nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Climate drivers of Arctic tundra variability and change using an indicators framework

This study applies an indicators framework to investigate climate drivers of tundra vegetation trends and variability over the 1982–2019 period. Previously known indicators relevant for tundra productivity (summer warmth index (SWI), coastal spring sea-ice (SI) area, coastal summer open-water (OW)) and three additional indicators (continentality, summer precipitation, and the Arctic Dipole (AD): second mode of sea level pressure variability) are analyzed with maximum annual Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (MaxNDVI) and the sum of summer bi-weekly (time-integrated) NDVI (TI-NDVI) from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer time-series. Climatological mean, trends, and correlations between variables are presented. Changes in SI continue to drive variations in the other indicators. As spring SI has decreased, summer OW, summer warmth, MaxNDVI, and TI-NDVI have increased. However, the initial very strong upward trends in previous studies for MaxNDVI and TI-NDVI are weakening and becoming spatially and temporally more variable as the ice retreats from the coastal areas. TI-NDVI has declined over the last decade particularly over High Arctic regions and southwest Alaska. The continentality index (CI) (maximum minus minimum monthly temperatures) is decreasing across the tundra, more so over North America than Eurasia. The relationship has weakened between SI and SWI and TI-NDVI, as the maritime influence of OW has increased along with total precipitation. The winter AD is correlated in Eurasia with spring SI, summer OW, MaxNDVI, TI-NDVI, the CI and total summer precipitation. This winter connection to tundra emphasizes the role of SI in driving the summer indicators. The winter (DJF) AD drives SI variations which in turn shape summer OW, the atmospheric SWI and NDVI anomalies. The winter and spring indicators represent potential predictors of tundra vegetation productivity a season or two in advance of the growing season.

Field of study: Environmental science
A Modeling Exercise to Identify Predictors of Student Readiness for Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences

To model the relationship of common pharmacy education assessment data including student demographics, pre-pharmacy performance, core didactic performance, and external testing measures to identify predictors of student readiness for advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs).  The associations between 23 predictive covariates from 226 graduating students from 2015-2018 (5786 observations) and APPE readiness as measured by midpoint core APPE scores were modeled. Multiple linear and Poisson regression models with backward selection were used. A selection criterion of p >.10 was used for covariate elimination from the model. Three models were evaluated: average of all midpoint core APPE rotation scores; average of midpoint acute care pharmacy practice and ambulatory care APPE rotation scores; and number of midpoint core clerkship failing scores.  The average age of the population at admission was 25.4±4.5 years, 47% were female, and 75.2% had prior degrees. Across the three prediction models, knowledge-retention covariates were the strongest predictors. Total score on the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment was a modest yet consistent predictor across the models. All other significant predictors were unique to the various models.  This four-year, population-based modeling study of the relationship of common pharmacy education assessment data to APPE midpoint scores shows a modest correlation with knowledge-based measures. There is a need for greater innovation in this area of research.

Field of study: Education, Medicine
Inhibition of Nav1.7 channels by methyl eugenol as a mechanism underlying its antinociceptive and anesthetic actions

Methyl eugenol is a major active component extracted from the Chinese herb Asari Radix et Rhizoma, which has been used to treat toothache and other pain. Previous in vivo studies have shown that methyl eugenol has anesthetic and antinociceptive effects. The aim of this study was to determine the possible mechanism underlying its effect on nervous system disorders.The direct interaction of methyl eugenol with Na+ channels was explored and characterized using electrophysiological recordings from Nav1.7-transfected CHO cells.In whole-cell patch clamp mode, methyl eugenol tonically inhibited peripheral nerve Nav1.7 currents in a concentration- and voltage-dependent manner, with an IC50 of 295 μmol/L at a −100 mV holding potential. Functionally, methyl eugenol preferentially bound to Nav1.7 channels in the inactivated and/or open state, with weaker binding to channels in the resting state. Thus, in the presence of methyl eugenol, Nav1.7 channels exhibited reduced availability for activation in a steady-state inactivation protocol, strong use-dependent inhibition, enhanced binding kinetics, and slow recovery from inactivation compared to untreated channels. An estimation of the affinity of methyl eugenol for the resting and inactivated states of the channel also demonstrated that methyl eugenol preferentially binds to inactivated channels, with a 6.4 times greater affinity compared to channels in the resting state. The failure of inactivated channels to completely recover to control levels at higher concentrations of methyl eugenol implies that the drug may drive more drug-bound, fast-inactivated channels into drug-bound, slow-inactivated channels.Methyl eugenol is a potential candidate as an effective local anesthetic and analgesic. The antinociceptive and anesthetic effects of methyl eugenol result from the inhibitory action of methyl eugenol on peripheral Na+ channels.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry, Medicine
Crystallization of two related lectins from the legume plant Dolichos biflorus.

