nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Myocardial connexin43 expression in left ventricular hypertrophy resulting from aortic regurgitation.

Intercellular conduction in the working myocardium of the mammalian heart is mediated by gap junctions composed of connexin43 or 45. Recently, it has been shown that myocardial connexin expression is malleable and may be altered with disease. To better understand myocardial conduction in left ventricular hypertrophy resulting from volume overload, we used indirect immunofluorescence microscopy to examine cardiac connexin43 expression in 10 New Zealand white rabbits with surgically induced aortic regurgitation (AR) and in 10 age-matched sham-operated controls. Animals were sacrificed at approximately 1 month or > or =2.5 years after operation. All AR animals developed eccentric hypertrophy; none evidenced heart failure. The heart-to-body weight ratios for the 1 month AR and control groups were 2.9+/-0.8 vs 1.8+/-0.2 g/kg (p < or = 0.01) while ratios for the > or =2.5 year AR and control groups were 2.4+/-0.3 vs 1.9+/-0.3 (p < or = 0.05). No significant differences in posterior wall thickness were found among any of the groups. Although the overall pattern of connexin43-like immunoreactivity was similar for all four groups, staining in the I month AR animals tended to be less than that of age-matched controls; staining was increased in the > or =2.5 year AR animals and was greater than control (p < 0.05), in which staining did not change with animal age. This disease duration-related increase differs from the long-term decrease in connexin43 expression associated with other forms of heart disease and suggests that alterations in connexin expression may play a role in the rhythm abnormalities commonly seen in AR.

Field of study: Biology, Medicine
Calibrated Surrogate Losses for Classification with Label-Dependent Costs

We present surrogate regret bounds for arbitrary surrogate losses in the context of binary classification with label-dependent costs. Such bounds relate a classifier's risk, assessed with respect to a surrogate loss, to its cost-sensitive classification risk. Two approaches to surrogate regret bounds are developed. The first is a direct generalization of Bartlett et al. [2006], who focus on margin-based losses and cost-insensitive classification, while the second adopts the framework of Steinwart [2007] based on calibration functions. Nontrivial surrogate regret bounds are shown to exist precisely when the surrogate loss satisfies a "calibration" condition that is easily verified for many common losses. We apply this theory to the class of uneven margin losses, and characterize when these losses are properly calibrated. The uneven hinge, squared error, exponential, and sigmoid losses are then treated in detail.

Field of study: Computer science
FABRY-PEROT RESONANCES AT SMALL FRESNEL NUMBERS

A theory of Fabry-Perot resonances designed to be useful at small Fresnel numbers is given. This theory is applied to the case where the interferometer mirrors are of arbitrary curvature and have circular apertures. Asymptotic formulas are derived for the diffraction output and phase shifts in the limit of small Fresnel numbers. These formulas demonstrate the mode discrimination properties of the interferometers when operated in this regime. Numerical results are presented covering a wider range of Fresnel numbers.

Field of study: Physics
A novel biosensor system for the determination of phosphate

A highly sensitive biosensor system has been developed for phosphate detection. This biosensor system is based on the pyruvate oxidase reaction and a subsequent luminol chemiluminescence reaction. Hydrogen peroxide generated by pyruvate oxidase reacts with luminol catalyzed by an immobilized peroxidase. The resulting chemiluminescence is detected by a photomultiplier. This system uses a flow injection analysis (FIA) system resulting in the rapid determination of phosphate, taking approximately 3 min for one measurement. A linear response was observed from 0.37 μM to 7.4 μM phosphate while the detection limit was 74 nM. This sensitivity is sufficient to determine the maximum permissible phosphate concentration of the natural waters of Japan (0.32 μM). The pyruvate oxidase immobilized column gave a stable response over a period of 2 weeks when stock solutions were analyzed.

Field of study: Biology, Engineering
The Event of the Photograph: Black Consciousness from the Wall of Respect '67 to FESTAC '77

Romi Crawford explores the affective bonds that ensue from scenes of collective black consciousness. She launches her article on the premise that each event has unique and complicated pre-stories that are harder to get to, but awareness of which helps in better understanding both the vision and effort that have gone into manufacturing and formalizing a global black consciousness. The author offers a case that directly links the global articulation of black consciousness in Lagos, Nigeria, at the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC '77) with an earlier, local articulation of black consciousness on Chicago's South Side in 1967 in order to illustrate how local dimensions of black consciousness relate to the making of a global black consciousness. Crawford's starting point is a photo archive of Bob Crawford, her father, a photographer who worked in the reportage vein in Chicago in the 1960s and early '70s. The elder Crawford traveled to Lagos, Nigeria, in 1977 for FESTAC as part of the delegation of American artists who were invited to attend. Ten years before his FESTAC experience he had been active photographing at the Wall of Respect, a mural at 43rd and Langley in Chicago made by the Organization of Black American Culture that expressed the ethos of black liberation. In looking at the relationship between these two particular events, Crawford considers how the photographic representation of gatherings of black people and congresses is significant and even serves to perpetuate future occasions. The photo documents that report these gatherings are important in themselves to black consciousness making and very much part of its apparatus.

