nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Exploring Post-traumatic Growth in Parkinson's Disease: A Mixed Method Study

Post-traumatic growth (PTG) may favor the psychological adaptation to chronic illnesses. However, few studies investigated PTG in Parkinson’s Disease (PD). This study aims to investigate PTG in patients with PD, by exploring disease-specific features and assessing its impact on distress, well-being, and quality of life. A mixed methodology with a convergent parallel design was used. 54 patients were classified according to their level of PTG (low PTG, medium PTG, and high PTG). PD patients with high PTG showed a more positive psychological adaptation and less distress when compared to patients with less PTG. Forty-nine patients were interviewed and their transcripts were analyzed using Thematic Analysis. The emerged themes confirmed the traditional dimensions of PTG model, but a specific theme connected to a new body awareness was identified. Patients with high PTG were more likely to report positive statements following PD diagnosis, particularly concerning spirituality and maintaining a good physical functioning. PTG presents peculiar characteristics in PD and it may favor a better psychological adjustment following the diagnosis.

Field of study: Psychology
Puralpha, a single-stranded DNA binding protein, suppresses the enhancer activity of cAMP response element (CRE).

Puralpha, a single-stranded DNA binding protein, recognizes a PUR element (GGN repeat). We have reported that Puralpha binds to a single-stranded oligonucleotide probe containing the cAMP response element (CRE) of rat somatostatin gene using a gel mobility shift assay. Here, we showed that Puralpha binds to the probe only in the presence of a PUR element by a more detailed characterization. We also examined the effects of Puralpha on the enhancer activity of the somatostatin CRE in PC12 cells using the reporter gene assay. Transfected Puralpha suppressed the CRE enhancer activity stimulated by forskolin (which increases intracellular cAMP), but suppression was not observed when the PUR element was deleted. The neurite extension induced by forskolin was inhibited by the transfection of Puralpha, but that by NGF was not suppressed. The c-fos mRNA induced by forskolin, but not by NGF, was also suppressed by Puralpha transfection. These results indicate that Puralpha suppresses the biological activities induced by forskolin, but not by NGF, in PC12 cells and that Puralpha could interfere with a cAMP-CRE signal pathway.

Field of study: Biology
Strategy Fading and Progress Feedback

This experiment investigated the effects of strategy verbalization with fading and strategy value feedback on children's achievement outcomes. Children with reading-skill deficiencies received instruction on locating main ideas. Children were taught and verbalized a strategy; some faded the verbalizations to inner speech. Half of the children in the fading and no-fading conditions periodically received feedback that linked strategy use with improved performance. The no-fading/nofeedback condition scored significantly lower than the other three conditions on posttest self-efficacy, comprehension skill, and self-reported strategy use. Fading plus feedback led to higher reported strategy use compared with the fading-only and feedback-only conditions and to higher comprehension skill compared with the feedback-only condition. These results support the idea that students receiving remedial reading services benefit from procedures that require extensive cognitive activity and that inform them about strategy usefulness. Research suggestions and implications of the results for educational practice are discussed.

Field of study: Education
Morphological and wavelet transforms for object detection and image processing.

We consider the problem of detecting multiple distorted objects in an input scene with clutter. The input scenes contain different types of background clutter and multiple objects in different classes, with different object aspect views, different object representations, hot/cold/bimodal/partial object variations, and high/low contrast object variations. Several new optical morphological operations for use in the above detection problem and in other general low-level image-processing applications are described, and several examples of their use are provided. For difficult detection problems in which high detection rates and low false-alarm rates are required we combine morphological operations and optical wavelet transforms to reduce clutter and improve object detection. The details of this set of filters and initial testresults are given. The most computationally demanding operations required in all cases are realizable on an optical correlator.

