nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Efficiency Assessment of the Tanzanian Universities

The purpose of this study is to examine the efficiency and its determinants of the Universities in Tanzania by means of deterministic frontier non-parametric approach. The analysis is based on a sample of 16 colleges and Universities 8 public, and 8 private across time period of 2008 - 2012 panel data. The data obtained from sampled universities, Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU), Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) are used. We include three inputs and three outputs in a two-stage data envelopment analysis (Wen-Bin-LIU et al (2013), first evaluating DEA scores and then regress them through Tobit regression model. The findings from the study suggest that there is variability of efficiency among Universities across years. It is revealed from the study that Universities are efficient in generating graduates through available human capital, whereas research publications and consultancy services are influential factors for University efficiency. Majority of University efficiency is observed to be above average. Thus, Universities are recommended to use their input resources for research and consultancy services to improve efficiencies. Other extraneous variables which might have contributed to these findings have not been considered in the study.

Field of study: Education
Evidence against a constant-difference effect in concurrent-chains schedules.

Savastano and Fantino (1996) reported that in concurrent-chains schedules, initial-link choice proportions remained constant as terminal-link durations increased as long as the subtractive difference between the two terminal-link schedules remained constant. Two experiments with pigeons were conducted to examine this constant-difference effect. Both experiments used equal variable-interval schedules as initial links. The terminal links were fixed delays to reinforcement in Experiment 1 and variable delays to reinforcement in Experiment 2. The durations of the terminal links were varied across conditions, but the difference between pairs of terminal links was always 10 s. In both experiments, preference for the shorter terminal link became less extreme as terminal-link durations increased, so a constant-difference effect was not found. It is argued, however, that this choice situation does not provide clear evidence for or against delay-reduction theory versus other theories of choice.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Efficient progressive downloading over multimedia broadcast multicast service

The paper introduces an efficient way of delivering multimedia files over the multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) and study the performance of the proposed MBMS download system on initial waiting time for progressive downloads of streamable contents. Multimedia streaming or downloading over broadcast and multicast networks is recently become conceivable for mobile users. Now there is an increasing interest to deliver broadcast and multicast data over the third generation (3G) networks such as The universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) since ''send once charge many times'' approach makes this type of services very attractive for 3G operators. The third generation partnership project (3GPP) has recently introduced MBMS to support IP multicasting services in UMTS. Streaming and downloading are two main services considered over MBMS. A third type of service, namely progressive download inherits the advantages of using download mechanism such as efficient usage of radio resources while it also enables users to stream multimedia files with some initial waiting time. However, there is few works that study progressive download in MBMS and current version of MBMS release have not yet an efficient mechanism to support progressive downloading. This article proposes a new approach for MBMS download mechanism that supports progressive download. The proposed systems are tested under various link conditions and packet loss scenarios specific for MBMS. The results, compared with the recent works, which have the same test assumptions, show a dramatic decrease in initial waiting time of the progressive download.

Field of study: Computer science
Diabetic retinopathy diagnostic with ophthalmoscope by trained doctor

Diabetes mellitus patient is in high risk to be complicated by retinopathy. Visual loss and decrease of visual acuity become a significant social burden. Early detection is essensial for treatment. Ophthalmoscopy was highly effective for screening, easily used and accessed by ophthalmologist and other physician and has been applied in many developed countries  This study was aimed to know the validity of ophthalmoscopic test done by a trained doctor in diagnosing diabetic retinopathy..  The subjects were diabetic patients without cataracts. The examiner was a resident of Internal Medicine Department who had been trained in ophthalmoscopy. After the training, the resident was assessed and the result was compared with the trainer and showed agreement with kappa 1.00.  The study was done from February to May 2007. Total subjects were 98 patients (196 eyes I consisted of 50 females (51%1 and 48 males (49%1 with mean age of 61 :t7.92 years old. Mean diabetes duration was 6.6:t 5.94 years and all of them were diabetes type 2. Some patients had hypertension (44.9%1, dyslipidemia (17.7%1, heart disease (6.1%), and kidney disease (5.1%1. From 196 eyes, 6 (6.1 %1 eyes had cataract and were excluded. Mean visual acuity was 0.7726 :to.31 08. Diabetic retinopathy was found in 41 eyes among 190 eyes (21.57%1, consisted of 22 eyes with mild NPDR (53.65%1, 7 eyes with moderate NPDR (17.07%), 7 eyes with severe NPDR (17.07%1, 5 eyes with advance PDR (12.19%1. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy resulted by 5 hour trained doctor examinations were 63.41%, 67.78%, 36.62%, 67.78%, and 66.78% respectively R (+1 and LR (-I were 1.968 and 0.5397, respectively.  Direct ophthalmoscopic examination by a trained doctor to detect retinopathy is promisalble in Indonesia.  diabetic retinopathy, direct ophthalmoscopy, diagnostic value, traineddoctor

