nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Mammilliothalamic Tract Lesions Disrupt Tests of Visuo-Spatial Memory

The mammillary bodies and their projections via the mammilliothalamic tract to the anterior thalamic nuclei are known to be important for spatial memory in rodents, but their precise role remains unclear. To determine whether transection of the mammilliothalamic tract can produce deficits on tests of spatial memory even when the navigational demands placed on the animal are limited, rats with discrete mammilliothalamic tract lesions were tested on the ability to use distal visual cues to discriminate between 2 locations within a room, irrespective of the direction traveled (Experiment 1). Animals with mammilliothalamic tract lesions acquired this task more slowly and less accurately than control animals. Consistent with this impairment in discriminating different spatial locations, the same lesions also severely disrupted object-in-place memory but spared performance on standard tests of object recognition memory (Experiment 2). Finally, to compare performance on a task that is known to be sensitive to mammilliothalamic transection and requires animals to actively navigate within their environment, the effect of the lesions on spatial working memory in the radial-arm maze was examined. Taken together, the results suggest that even when there are little or no navigational demands, mammilliothalamic tract damage still results in impoverished encoding of spatial location.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
bcl-2 prolongs neuronal survival during hypoxia-induced apoptosis.

In vivo models of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury have shown altered expression of a number of genes that are important in regulating neuronal survival. However, it is not clear as to whether hypoxia alone can alter the expression of genes regulating neuronal survival. We hypothesized that (1) hypoxia alone alters the expression of bcl-2 in neurons, (2) the severity and duration of hypoxia influence bcl-2 expression, and (3) the alteration of bcl-2 expression has an important role in regulating neuronal survival during hypoxia. Embryonic rat neocortical neurons cultured for 7-10 days were exposed to 0.1, 1, or 3% oxygen for various durations and were removed for analyses at 24-h intervals. Under all hypoxic conditions, neurons exhibited morphologic changes, as assessed by electron microscopy and Annexin V staining, consistent with apoptosis. Immunoblot and immunofluorescence analyses revealed an increase in neuronal bcl-2 protein during hypoxic exposure. Quantitative immunofluorescence analyses of bcl-2 immunostained neurons indicated that expression of bcl-2 was altered by the duration and severity of hypoxia. Attenuation of bcl-2 expression by antisense oligonucleotides decreased the proportion of surviving neurons by approximately 50% after 48 h of exposure to 0.1% oxygen. We conclude that observed increase in bcl-2, in part, plays an important role in neuronal survival during exposure to hypoxia.

Field of study: Biology
Macroscopic-ranged proximity eﬀect in graphite.

We report the induction of proximity-induced superconducting features over macroscopic lengths in highly oriented pyrolitic graphite (HOPG). The phenomenon is triggered when electrical currents are injected in the material through superconducting electrodes, few millimeters apart from each other. Such large range is anomalous, as proximity-induced features in normal conductors hardly surpass few micrometers. The results can be explained as due presence of pre-existing superconductivity in graphite on small, localized regions.

Field of study: Physics
DETERMINATION OF MARBLE FRACTURE TOUGHNESS BY USING VARIABLE-CRACK ONE-SIZE SPECIMENS

One-size flattened disc specimens with identical centre hole and different initial crack lengths are used to determine marble fracture toughness. Based on the size effect law proposed by Bazant, the dimensionless energy release rate function g(α0) is curve fitted with the data from the finite element analysis. It is concluded that the range requirement for the brittleness numbers β in the size effect law is satisfied, if the function g′(α0)/g(α0), which is related to the specimen shape, varies from 1.0 to 5.8, this condition is equivalent to that the dimensionless initial crack length α0=a0/R varies from 0.28 to 0.51. According to the analysis of experimental results, the real fracture toughness K Imc which is independent of specimen size and the length of fracture process zone cf are given. The present method of determination of rock fracture toughness avoids the difficulties in specimen preparation and testing, and there is no need to use larger specimens or two or more than two types of specimens for getting a sufficient range of brittleness numbers β.