The seed lectin DBL and the related stem and leaves lectin DB58 of the tropical legume Dolichos biflorus were crystallized, as well as complexes of DBL with adenine and with GalNAc(alpha1-3)[Fuc(alpha1-2)]Gal. The different crystal forms of DBL diffract to about 2.8 A, while DB58 crystals diffract to 3.3 A.

Field of study: Chemistry
Fos expression during the critical period in visual cortex: differences between normal and dark reared cats.

The present study tested further the notion that immediate early gene expression is involved in neuronal plasticity during the critical period of visual cortex (VC) by comparing Fos induction in normal and dark reared (DR) cats. Western blots indicated that the level of induced Fos expression was higher in normal than DR cat VC at 5 weeks of age, comparable at 10 weeks, and higher in DR than normal cat VC at 20 weeks. Immunohistochemistry indicated that at 5 weeks Fos was induced in cells of all VC layers in both rearing conditions, but to a greater extent in normal than DR cats. At 20 weeks, Fos was largely restricted to cells above and below layer IV in both rearing conditions, but was induced to a greater extent in DR than normal cats. Thus, dark rearing appears to have very similar effects on Fos expression as it has on neuronal plasticity during the postnatal critical period.

Field of study: Biology
Actinomycosis Mimicking Gynecological Malignancy: Imaging Patterns in Seven Cases

Pelvic actinomycosis is uncommon and believed to be related to the use of intrauterine devices (IUDs). It may present as a complex gynecological mass either uterine or adnexal with or without local pelvic spread or with peritoneal dissemination, all features which mimic gynecological malignancy. We describe seven women with proven actinomycosis who presented to a single cancer center gynecological cancer multidisciplinary team meeting (MDTM) to illustrate these imaging appearances and highlight discriminant features of actinomycosis. A minority of women had concurrent use of an IUD. Involvement of the pararectal space was a feature of pelvic disease extension. We describe the value of image-guided core biopsy (IGCB) in confirming the diagnosis.

Field of study: Medicine
Financial Technology and Customer Control over Financial Data in Deposit Taking Savings and Credit Co-Operatives in Baringo County, Kenya

The ever-changing advances in technology create new business prepositions in form of financial technology. Financial technology as a new invention allowing delivery of financial services competes with traditional systems of financial service delivery. The objectives were to establish the relationship between financial technology and customer control over financial data in deposit taking Sacco’s. The study used a simple randomized ex-post facto design. In this study, the population was infinite hence; the study targeted all the customers who visited Boresha and Skyline Sacco between 8.30a.m to 4.30p.m during the month of September 2019. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires. In order to test the significance of the associationbetween attributes, inferential statistics such as the Pearson ProductMoment correlation and Regression analysis was used. The result of the study shows that there is a significant positive effect of lending technology on customer control over financial data of the Sacco’s. The study also concludes that investment technology significantly affects customer control over financial data. Sacco’s that intends to increase its customer control over financial data could invest in improving its use of financial investment technology since it would result in an increase in performance. The study also recommends Sacco’s to increase investment in mobile banking users, and the entire mobile banking technology.

Field of study: Business
Factors Affecting E-Commerce Web Site Effectiveness

This paper reports the results of a survey study involving 117 e-commerce customers. The purpose of the study was to sample the opinions of commercial web users in order to determine the critical factors that affect the effectiveness of e-commerce web sites. Web site effectiveness was measured by the intention of the users to repeatedly visit the site. Eight design factors were tested but only four were found to have significant positive impact on web site effectiveness, namely: download time, navigation, graphics usage, and interactivity. The following four factors did not seem to have any significant effects: use of frames, consistency, cohesion, and amount of advertisements. The e-commerce web site users ranked download time as the most important factor, followed by ease of navigation, graphics usage, and interactivity, in that order. The implication of these results is that some design factors significantly affect the user's intention to revisit a web site. In effect, the web sites with short download time, easy navigation, appropriate user of graphics and high degree of interactivity are more likely to attract repeat visits. Given the rapid rate at which e-commerce is gaining importance in today's business environment, the findings in this study are expected to provide helpful guidelines to both practitioners and researchers.