Field of study: Medicine
Simulated influence of altitude on photosynthetic Co2 uptake potential in plants

A simulation of the quantitative influence of altitude on photosynthetic CO2 uptake capability (AP) included the effects of predicted changes (1) in air temperature (lapse rate) and (2) leaf temperature, (3) ambient pressure and CO2 concentration, and (4) the diffusion coefficient for CO2 in air. When a dry lapse rate (0.01°C m−1) in air temperature was simulated, significant declines (up to 14%) in AP were predicted from sea level to 4km altitude. A moist lapse rate of 0.003°C m−1 resulted in less than a 4% decrease in AP over the same altitude range. When natural leaf temperatures (predicted from heat balance analyses) were simulated, AP was significantly greater (∼20%) than when leaf temperatures were considered equal to air temperature for all lapse conditions. There was virtually no change in AP with altitude when predicted leaf temperatures and moist lapse conditions were simulated. There was a significant (∼10%) increase in AP with altitude when leaf temperature was held constant at 30°C (regardless of altitude) under moist lapse conditions. Future studies evaluating the effects of elevation on photosynthesis could benefit from the above considerations of the effects of natural leaf temperature regimes and prevailing lapse conditions on CO2 uptake potential.

Field of study: Environmental science
Improvement of the exact analytical solutions for combined heat and mass transfer problems obtained with the Fourier method

Grigor'eva and Nakoryakov presented an analytical solution for combined heat and mass transfer in laminar falling films by means of the Fourier method. The obtained solutions exhibited mathematical instabilities for small flow length, such as oscillations in the mass fraction profile and a mismatch of the inlet temperature. Grigor'eva and Nakoryakov explained these instabilities with the inconsistency of the inlet and boundary conditions and therefore an additional short term solution was introduced. In the present study the established tangent function, that is used to determine the eigenvalues within the Fourier method, is rearranged to a term without domain restrictions. Consequently, more eigenvalues are found, leading to a physical valid solution even for small flow lengths, matching the results of the short term solution perfectly.

Field of study: Engineering
Advance of Peptide Detectability Prediction on Mass Spectrometry Platform in Proteomics

Mass spectrometry (MS) is one of the core technologies for proteome researches, by which large-scale, high-throughput qualitative and quantitative protein analysis can be carried out. Because of the complexity of samples and experimental processes, the repeatability of MS experiments is still not satisfactory; the results of peptide identification and quantification show a high randomicity, and the probability of peptides being detected by MS in proteome researches, especially in quantitative proteomic studies, has received considerable attention. Therefore, many experimental researches have been carried out, and a number of computational prediction methods have been developed. In this article, the important factors influencing the peptide detectability are summarized, the existing prediction methods are studied, and their application in experimental studies is reviewed.

Field of study: Chemistry
What Explains the Success or Failure of Structural Adjustment Programs?

In the 1980s development assistance shifted largely from financing investments (such as roads and dams) to promoting policy reform. This change came because of a growing awareness that developing countries were held back more by poor policies than by a lack of finance for investment. After nearly 20 years' experience with policy-based or conditional lending, there have now been many studies of adjustment lending, most of which take a case-study approach. Many conclude that policy-based lending works if countries have decided on their own to reform. The authors examine a database of 220 World Bank-supported reform programs to identify why adjustment programs succeed or fail. They find that a few political economy variables can successfully predict the outcome of an adjustment loan 75 percent of the time. Variables under the World Bank's control -- resources devoted to preparation and supervision or number of conditions -- have no relationship with an adjustment program's success or failure. What development agencies must do, then, is select promising candidates for adjustment support. When the candidates is a poor selection, devoting more administrative resources or imposing more conditions will not increase the likelihood of successful reform. To improve its success rate with adjustment lending, the World Bank must become more selective and do a better job of understanding which environments are promising for reform and which are not. That is likely to lead to fewer adjustment loans, unless there is a significant change in the number of promising reformers. To become more effective at supporting policy reform, the agency must be willing to accept that this may lead to smaller volumes of lending.