Field of study: Engineering
Plumbagin inhibits cell growth and potentiates apoptosis in human gastric cancer cells in vitro through the NF-κB signaling pathway

To investigate the effects and underlying mechanisms of plumbagin, a naphthoquinone derived from medicinal plant Plumbago zeylanica, on human gastric cancer (GC) cells.Human gastric cancer cell lines SGC-7901, MKN-28, and AGS were used. The cell viability was examined using CCK-8 viability assay. Cell proliferation rate was determined using both clonogenic assay and EdU incorporation assay. Apoptosis was detected via Annexin V/propidium iodide double-labeled flow cytometry. Western blotting was used to assess the expression of both NF-κB-regulated gene products and TNF-α-induced activation of p65, IκBα, and IKK. The intracellular location of NF-κB p65 was detected using confocal microscopy.Plumbagin (2.5–40 μmol/L) concentration-dependently reduced the viability of the GC cells. The IC50 value of plumbagin in SGC-7901, MKN-28, and AGS cells was 19.12, 13.64, and 10.12 μmol/L, respectively. The compound (5–20 μmol/L) concentration-dependently induced apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells, and potentiated the sensitivity of SGC-7901 cells to chemotherapeutic agents TNF-αand cisplatin. The compound (10 μmol/L) downregulated the expression of NF-κB-regulated gene products, including IAP1, XIAP, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, tumor factor (TF), and VEGF. In addition to inhibition of NF-κB p65 nuclear translocation, the compound also suppressed TNF-α-induced phosphorylation of p65 and IKK, and the degradation of IκBα.Plumbagin inhibits cell growth and potentiates apoptosis in human GC cells through the NF-κB pathway.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry, Medicine
A Review of Mulches to Control Wind Erosion

THE need to increase food production and improve the quality of our environment has prompted a search for materials to control wind and water erosion. This paper is a review of research and development as-sociated with application, methods, and amounts of mulch types—crop residues, chemical soil stabilizers, and feedlot wastes (manure)—required to control wind erosion. An effective wind erosion control treatment is one that can resist a 38.0 m/s wind as measured at 15.2 m. Any crop residue, either grown in place or hauled in and spread, can control wind erosion. Hauled-in residues must be spread and anchored to the soil surface by a packer or an anchoring agent, i.e., cutback asphalt or asphalt emulsion. Depending on residue type, minimum amounts needed to control wind erosion are 4.5 to 11 t/ha. Chemical soil stabilizers, i.e., asphalt, polyvinyl alcohol, styrene-butadiene latex emulsions, and resins-in-water emulsions control wind erosion effectively if properly diluted and applied to cover the total soil surface at volumes of at least 3785 L/ha. Wet feedlot manure applied to a highly-erodible sand con-trolled erosion with 31.8 t/ha surface-applied or 52.3 t/ha tilled-in with a tandem disk.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Measurement of gasdynamic pressure on a target subjected to CO2 laser radiation

Measurements were made of the pressure on the surface of a target subjected to high-power CO2 laser radiation under conditions ensuring one-dimensional motion of the resultant plasma. These measurements were carried out on lead, aluminum, and titanium targets using laser radiation of 107?109?W/cm2 power density. The pressure in the air surrounding the target was varied from 0.07 to 760?Torr. It was found that the pressure on the target surface in vacuum was due to the evaporation of the target material but in air this pressure was governed by the gasdynamics of a laser-absorption wave traveling from the target to meet the incident radiation. The transition from one interaction regime to the other occurred when the air pressure was ~80?Torr.

Field of study: Engineering, Physics
To Feel or Not to Feel When My Group Harms Others? The Regulation of Collective Guilt as Motivated Reasoning

Four studies tested the proposition that regulation of collective guilt in the face of harmful ingroup behavior involves motivated reasoning. Cognitive energetics theory suggests that motivated reasoning is a function of goal importance, mental resource availability, and task demands. Accordingly, three studies conducted in the United States and Israel demonstrated that high importance of avoiding collective guilt, represented by group identification (Studies 1 and 3) and conservative ideological orientation (Study 2), is negatively related to collective guilt, but only when mental resources are not depleted by cognitive load. The fourth study, conducted in Italy, demonstrated that when justifications for the ingroup’s harmful behavior are immediately available, the task of regulating collective guilt and shame becomes less demanding and less susceptible to resource depletion. By combining knowledge from the domains of motivated cognition, emotion regulation, and intergroup relations, these cross-cultural studies offer novel insights regarding factors underlying the regulation of collective guilt.

