. By using quarterly data for 1953-1985 the model is efficiently estimated by two-step two-stage least squares. Results pro...

Field of study: Mathematics
Marginal Stability of d -Wave Superconductor: Spontaneous P and T Violation in the Presence of Magnetic Impurities

We argue that the d x 2−y2-wave superconductor is marginally stable in the presence of external perturbations. Subjected to the external perturbations by magnetic impurities, it develops a secondary component of the gap, complex dxy, to maximize the coupling to impurities and lower the total energy. The secondary dxy component exists at high temperatures and produces the full gap ∼20 Kin the single particle spectrum around each impurity apart from impurity-induced broadening. At low temperatures, the phase-ordering transition into global d x 2−y2+idxy state occurs.

Field of study: Physics
Compact, Scalable, and Efficient Discrete Gaussian Samplers for Lattice-Based Cryptography

Lattice-based cryptography, one of the leading candidates for post-quantum security, relies heavily on discrete Gaussian samplers to provide necessary uncertainty, obfuscating computations on secret information. For reconfigurable hardware, the cumulative distribution table (CDT) scheme has previously been shown to achieve the highest throughput and the smallest resource utilisation, easily outperforming other existing samplers. However, the CDT sampler does not scale well. In fact, for large parameters, the lookup tables required are far too large to be practically implemented. This research proposes a hierarchy of multiple smaller samplers, extending the Gaussian convolution lemma to compute optimal parameters, where the individual samplers require much smaller lookup tables. A large range of parameter sets, covering encryption, signatures, and key exchange are evaluated. Hardware-optimised parameters are formulated and a practical implementation on Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA device is realised. The proposed sampling designs demonstrate promising performance on reconfigurable hardware, even for large parameters, that were otherwise thought infeasible.

Field of study: Computer science, Mathematics
Properties of Coatings by Micro-arc Oxidation in Different Electrolytes of Wrought Aluminum Alloy

Recent advances in its affecting factors of properties of micro-arc oxidation coating of wrought aluminum alloy oxidized in different constituents of electrolyte including phosphate electrolyte,silicate solutions,and composite electrolyte are mainly discussed.Micro-arc oxidations of actual wrought aluminum alloy structure should be emphasized.

Field of study: Materials science
Combined deletion of the fibronectin‐type III domains and the stalk region results in ligand‐independent, constitutive activation of the Interleukin 6 signal‐transducing receptor gp130

&NA; Gp130 is the common receptor within the Interleukin 6 cytokine family. Gp130 consists of 6 extracellular domains followed by a small stalk region connecting the last extracellular domain with the trans‐membrane domain. Whereas the first three extracellular domains bind to IL‐6‐type cytokines, the domains 4–6 are needed for correct positioning of the intracellular domains to facilitate Janus kinase activation after cytokine binding. Interestingly, deletion within the cytokine‐binding domain resulted in cytokine‐independent constitutive activation of mutant gp130 receptors. Here, we tested the hypothesis, if deletions of the stalk region and/or domains 4–6 of gp130 might also result in constitutive receptor activation. Shortening of the stalk region of gp130 alone did, however, not result in constitutive receptor activation, whereas a gp130 receptor deletion variant only consisting of the three N‐terminal cytokine binding domains but lacking all FNIII domains was biologically inactive. Importantly, combined deletion of the three FNIII domains plus shortening of the stalk region of gp130 resulted in ligand‐independent, constitutive receptor activation of gp130.

Field of study: Medicine
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON SEISMIC BEHAVIOR OF PRE-CAST CONCRETE BEAM-COLUMN SUB-ASSEMBLAGE WITH CAST-IN-SITU MONOLITHIC JOINT

With full-scale models,this paper investigated the seismic behavior of pre-cast concrete beam-column subassemblies with cast-in-situ monolithic joints under low-cycle reversed loading.The failure pattern,hysteretic characteristic,skeleton curve,ductility and energy dissipation,were analyzed.The result indicated that beam-column joints with longitudinal bars welded at the bottom of beams can meet the requirements of 'strong column weak beam,stronger joint'.