Field of study: Physics
Portraiture and Arithmetic in Sixteenth-Century Bavaria: Deciphering Barthel Beham’s Calculator *

In his portrait of an unidentified man (Vienna, 1529), Barthel Beham portrays the sitter paused in the midst of a math problem. As has been discovered, the numbers and symbols belong to the vocabulary of numerical calculation. This finding first raises the question of why a patron would want to be shown doing computation with Arabic numerals in a portrait. In 1529, numerical calculation was a commercial tool, not a field with humanistic/social cachet such as geometry. Further, the depicted computation does not make sense: the symbols and numbers are arranged in the form of a problem without actually being one. Yet the patron either did not notice or care. This article argues that the incomplete computation is not only a reflection of the contemporary status of mathematics using Arabic numbers, but also provides a way of understanding how the painting functioned as a portrait in the social milieu of the sixteenth-century Munich court.

Field of study: History
Tectonostratigraphy of Mino terrane: Jurassic accretionary complex of southwest Japan

The Mino terrane, a disrupted accretionary terrane in central Japan, consists of four fault-bounded mappable units of Mesozoic and Paleozoic unmetamorphosed sedimentary rocks. The four units are described as (1) Permian greenstone-carbonate-chert unit, (2) Lower Triassic to lowest Cretaceous siliceous pelagite-distal turbidite unit, (3) Middle Jurassic proximal turbidite unit, and (4) upper Lower Jurassic to lowest Cretaceous olistostrome-slump unit. The first unit is interpreted as a sedimentary cover which was formed on and around a seamount in an open-ocean setting. The second unit records the accumulation of deep-water radiolarian-rich sediments in a pelagic realm and a tapering wedge of trench turbidites. The third unit contains submarine fan sediments deposited in a possible trench-slope basin. The forth unit, labeled as sedimentary melange containing blocks derived from accretionary prisms, is considered to be submarine deposits which accumulated in a lower trench-slope basin to trench floor setting. An originally southward-vergent imbricate stacking of structural wedges of these four units characterizes the highly complicated structure of the Mino terrane rocks. Collision and subsequent offscraping accretion of Permian to Middle Jurassic oceanic rocks and Lower Jurassic to lowest Cretaceous clastic rocks provide the most satisfactory explanation for juxtaposition of the structural wedges of the four units which were originally laid down in largely different depositional sites. These tectonic events most probably took place during Early Jurassic to Early Cretaceous time along an active continental margin of East Asia.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
[Phylogenetic Analysis of the VP1 Region of Coxsackievirus A16 Strains Isolated in Anhui Province, 2014].

To study on the phylogenetic characterization of the VP1 genes of coxsackievirus A16 (CVA16) causing hand-food-mouth disease (HFMD) isolated from Anhui province in 2014. A total of 413 throat swab specimens from HFMD patients were collected during January to November, 2014 for the isolation and identification of enteroviruses using real-time RT-PCR assays. The VP1 regions of CVA16 isolates were amplified using RT-PCR and sequenced. And the phylogenetic tree was constructed among the VP1 regions of those isolates, the different genotypes and sub-genotypes of CVA16 strains. A total of 97 enteroviruses were isolated from 413 samples, the positive rate was 23.49% (97/413), including seventeen CVA16, seventy six HEV71 and four other enteroviruses. The results of the phylogenetic tree showed that 17.CVA16 strains isolated from Anhui in 2014 clustered within B1b evolution branch of B1 genotype. The nucleotide and amino acid sequence identities were 95.30%-100% and 98.70%-100% among the isolates, respectively, but within B1b branch of 17 strains formed several small transmission chains. The nucleotide acid of 17 CVA16 isolates in Anhui province were closed to the strains isolated from Yunnan, Hunan, Guangdong, Tibet and Jiangsu, especially from Hunan in 2013 and from Shenzhen of Guangdong in 2014, the identity were 96.40%-99.70%. The CVA16 strains isolated from Anhui in 2014 were all belong to genetic subtype B1b of B1 genotype was dominant, and among those isolates, several small virus transmission chains had formed with co-circulating and evolution.

Field of study: Biology
Phéromone synthésis-CXXXVII : A new synthesis of (+)-grandisol

The natural and (+)-enantiomer of grandisol [1, (1R,2S)-(+)-2-isopropenyl-1-methylcyclobutaneethanol] has been synthesized from (R)-(—)-carvone (2) by employing the intramolecular alkylation of 8 to give 9 as the key step.