Field of study: Psychology
Online Consumers’ Responses to Deal Popularity as an Extrinsic Cue

Deal popularity indicates the popularity of a product or service within a specific deal duration and is being used by many e-tailers in their websites/apps. While deal popularity is receiving increasing attention by academics and practitioners alike, its effect as an extrinsic cue remains under-researched. Using an experimental design, this study investigates the effect of deal popularity on expected service quality in an e-tailing environment. It is found that deal popularity influences service quality expectations for credence services, but not experience services. High deal popularity positively influences consumers’ intention to purchase and willingness to recommend credence services. E-tailers of services need to pay attention to deal popularity displayed for credence services and leverage on the positive effect it has on consumers.

Field of study: Computer science
Endemism, diversity, and the threat of tropical moist forest extinctions

Extinction rates have risen to perhaps 104 the background rate. Much of this increase is due to projected influences of habitat loss on regions of the world with tropical moist forest. This ecosystem, home to a disproportionate amount of global biodiversity and a major regulator of regional and global climate, also faces disproportionately severe threats. In this study, we collect diversity and endemism data for tropical forested countries of the world, along with areal and socioeconomic data. While a correlation between overall numbers of species and endemic species per country is expected, we demonstrate that endemism patterns among birds and mammals remain very strongly convergent even after statistically rendering all countries equal in size and overall species richness and after adjusting for spatial autocorrelation. On a per country basis, mammals are generally more threatened than birds in these tropical moist forested countries. Human population growth rates and rising debt among these nations should be viewed as priorities for amelioration by the developed countries. Reserve network extent is not related to numbers of endemic mammals or birds at this large spatial scale.

Field of study: Environmental science
IL-1 beta release from cultured bronchial epithelial cells and bronchoalveolar lavage cells from allergic and normal humans following segmental challenge with ragweed.

This work investigated whether interleukin 1 beta (IL-1 beta) release from epithelial cells is modulated by antigen challenge in vivo, and inflammatory cells in vitro. Bronchial epithelial cells were obtained before and after segmental allergen challenge in allergic and normal individuals, and were cultured with and without autologous bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cells. IL-1 beta in culture medium was quantitated by enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA). Pre-challenge IL-1 beta levels from epithelial cells were similar in allergic (4.4 +/- 0.8 pg/ml, n = 32) and normal (6.8 +/- 1.7 pg/ml, n = 17) subjects. IL-1 beta levels were significantly elevated from epithelium with BAL cell co-culture vs without co-culture in both subject groups (allergic, 13.2 +/- 2.3 pg/ml, P = 0.006; normal: 16.4 +/- 4.0 pg/ml, P = 0.007). Post-challenge IL-1 beta from epithelial cells without BAL cells was increased in both groups, but significant only for allergic subjects (P = 0.003). Post-challenge IL-1 beta from epithelial with BAL cells changed little for allergic subjects (13.8 +/- 2.4 pg/ml), and increased for normal subjects (20.0 +/- 4.8 pg/ml). Decreased production of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) was observed in allergic subjects (day 1: 447 pg/ml vs day 2: 258 pg/ml). Moreover, pre-challenge release of TNF-alpha and IL-1 beta levels from epithelial + BAL cells correlated well for allergic (r = 0.84) and normal subjects (r = 0.6), but post-challenge release correlated only in normal subjects (r = 0.90). These results indicate that bronchial epithelial cells and BAL cells interact, modulating release of these inflammatory cytokines.