Field of study: Economics
Safe food handling: knowledge, perceptions, and self-reported practices of Turkish consumers

This study examines Turkish consumers’ perceptions and knowledge of safe food handling practices. Their attitudes, opinions, and self-reported practices in the purchase, transportation, storage, preparation, and consumption of food were studied. Data was collected from a total of 440 consumers living in Istanbul, Turkey through the use of a self-administered, structured, and undisguised questionnaire. A combination of stratified and systematic random sampling was used based on the incidence of having or not having experienced food-related illness within the past year. Significant differences were found to exist in the perceptions, opinions, knowledge, and self-reported practices of those who had experienced food-borne illness in the past twelve months versus those who had not. Significant differences were also found with respect to various demographic variables, especially, with respect to age and education levels. Implications of the study for various parties, namely, consumers, producers, retailers, and the state together with further research are also presented in the paper. These implications may be applicable in different countries as well, since food-borne diseases experienced due to bad food-handling practices still present a major challenge to peoples’ health, in both the developed and the developing world.

Field of study: Business
Combined hereditary deficiency of the sixth component of complement and factor VIII coagulant activity in a Dutch family.

Prompted by previous observations of defective blood clotting in rabbits deficient in the sixth component of complement (C6), and the discovery of a patient with both C6 and factor VIII deficiency, an evaluation was made of the haemostatic functions in this individual and his family members. The family contained three members homozygous for C6 deficiency (C6D); two of them were deficient also in factor VIII. In addition, one other member of the family was only deficient in factor VIII. The only C6D member without haemophilia A had a normal recalcification time without clinical symptoms of a bleeding disorder. Reconstitution of factor VIII and C6 deficient plasma from the various members of the family in this study with purified human C6 did not result in a change in the recalcification time. The results obtained from this study also indicate that there is no linkage between the inheritance of C6 and factor VIII.

Field of study: Biology, Medicine
Microbially induced sedimentary structures in Neogene tidal flats from Argentina: Paleoenvironmental, stratigraphic and taphonomic implications

Microbially induced sedimentary structures (MISS) result from the interaction between benthic microorganisms and sediments; MISS preferably form in upper intertidal to supratidal settings from the Archean to the modern. The identification of MISS in Neogene deposits of the Rio Negro Formation (Late Miocene to Pliocene), Rio Negro Province, Argentina, covering the transition from continental to marine facies (and vice versa), provides the base to refine the paleoenvironmental interpretation. The overall clastic paleocoast was differentiated into high-energy erosional domains and protected areas where MISS became preserved. However, during peak transgression also the initially protected areas experienced high energy sediment reworking. Because of the extent erosion in the high-energy coastal setting, the localized occurrence of tidal-flat deposits was difficult to recognize. The thin tidal flat deposits exhibit macroscopic and microscopic features that can be attributed to the interaction between microorganisms and sediment, such as cracks with upturned margins, sponge pore fabric, wrinkle structures, multidirected ripple marks, floating sand grains and so on. In addition, the biostabilization processes typical of substrates housing microbial mats led to the excellent preservation of vertebrate footprints that characterize these deposits.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
Fully automated cloud-drift winds in NESDIS operations

Cloud-drift winds have been produced from geostationary satellite data in the Western Hemisphere since the early 1970s. During the early years, winds were used as an aid for the short-term forecaster in an era when numerical forecasts were often of questionable quality, especially over oceanic regions. Increased computing resources over the last two decades have led to significant advances in the performance of numerical forecast models. As a result, continental forecasts now stand to gain little from the inspection or assimilation of cloud-drift wind fields. However, the oceanic data void remains, and although numerical forecasts in such areas have improved, they still suffer from a lack of in situ observations. During the same two decades, the quality of geostationary satellite data has improved considerably, and the cloud-drift wind production process has also benefited from increased computing power. As a result, fully automated wind production is now possible, yielding cloud-drift winds whos...

Field of study: Environmental science
Stepwise quantum phonon pumping in plasmon-enhanced Raman scattering

Plasmon-enhanced Raman scattering (PERS) becomes nonlinear when phonon pumping and phonon-stimulated scattering come into play. It is fundamental to the understanding of PERS and its photobleaching behavior. By quantization of the molecular vibration coherent state into phonon number states, we theoretically predict a stepwise dependence of PERS intensity on laser power. Experimental evidence is presented by measuring a monolayer of malachite green isothiocyanate molecules sandwiched in individual gold nanosphere-plane antennas, under radially polarized laser excitation of sub-microWatt powers.

Field of study: Physics
Condensation of 1-Amino-4-azafluorene with α-Diketones and α,β-Unsaturated Ketones

Condensation of 1-amino-4-azafluorene with α-diketones and with unsaturated ketones in basic medium gives novel substituted 1,4-diazafluoranthenes and also dihydro-4-azafluoreno[9,9a,1-b,c]cyclohexano[2',3'-e]- and indano[1',2'-e]azepines.