Field of study: Engineering
Laser Fourier imaging of chemical reaction. Observation of the diffusion process of heat emitted from dye molecules by striped laser excitation

Excitation of Eosin Y in ethanol solution with irradiated stripes of chopped argon ion laser beam gives thermal fringes which diffract helium-neon laser beam; the resulting diffraction fringes correspond to the Fourier transformation of the thermal fringes. By following the growth and decay of the transient diffraction signals the diffusivity of heat evolved by the photoexcitation in the solution was determined.

Field of study: Chemistry
New Shaking Concept for Brambles

Aunique spiked-drum shaking principle was developed that produced more uniform displacement and acceleration along the rod than possible with conventional shakers. Field trials on 3 cultivars of horizontally-trellised eastern thornless blackberries averaged 90% removal of mature berries, but included immature fruit ranging from 10 to 70% of the total crop harvested.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Nerve growth factor mRNA stability is controlled by a cis-acting instability determinant in the 3'-untranslated region.

Nerve growth factor (NGF) mRNA is rapidly degraded in many non-neuronal cell types with a half-life of between 30 and 60 min. Similar to other short-lived mRNAs the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of the NGF mRNA contains a short AU nucleotide-rich sequence. To implicate this region as a cis-acting determinant of NGF mRNA instability, expression vectors containing NGF cDNA with and without the 3'-UTR, and vectors containing only the 3'-UTR were constructed and used in cell transfection experiments. Transfection of HEK293 or NIH3T3 cells with these expression vectors followed by measurement of NGF mRNA half-life indicated that NGF mRNA without the AU-rich 3'-UTR was approximately 3-fold more stable than NGF mRNA containing the 3'-UTR. Similar results were seen in a polysome-based cell-free RNA decay assay using NGF mRNA with and without the 3'-UTR prepared from transfected cells. Addition of a short RNA containing the AU-rich 3'-UTR to the cell-free RNA decay system prolonged the half-life of the full-length NGF mRNA, suggesting competition between these two RNA species for polysome-associated factors which degrade the NGF mRNA. Moreover, transfection of HEK293 or astroglial cells with vectors designed to express only the AU-rich region of the 3'-UTR resulted in enhanced expression of NGF mRNA. The results indicate that the 3'-UTR of the NGF mRNA contains a cis-acting instability determinant which, perhaps by interacting with trans-acting RNA-binding proteins, controls the rate of NGF mRNA turnover.

Field of study: Biology
Quantitative performance measurements of bent crystal Laue analyzers for X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy.

Third-generation synchrotron radiation sources pose difficult challenges for energy-dispersive detectors for XAFS because of their count rate limitations. One solution to this problem is the bent crystal Laue analyzer (BCLA), which removes most of the undesired scatter and fluorescence before it reaches the detector, effectively eliminating detector saturation due to background. In this paper experimental measurements of BCLA performance in conjunction with a 13-element germanium detector, and a quantitative analysis of the signal-to-noise improvement of BCLAs are presented. The performance of BCLAs are compared with filters and slits.

Field of study: Physics
Hierarchies of Processors with Endogenous Capacity

Capacity is defined as the number of information items a processor can handle in a given time. This note studies the properties of a hierarchy of processors in which the capacities of processors are choice variables. The hierarchy must pay each processor it decides to employ a wage which is an increasing function of the processor's capacity. It is shown that efficient hierarchies tend to be characterized by three simple properties: (i) within any given level, capacity is uniform, (ii) across levels, the higher the level, the higher the capacity, and (iii) no skip-level reporting occurs.Journal of Economic LiteratureClassification Numbers: D21, J31, L23.

Field of study: Economics
Transformez une occasion d’enseignement en une occasion d’apprentissage pour vous-même: Référentiel des activités pédagogiques fondamentales

Il est frequent, pour nous tous qui enseignons en contexte clinique, de manquer de temps pour le developpement professoral qui pourrait nous aider a progresser comme superviseur. Il est egalement naturel de s’interroger sur ce qu’on attend de nous, de se demander quelle serait la prochaine

Field of study: Medicine