Field of study: Medicine
Analysis for Behavioral Economics in Accountant's Engaging in Embezzlement

The process of accountants' engaging in embezzlement is dominated by subjective elements and effected through objective factors.The phenomenon can be expounded by the basic theory of behavioral economics.The writer can give you the cause of the accountant's engaging in embezzlement through the bounded rationality and the explanation of conspiracy phenomenon by perspective theory.The writer will try to explain in the paper why the accountants in economic subject and individuals willingly take the risks of being found and punished by anchoring,overconfidence and herd behavior.

Field of study: Economics
Reconstructing the Palaeodiet of Florida Mammut Americanum via Low-Magnification Stereomicroscopy

A large sample (N = 76) of Pleistocene mastodon (Mammut americanum) teeth from a variety of localities in Florida were analyzed for dental enamel microwear features via low-magnification stereomicroscopy. Second upper and lower molars were used for dental dietary reconstruction purposes to allow comparison of results to an extensive molar microwear database comprised of extant taxa with well-studied diets. Deciduous premolars and permanent molars were tested for consistency of enamel scar patterns. We used both Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney tests to test for differences across the tooth row in: (1) average pit frequency, (2) average scratch frequency, (3) scratch textural properties, and presence or absence of (4) gouges, (5) large pits, and (6) cross scratches. Of these variables, only the gouges showed significant between-tooth differences at p < .05. A Mann–Whitney test reveals that the anterior-most premolar (DP2) has significantly fewer gouges than do the other cheek teeth (especially the molars), but that there are no significant differences in gouging between any other pair of teeth. This difference may reflect ontogenetic dietary change but needs to be studied further. 
 
Stereoscopic microwear results were compared to an extant herbivore microwear trophic triangle representing average scratch and pit morphospaces for extant taxa, including graminivores, folivores, and frugivores. Enamel scar patterns for M. americanum for six microwear variables are consistent with a browsing diet but apparently one unlike that of typical extant browsing forms. Evidence for extensive bark consumption and some fruit consumption is presented. Cluster analysis reveals a clear segregation of M. americanum from typical extant browsing forms, from grazing or mixed feeding forms, and from extant African and Indian elephants. Euclidean distance comparisons reveal a dietary profile most similar to that of the extant Diceros bicornis (black rhino), a well-known browser with a prehensile lip that is used for gathering twigs into its mouth. Our results are consistent with reports for Florida mastodons showing a preponderance of twigs such as Taxodium (bald cypress) in preserved digesta.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
Generalization during acquisition, extinction, and transfer of matching with an adjustable comparison.

Three groups of pigeons were given conditional discrimination training in which the number of standard stimuli was varied across groups. In the presence of each standard, a pigeon adjusted the comparison stimulus on a second key until the two keys matched. A report of this match (response on the first key) was reinforced. Transfer of the matching performance was investigated by adding new standards to the ones already available. All pigeons were exposed to two extinction sessions after 155 sessions of training. Rapidity of acquisition was inversely related to the number of standards presented. Generalization gradients derived from the several comparison stimuli showed that all pigeons reached a high level of accuracy in the presence of at least one standard, and some pigeons did so in the presence of as many as four of the six standards. There was no evidence of a systematic effect of extinction upon overall accuracy, or the individual generalization gradients. When a new standard was added, a given pigeon's performance (in terms of responding to the comparisons) was similar to performance in the presence of one of the old standards. However, the pigeons did not show evidence of confusion among the comparisons.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Critical Issues in Special Education Teacher Supply and Demand

The shortage of fully certified special education teachers, which has been described as severe, chronic, and pervasive, threatens the quality of educational services that students with disabilities receive. Over the last decade, researchers have investigated the magnitude of the special education teacher shortage problem and factors that contribute to the imbalance between supply and demand. This special issue includes research syntheses that critically evaluate the complex range of factors that contribute to teacher shortages in special education. These syntheses present a review of what is known about the supply and demand problem, provide a research base to help inform efforts to address the shortage problem, and suggest research questions needing study.

Field of study: Education
Health outcomes are about choices and values: an economic perspective on the health outcomes movement.