Field of study: Chemistry
Investigation of adsorption isotherms and rotational speeds for low temperature regeneration of desiccant wheel systems

Effects of adsorption isotherms, namely shape factor and maximum adsorption capacity, and rotational speed on regeneration temperature of desiccant wheel systems are investigated. Higher maximum adsorption capacity is beneficial for reducing regeneration temperature especially for deep dehumidification of single-stage systems under humid climate, while the influence is not obvious with small dehumidification capacity. Higher shape factor (=1) is recommended for dehumidification at high relative humidity, while lower shape factor is better for low relative humidity. Rotational speed in the range of 10–15 r h−1 is advised for single and two-stage systems under a wide range of working conditions for both deep and regular dehumidification applications when wheel thickness is 0.2 m and maximum adsorption capacity is 0.8 kg kg−1. The reasons for different requirements of shape factor for regular and deep applications are discussed theoretically. Rotational speed ranges for different wheel thickness and maximum adsorption capacity are recommended.

Field of study: Engineering
Factors influencing diet variation in a generalist predator across its range distribution

Factors linked with intraspecific variation in trophic diversity are still poorly understood in generalist species like the Montagu’s harrier (Circus pygargus) but may have important implications for conservation management at a wide scale. We described geographic patterns of Montagu’s harrier diet across Eurasia, gathering diet data from 30 studies in 41 areas from 11 countries. We grouped prey as invertebrates, reptiles, small mammals, large mammals, eggs, small birds and large birds, and calculated the contribution of each prey type to the diet (as % biomass) and Shannon’s Diversity Index for each study site. We analysed qualitative estimates of prey abundance in relation to latitude and longitude, then diet composition in relation to habitat of the study area and prey abundance estimates. Diet diversity of Montagu’s harriers increased from north to south, while abundance of all prey groups other than small mammals showed the opposite trends. Agricultural areas in northern latitudes seemed to hold high densities of small mammals, but low densities of alternative prey. Overall, birds were the main prey in most of Montagu’s harrier’s distribution range, although the relative importance of each prey type in the diet was significantly explained by its local abundance and habitat, confirming the opportunistic foraging strategy of this raptor species. Consumption of mammals was an exception to this trend, being negatively associated with the abundance of alternative prey, suggesting that this prey is not preferred. Trophic diversity in this species could be influenced by land-use changes through variations in the abundance and availability of prey, which could impact its population dynamics. This may be particularly important for northern populations of Montagu’s harriers breeding in agricultural habitats, where trophic diversity is already low.

Field of study: Environmental science
Developing and Presenting Renal Patient Education Materials

Developing simple written materials for renal patients in nontechnical language requires consideration of factors that are often overlooked. Materials accompanied by easy-to-follow dietary guides need to be available to a broad audience of predialysis and dialysis patients. Content and target audience are important factors in preparing patient education materials, but special attention also needs to be directed towards the physical layout and design of these materials. If materials are developed and presented with attention to these factors, patients and their family members will be better able to convert their renal diet prescription into a healthful and attractive diet.

Field of study: Medicine
To ERV Is Human: A Phenotype-Wide Scan Linking Polymorphic Human Endogenous Retrovirus-K Insertions to Complex Phenotypes

Approximately 8% of the human genome is comprised of endogenous retroviral insertions (ERVs) originating from historic retroviral integration into germ cells. The function of ERVs as regulators of gene expression is well established. Less well studied are insertional polymorphisms of ERVs and their contribution to the heritability of complex phenotypes. The most recent integration of ERV, HERV-K, is expressed in a range of complex human conditions from cancer to neurologic diseases. Using an in-house computational pipeline and whole-genome sequencing data from the diverse 1,000 Genomes Phase 3 population (n = 2,504), we identified 46 polymorphic HERV-K insertions that are tagged by adjacent single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). To test the potential role of polymorphic HERV-K in the heritability of complex diseases, existing databases were queried for enrichment of established relationships between the HERV-K insertion-associated SNPs (hiSNPs), and tissue specific gene expression and disease phenotypes. Overall, hiSNPs for the 46 polymorphic HERV-K sites were statistically enriched (p < 1.0E−16) for eQTLs across 44 human tissues. Fifteen of the 46 HERV-K insertions had hiSNPs annotated in the EMBL-EBI GWAS Catalog and cumulatively associated with >100 phenotypes. Experimental factor ontology enrichment analysis suggests that polymorphic HERV-K specifically contribute to neurologic and immunologic disease phenotypes, including traits related to intra cranial volume (FDR 2.00E-09), Parkinson's disease (FDR 1.80E-09), and autoimmune diseases (FDR 1.80E-09). These results provide strong candidates for context-specific study of polymorphic HERV-K insertions in disease-related traits, serving as a roadmap for future studies of the heritability of complex disease.

Field of study: Biology