Field of study: Chemistry
Grey Correlation Analysis on Relationships Between Mineral Elements and Cd Contents in Pleurotus geesteranus Fruit Body

The grey system theory was employed to analyze the relationships between mineral elements and Cd contents in P. geesteranus fruit body to provide a scientific basis for producing low Pb-content mushroom. The results showed that among 6 mineral elements, Zn content got the biggest correlation degree with the value of 0.730 5.It revealed that Zn content was the closest to Pb content, followed by K content, the final was Cu. The correlation degree order of varieties was Fuxiu 13 Fuxiu 5669 Fuxiu 43 Fuxiu 10 Fuxiu 132 Fuxiu 163Xiudi 1Xiu57 Fuxiu 69, among which, Fuxiu 13 and Fuxiu 5669 got the bigger correlation degree with the value of 0.790 4and 0.788 9 respectively, while Fuxiu 69 got the lowest correlation degree with the value of 0.575 2. It revealed that mineral elements contents had certain effects on Cd content in various P. geesteranus fruit body.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
MiR-499-5p Contributes to Hepatic Insulin Resistance by Suppressing PTEN

Type 2 diabetes afflicts 95% of diabetes patients. Recent data suggest that miRNAs play a key role in insulin production, secretion and function. This study aims to explore the specific role of miR-499-5p in hepatic insulin resistance.  The miRNA expression levels in the livers of db/db mice were analyzed using miRNA chips and were verified by real-time PCR. miR-499-5p mimics and an inhibitor were transfected into NCTC1469 cells. Then, the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and glycogen level were determined. The target genes of miR-499-5p were predicted by bioinformatics and then confirmed by dual luciferase reporter assay and Western blot. To establish an insulin resistance (IR) animal model, C57BL/6 mice were fed a high-fat diet (HFD). The level of miR-499-5p in the livers of HFD-fed mice was upregulated through tail vein injection of adenovirus vectors (ad) containing miR-499-5p mimics. The glucose tolerance test (GTT) and insulin tolerance test (ITT) were used to determine glucose tolerance and insulin tolerance, respectively.  MicroRNA chips and qPCR showed that miR-499-5p was significantly decreased in the livers of db/db mice. Downregulation of miR-499-5p impaired the insulin signaling pathway and glycogen synthesis, whereas upregulation of miR-499-5p promoted the insulin signaling pathway and glycogen synthesis in NCTC1469 cells. The dual luciferase reporter assay and Western blot demonstrated that PTEN was the target gene of miR-499-5p. Compared with the control group, miR-499-5p was increased 2.1-fold in the livers of HFD-fed mice. By tail vein injection of adenovirus vector containing miR-499-5p mimics, GTT and ITT were improved in HFD-fed mice.  Downregulation of the miR-499-5p level impaired the PI3K/AKT/GSK signaling pathway and glycogen synthesis by targeting PTEN.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry
Estimated change in tundra ecosystem function near Barrow, Alaska between 1972 and 2010

How the greening of Arctic landscapes manifests as a change in ecosystem structure and function remains largely unknown. This study investigates the likely implications of plant community change on ecosystem function in tundra near Barrow, Alaska. We use structural data from marked plots, established in 1972 and resampled in 1999, 2008 and 2010 to assess plant community change. Ecosystem functional studies were made close to peak growing season in 2008 and 2010 on destructive plots adjacent to marked plots and included measurement of land‐atmosphere CH4 and CO2 exchange, hyperspectral reflectance, albedo, water table height, soil moisture, and plant species cover and abundance. Species cover and abundance data from marked and destructive plots were analyzed together using non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMS) ordination. NMS axis scores from destructive plots were used to krig ecosystem function variables in ordination space and produce surface plots from which time series of functional attributes for resampled plots were derived. Generally, the greatest functional change was found in aquatic and wet plant communities, where productivity varied and soil moisture increased, increasing methane efflux. Functional change was minimal in moist and dry communities, which experienced a general decrease in soil moisture availability and appeared overall to be functionally more stable through time. Findings suggest that the Barrow landscape could have become less productive and less responsive to change and disturbance over the past few decades. This study is a contribution to the International Polar Year-Back to the Future Project (512).