Field of study: Computer science
Photodoping effect in Y-Ba-Cu-O Josephson junctions and thin films

We report our studies on the photo doping effect in YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub x/ (YBCO) grain-boundary weak links and partially oxygen-depleted (T/sub c,mid/ /spl ap/52 K) thin films, We focus our attention on the erasable process, in which persistent photoconductivity (PPC) introduced by light at low temperatures relaxes back above 260 K. In the tested 2-/spl mu/m-wide step-edge grain-boundary junctions, PPC manifested itself as above 30% increase of the critical current, while the illuminated films exhibited up to 2.5 K enhancement of T/sub c/'s. In the case of films, we also observed upon illumination a continuous decrease (no saturation effect) of both the longitudinal and transversal (Hall) resistivities. In-situ Hall effect band model, PPC at low temperatures results in the increase of both the hole mobility and concentration, while at temperatures above 250 K, the mobility is reduced after prolonged illumination, whereas the carrier concentration is enhanced even more than allow temperatures. We have also demonstrated that the T/sub c/ enhancement due to photodoping is a function of the carrier concentration rather than the mobility, Our experimental results indicate that the physical origin of PPC is same in both YBCO grain-boundary junctions and partially oxygen-depleted films, and can be understood as the coexistence of photoassisted oxygen ordering and photoinduced charge transfer.

Field of study: Physics
FINITE BANDWIDTH EFFECT OF REDUCTION IN PARAMETRIC INSTABILITIES AND SUPERATHERMAL ELECTRONS USING CHIRPED STRETCHED LASER PULSE

The threshold of parametric instabilities will be increased and the growth rate will fall down if the coherence time of pump laser is less than the rise time of parametric instabilities. The paper shows the finite bandwidth effect of reduction in parametric instabilities and superathermal electrons using chirped stretched laser pulse. Both analytical solutions and the results of numerical simulation using PIC code are presented. The effect of electron ion collision on suprathermal electrons is also investigated.

Field of study: Physics
HYDROTHERMAL ALTERATION AT SANTA RITA, NEW MEXICO

The intrusives at Santa Rita and near-by Hanover differ widely in the extent of hydrothermal alteration. The Santa Rita intrusive is in many places highly kaolinized, sericitized, and silicified. The Hanover intrusive is to a large degree unaltered. The study has centered around the hydrothermal alteration of the intrusive and to a lesser degree, alteration in dikes and sills in the vicinity. On the basis of field and laboratory criteria, four stages of alteration in the Santa Rita intrusive have been selected: (1) Areas of negligible alteration; (2) Areas of significant visible changes in the feldspars and ferro-magnesian minerals; (3) Areas of argillic alteration; and (4) Areas of sericitization and silicification. Comparison of ore distribution with alteration indicates that the highest concentration of copper is in general related to Stage 3. Secondary enrichment of chalcocite has contributed to the formation of ore in the argillic area, but some chalcocite may have been originally introduced with the argillic alteration of the Santa Rita intrusive. Comparable copper deposition has not been observed in the Hanover intrusive. A considerable amount of oxidation occurs in some portions of the deposit, and areas near the surface have been extensively leached, but the change in alteration minerals previously formed appears minor. Studies at Santa Rita indicate the utility of applying zones of alteration in field mapping, to outline areas of greater and lesser promise from the standpoint of mineralization. Data of considerable aid to the general projection of a drilling program are also developed.

Field of study: Geology
An 11 million-year-long record of astronomically forced fluvial-alluvial deposition and paleoclimate change in the Early Cretaceous Songliao synrift basin, China

In the Cretaceous Songliao Basin, northeastern China, boreholes have recovered detailed geologic data from sub-basins that developed during the early rifting of the basin. Among these, the Lower Cretaceous Shahezi Formation (K1s) in the Songshen 4 (SS4) Well is represented by an 836-m-thick succession of fluvial-alluvial deposits, with coals distributed throughout the upper part of the formation. Gamma-ray (GR) logging data are quantitatively related to grain size-defined litho-facies that recur throughout the succession, with high GR values in mudstones and low GR values in sandstones. Cyclostratigraphic analysis of the GR log reveals depositional cycling at frequencies that are consistent with those of the Earth's astronomical parameters. The results also indicate that occurrence of coal beds occur every ~100 kyr, when development of vegetation at the depositional site was promoted by humid climate. We propose a model of astronomically forced hydroclimate change to explain the cycling of depositional environments between fluvial and alluvial conditions. The model describes a principally fluvial environment that episodically experienced, at one extreme, advancing alluvial conditions involving a drop in base level, lake recession and increased aridity (conglomerates and coarse sands), and at the other extreme, an advancing lakeshore with a rise in base level and increased humidity (fine sands, silts, muds and coal). A floating astronomical time scale was established by calibrating long orbital eccentricity (405-kyr) cycles interpreted along the GR series. The results indicate that the duration of the K1s is 11.14 Myr (27.5405-kyr long orbital eccentricity cycles), corresponding to an average sedimentation rate of 6.55 cm/kyr. The recognition of astronomical forcing in this early Cretaceous fluvial-alluvial-dominated depositional setting offers a new framework for interpreting the sedimentary cyclicity and dynamics of early rift basins and for developing time scales.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
Nuclear androdioecy and gynodioecy