The aim of the health outcomes movement is to reorientate health services so that the spotlight shines less on what is done and more on what is achieved. The health outcomes movement, thus far, has been most successful in addressing what appear to be technical questions relating to the measurement and analysis of health outcomes and in placing their routine use on the agenda of clinical practice and health services planning. If there is one lesson to be drawn from an economic perspective, however, it is that health outcomes are about values and not just technicalities. The need to make choices forces one to consider whether what is achieved is also what is most valued. The success of health service delivery, be it at a clinical, planning or systems level, must therefore be measured against agreed objectives. It follows that time must be taken to establish what patients and the community want from their health services and what each is prepared to give up to achieve its ends. Value judgements are unavoidable. The challenge lies not in measuring the outcomes of health interventions but in deciding what the objectives of the health system ought to be.

Field of study: Medicine, Political science
Correlation of fluviodeltaic aggradational sections with glacial climate history: A revision of the Pleistocene stratigraphy of Rome

Volcanic horizons interbedded with fluviodeltaic clastic sediments of the Tiber and Fosso Galeria River valleys near Rome provide a unique opportunity to date five middle Pleistocene fining-upward aggradational sections. 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages from the interbedded volcanic beds illustrate that aggradation occurred on an approximate 100 k.y. cycle and was initiated by sea-level rise associated with glacial melting. The age constraint additionally shows that aggradation occurs rapidly in response to sea-level change, and thus ages from volcanic strata within the aggradational sections provide high-resolution constraint on the timing of relative sea-level rise. The established chronology is consistent with other glacial proxies and their (radioisotopically or orbitally based) time scales for the timing of glacial terminations VI and V, but is significantly older than most records for the timing of termination III. Ultimately, the age of each termination should be determined by radioisotopic means, and to that end the work here shows that fluviodeltaic sedimentology provides valuable information for middle Pleistocene time-scale calibration.

Field of study: Geology
Fabrication and characterization of (Bi,Pb)-Sr-Ca-Cu-O (2223) bars

Bulk bars for current lead applications were fabricated from (Bi,Pb)-Sr-Ca-Cu-O (Bi-2223) for low thermal conductivity and high critical current. Bars measuring 17.8 cm in length were made by uniaxially pressing Bi-2223 powder of controlled (1.7/0.34)223 and (1,8/0.4)223 phase composition. The bulk bars were densified by subjecting them to a schedule of alternate liquid-phase sintering and cold isostatic pressing. Liquid-phase sintering temperatures were optimized from differential thermal analysis and microstructure morphology. Phase purity and microstructure were evaluated by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Low-resistance silver contacts were applied to the bars by hot-pressing at 820/spl deg/C and 3 MPa. Critical current densities /spl ap/1000 A/cm/sup 2/ (critical currents of 750 A at 77 K in self-field conditions) were achieved.

Field of study: Physics
The $\varphi\dim$ of Cyclic Nakayama Algebras

K. Igusa and G. Todorov introduced $\varphi$ function which generalizes the notion of projective dimension. We study the behavior of the $\varphi$ functions for cyclic Nakayama algebras of infinite global dimension. We prove that it is always an even number. In particular we show that $\varphi$ dimension is 2 if and only if algebra satisfies certain symmetry conditions. Also we give a sharp upper bound for $\varphi\dim$ in terms of number of monomial relations which describes the algebra.

Field of study: Mathematics
Remembering race: White racial identity attitudes and two aspects of social memory.

This study investigated whether the White racial identity statuses proposed by J. E. Helms (1984, 1990, 1995) could explain individual differences in how racial stereotypes influence memory for race-related information as measured by memory sensitivity and response bias on a recognition memory task. Participants were 197 White undergraduate and graduate students who read 3 stimulus paragraphs embedded with Black and White stereotypical items. The race of the target character in the stimulus was randomly reported to be Black or White. After a 1-week interval, participants completed a measure of recognition memory, as well as a measure of White racial identity attitudes. Results offer support for the hypothesis that the White racial identity statuses influence how racial stereotypes affect information processing.

Field of study: Psychology