Field of study: Environmental science
Information Processing Hierarchies

This paper characterizes optimal stationary hierarchies based on an information processing model introduced by Radner. We show how the delay, size (number of processors), capacity (the size of each cohort processed), and throughput (frequency of cohort arrival) are related and determine a feasibility frontier in the space of these variables. The structure of efficient hierarchies implementing the points on the feasibility frontier is also specified. These structures are always nonregular; i.e., every agent has subordinates from several different levels. The nature of the long accepted maxim of decreasing returns to scale in management hierarchies is demonstrated. When the production function of the hierarchy is taken to be the number of information items it can process, we find that returns to size and delay are always decreasing in efficient hierarchies, but these variables are complementary in the design problem. Finally, we discuss how the underlying abilities of the processors affect the marginal returns to size and delay.

Field of study: Economics
Assets Utilization and Performance of Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria

This study examined the effect of assets utilization on performance of selected manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Secondary data were collected from the annual report and accounts of the ten selected quoted firms for a period of five years spanning from 2012 to 2016. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analyses. The empirical results revealed that asset turnover(ATR) has positive and significant effect on return on assets (ROA) of the selected manufacturing firms as confirmed by the coefficient and probability value of 0.235999(p=0.0000). Current assets ratio also has positive and significant effect on return on assets with the coefficient of 0.109040 (p=0.0035) while debt assets ratio has negative but insignificant effect on return on assets. The overall coefficient of determination (R2)of 0.84951showed that about 85 % of the total variation in the ROA is explained by asset turnover (ATR), current ratio (CUR) and debt-assets ratio (DAR). The study concluded that assets utilization has positive and significant effect on the performance of manufacturing firms in Nigeria and therefore recommended that attention should be purposely paid to optimum asset utilization in the manufacturing firms in Nigeria.

Field of study: Business
Inferences on late-stage evolution of the Russell Lake Allochthon and the Soapstone Ridge Complex in Georgia, Southern Appalachians, based on chlorite geothermometry

Chlorite is a common mineral in most metamorphosed mafic and ultramafic rocks and the use of chlorite as a geothermometer was applied to rocks from the southern Appalachian Piedmont for this study. In particular, chlorite-bearing rocks from the Russell Lake Allochthon (RLA) and the Soapstone Ridge Complex (SSR) are the focus of this investigation. The RLA is composed of numerous metamorphosed mafic and ultramafic bodies exposed within rocks of the Carolina superterrane which forms part of the peri-Gondwana realm of the Southern Appalachians. The SSR is one of the largest metamorphosed mafic and ultramafic bodies in the southern Appalachians; it is in thrust contact with underlying rocks of the Piedmont domain, which forms part of the Iapetan realm of the Southern Appalachians. The metamorphosed bodies that comprise the RLA are generally small, with outcrop areas generally not exceeding a few square kilometers. In the RLA and SSR, chlorite occurs together with zoned amphiboles. In the RLA, chlorite exhibits low total iron atoms per formula unit and dominantly plots in the ripidolite field. In contrast, SSR chlorites are poorer in total iron and almost all are clinochlores. Results of chlorite geothermometry from rocks of the RLA yield temperatures which range from ~ 280 to ~ 320 °C, whereas chlorites from the SSR yield temperatures which range from ~ 201 to ~ 250 °C. These calculated temperatures indicate that chlorites in the RLA were formed at slightly higher temperatures in comparison to those from the SSR, which may suggest that these bodies were subjected to different late-stage metamorphic conditions and may also have originated under different tectonic settings. The RLA and SSR are approximately 100 km apart and a terrane boundary occurs between them; these bodies were each metamorphosed, and likely evolved, in different regions and each was later thrusted onto its country rocks during the final stages of the assembly of Pangea.

Field of study: Environmental science
Education for Citizenship: Ideas and Innovations in Political Learning.