We formulate two single-locus Mendelian models, one for androdioecy and the other one for gynodioecy, each with 3 parameters: t the male (female) fertility rate of males (females) to hermaphrodites, s the fraction of the progeny derived from selfing; and g the fitness of inbreeders. Each model is expressed as a transformation of a 3 dimensional zygotic algebra, which we interpret as a rational map of the projective plane. We then study the dynamics for the evolution of each reproductive system; and compare our results with similar published models. In this process, we introduce a general concept of fitness and list some of its properties, obtaining a relative measure of population growth, computable as an eigenvalue of a mixed mating transformation for a population in equilibrium. Our results concur with previous models of the evolution of androdioecy and gynodioecy regarding the threshold values above which the sexual polymophism is stable, although the previous models assume constant the fraction of ovules from hermaphrodites that are self pollinated, while we assume constant the fraction of the progeny derived from selfing. A stable androdioecy requires more stringent conditions than a stable gynodioecy if the amount of pollen used for selfing is negligible in comparison with the total amount of pollen produced by hermaphrodites. Otherwise, both models are identical. We show explicitly that the genotype fitnesses depend linearly on their frequencies. Simulations show that any population not at equilibrium always converges to the equilibrium point of higher fitness. However, at intermediate steps, the fitness function occasionally decreases.

Field of study: Biology, Mathematics
Gravity in North-Central New England

Twelve hundred and sixty-six gravity stations were established in 15,000 square miles of New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Within that area three detailed surveys were made in places of particular interest. To aid in the interpretation density determinations were made on rock specimens. Two broad features stand out on the Bouguer map, a coastal belt of positive anomalies and a gravity low over the northern half of the area. The low could be explained by assuming that the exposed granite bodies enlarge with depth and extend beneath the metamorphic rocks, forming a sheet 15,000 feet thick, or it could be ascribed to an increase of about 2 kms in the thickness of the crust. The relationship between the local gravity features and the surface geology is described. Most of the local anomalies are due to the density contrast between the plutonic rocks and the metamorphic rocks. In general, the plutons are associated with lows, the most prominent of which is found over the White Mountain batholith. Analysis of the gravity data shows that the density contrast between the granite of this batholith and the surrounding metamorphic rocks extends downward at least 5000 feet. The detailed survey near Lake Winnipesaukee disclosed a gravity high over the Conway Granite of the Merrymeeting stock. There is also a magnetic high over the stock. But the Conway, which belongs to the White Mountain plutonic series, has the lowest density of all the rocks exposed in the area and contains no magnetite. Beneath the surface of the stock there must be a high-density body which contains a magnetic mineral. This body is probably an older member of the White Mountain series, a dionte or gabbro, and the Conway Granite was probably emplaced along the contact of the older body, which subsided to make room for the granite. The same detailed survey revealed a gravity low over the Pine Mountain ring-dike complex, which also belongs to the White Mountain plutonic series. Analysis of this anomaly shows that the complex forms the apex of a much larger stock below and that the density contrast extends to a depth of at least 5000 feet. A detailed survey in northeastern Massachusetts showed a sharp high at Salem Harbor. This feature is probably caused by the Salem Gabbro-Diorite exposed there. Other features on the Bouguer anomaly map of northeastern Massachusetts are also discussed.

Field of study: Geology
Species-abundance distributions under colored environmental noise

Natural communities at all spatiotemporal scales are subjected to a wide variety of environmental pressures, resulting in random changes in the demographic rates of species populations. Previous analyses have examined the effects of such environmental variance on the long-term growth rate and time to extinction of single populations, but studies of its effects on the diversity of communities remain scarce. In this study, we construct a new master-equation model incorporating demographic and environmental variance and use it to examine how statistical patterns of diversity, as encapsulated by species-abundance distributions (SADs), are altered by environmental variance. Unlike previous diffusion models with environmental variance uncorrelated in time (white noise), our model allows environmental variance to be correlated at different timescales (colored noise), thus facilitating representation of phenomena such as yearly and decadal changes in climate. We derive an exact analytical expression for SADs predicted by our model together with a close approximation, and use them to show that the main effect of adding environmental variance is to increase the proportion of abundant species, thus flattening the SAD relative to the log-series form found in the neutral case. This flattening effect becomes more prominent when environmental variance is more correlated in time and has greater effects on species’ demographic rates, holding all other factors constant. Furthermore, we show how our model SADs are consistent with those from diffusion models near the white noise limit. The mathematical techniques we develop are catalysts for further theoretical work exploring the consequences of environmental variance for biodiversity.

Field of study: Biology, Mathematics