Chapter 1 Education for Citizenship: Some Themes from Recent Innovations and Questions for the Future Chapter 2 Teaching American Politics Through Service: Reflections on a Pedagogical Strategy Chapter 3 Service Learning as Civic Learning: Lessons We Can Learn from Our Students Chapter 4 The Urban Agenda Project Chapter 5 Citizenship Courses as Life-Changing Experiences Chapter 6 Internships and Citizenship Chapter 7 Enhancing Citizenship Through Active Learning: Simulations on the Policy Process Chapter 8 Doing the Rights Thing: Tales of Citizenship and Free Speech Chapter 9 Teaching the Art of Public Deliberation: National Issues Forums on Campus Chapter 10 Democratizing the Classroom: The Individual Learning Contract Chapter 11 Wading in the Deep: Supporting Emergent Anarchies Chapter 12 Team-Taught Courses and Multidisciplinary Education for Citizenship Chapter 13 Using the Internet to Enhance Classroom and Citizenship Information Chapter 14 The Internet as a Tool for Student Citizenship

Field of study: Education
Composite Taste Recognition Method Based on Fuzzy Neural Network

In order to make recognition for the composite taste, the paper puts forward the research on the composite taste recognition method based on fuzzy neural network based on the wavelet transform. According to the wavelet transformation and the compression and extraction of the data of the taste signals that are collected by the sensor, we use the fuzzy neutral network as the recognition tool of the taste signal. Besides, we add genetic algorithm to make the function optimization for the network weights and the data processing and fuzzy recognition of the composite taste signal are presented. Finally, we make the test for the network performance. The results show that it has feasibility and effectiveness that the fuzzy neural network is introduced into the fuzzy identification of the taste signals.

Field of study: Computer science
Slow component suppression and γ radiation hardness of BaF_2 crystal modified by photonic band multilayer filter

On the basis of the different emission bands between the fast and slow components in BaF_2 crystal, the photonic band multilayer filter with 3.5 periods of Al_2O_3/MgF_2/Al/MgF_2... was designed and developed in order to suppress the slow component of the scintillation light in BaF_2. It is shown that the filter can increase more than 80 times of the ratio of the intensities of the fast emission to the slow one, while the transmission, emission and decay time spectra of BaF_2 crystal modified by the filter are not changed apparently after ~(60)Co γ-ray irradiation under the dose of 10~5 Gy. The results indicate that BaF_2 crystal modified by the filter can not only avoid the interference of the slow component effectively, but also keep the good radiation resistance.

Field of study: Physics
Adsorption of single-ring organic compounds to wood charcoals prepared under different thermochemical conditions.

Environmental black carbon (BC) is believed to be an important adsorbent of organic pollutants. In this study, we examined the effects of changes in surface properties and adsorbate structure. A series of apolar compounds (cyclohexane, 1,2-dichlorobenzene, 1,4-xylene, 1,2,3,5-tetramethylbenzene, 1,3,5-triethylbenzene) and a series of polar compounds (o-cresol, 4-nitrotoluene, 2,4-dinitrotoluene, and 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene) were sorbed from aqueous solution to maple wood char prepared under five thermochemical conditions. Two chars were prepared in air at 340 degrees C (C340) and 400 degrees C (C400). A subsample of C400 was treated with H2 in the presence of a supported Pt catalyst at 500 degrees C (C400-H) to remove surface O. Another was treated under N2 at 500 degrees C (C400-N) to serve as a control for C400-H. The reduced C400-H was further oxidized in air at 340 degrees C to reintroduce O (C400-H-A). The five chars vary in O content (26.1, 22.3, 4.2, 20.8, and 18.6 wt %, respectively) but show only minor differences in surface area and pore size distribution on the basis of N2 and CO2 adsorption analysis. These chars provide a basis for rationalizing sorption intensity as a function of sorbate molecular structure and surface chemistry. The following conclusions were drawn. (1) Polar interactions with surface O functional groups are not a significant driving force for adsorption. (2) When isotherms are adjusted for solute hydrophobicity (n-hexdecane-water partition coefficient), sorption intensity of the polar compounds is greater than that of the apolar compounds, possibly because of pi-pi EDA interactions of the polar compounds with the basal plane of the graphene sheets. (3) The largest test compounds show steric exclusion from a portion of the adsorption space available to the other compounds. (4) Removal of O functionality by hydrogenation enhances sorption intensity of polar and apolar compounds, alike by reducing competitive adsorption by water molecules.

Field of study: Environmental science