Field of study: Art
Marine and continental water contributions to a hypersaline basin using diatom ecology, sedimentology and stable isotopes: an example in the Late Miocene of the Mediterranean (Hellin Basin, southern Spain)

A multidisciplinary approach including diatom ecology, petrography and stable isotopes of carbonates and sulfates is applied to reconstruct the conditions of evaporitic deposition in the Hellin Basin. The Hellin Basin is one of many similar restricted basins that evolved in this region just after the emplacement of the Betic thrust complex. These studies show that continental conditions prevailed in a restricted shallow basin during the evapoitic deposition. Episodic marine flooding, however, is indicated by diatom assemblages of diatomite layers intercalated in thick continental gypsum deposits which represent the last stage of concentration, controlled by arid climate. Isotope data indicate a continental origin of the sulfate ions, which were probably supplied to the basin by continental waters enriched in sulfates from the weathered Triassic evaporites. So, during this time, the basin evolved into a continental drainage system with hypersaline magnesian conditions (dolomite dominant). Aqueous sulfate from Triassic sources is affected by bacterial sulfate reduction, but was further reoxydized as sulfate in oxydized fresh water. The importance of sulfate bacterial reduction indicates abundant organic matter and high organic productivity; it indicates anoxic condition in the bottom sediment and possible episodes of water stagnation. This total sedimentologic and diagenetic picture, together with excellent paleoenvironmental (diatom) control reflects the complexity of the basin filling within the intramontane basins of the Betic Chain.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
Monoclonal antibodies against the 43,000 Da glycoprotein from Paracoccidioides brasiliensis modulate laminin-mediated fungal adhesion to epithelial cells and pathogenesis.

The surface glycoprotein gp43, a highly immunogenic component of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, is used in the serodiagnosis of paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) and has recently been shown to specifically bind the extracellular matrix protein laminin. Binding to laminin induces the increased adhesion of the fungus to epithelial cells; a hamster testicle infection model has shown that the gp43-dependent binding of fungal cells to laminin enhances their pathogenicity in vivo. We report on the production and characterization of 12 monoclonal antibodies against the gp43 that recognize peptide sequences in the molecule detecting at least three different epitopes as well as different isoforms of this antigen. MAbs interfered in the fungal pathogenicity in vivo either by inhibiting or enhancing granuloma formation and tissue destruction. Results suggest that P. brasiliensis propagules may start infection in man by strongly adhering to human lung cells. Thus, laminin-mediated fungal adhesion to human lung carcinoma (A549) cells was much more intense than to Madin-Darby canine kidney cells (MDCK), indicating differences in binding affinity. Subsequent growth of fungi bound to the lung cells could induce the granulomatous inflammatory reaction characteristic of PCM. Both steps are greatly stimulated by laminin binding in infective cells expressing gp43.

Field of study: Biology
The Interaction of Fine Particles with Stranded Oil

The interaction of micron-sized mineral particles with stranded oil reduces its adhesion to solid surfaces, such as sediments or bedrock. The net result is the formation of stable, micron-sized, oil droplets that disperse into the water column. In turn, the increase in surface area makes the oil more available for biodegradation. Oil and Fine-particle Interaction ("OFI") can explain how oiled shorelines are cleaned naturally in the absence of wave action in very sheltered coastal environments. Fine-particle interaction can be accelerated during a spill response by relocating the oiled sediments into the surf zone. This has been achieved successfully on two occasions to date: the Tampa Bay response in Florida, and the Sea Empress operation in Wales. Sediment relocation also causes physical abrasion by the hydraulic action of waves so that the processes of fine-particle interaction and surf washing usually occur in combination on open coasts.

Field of study: Chemistry
Design of sampling plan using auxiliary information

In this manuscript, a variable sampling decision rule for product acceptance is proposed when the additional or auxiliary information is available for the quality characteristics under study. The auxiliary information is usually correlated with the quality characteristics and so the regression estimator is used to develop the proposed sampling plan. To find the plan parameters, the two-point approach is adopted such that producer's risk and consumer's risk are satisfied. The advantage of the proposed plan is discussed with the usual single plan without auxiliary information. Tables are given for practical uses and explained with the help of industrial examples.

Field of study: Mathematics
Sample size increase during a survival trial when interim results are promising

This paper is to extend Mehta and Pocock (2011) to provide a way in doing sample size increase in survival trials. Sample space is divided by observed test statistic at interim into three zones: unfavorable, promising, and favorable, within which sample size (required number of events) has a proper increase if falling into the promising zone and otherwise remains unchanged. Simulations with scenarios in the presence/absence of censoring, with/without adaptation, and allowing fourfolds versus twofolds of increase in sample size are compared.

Field of study: Mathematics
Determination of oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur-containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in urban stream sediments.

Recent studies indicate that PAH transformation products such as ketone or quinone-substituted PAHs (OPAHs) are potent aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) activators that elicit toxicological effects independent of those observed for PAHs. Here, we measured eight OPAHs, two sulfur-containing (SPAH), one oxygen-containing (DBF), and one nitrogen-containing (CARB) heterocyclic PAHs (i.e. ΣONS-PAHs = OPAH8 + SPAH + DBF + CARB) in 35 stream sediments collected from a small (∼1303 km(2)) urban watershed located in south-central Pennsylvania, USA. Combined ΣONS-PAH concentrations ranged from 59 to 1897 μg kg(-1) (mean = 568 μg kg(-1); median = 425 μg kg(-1)) and were 2.4 times higher in urban versus rural areas, suggesting that activities taking place on urban land serve as a source of ΣONS-PAHs to sediments. To evaluate urban land use metrics that might explain these data, Spearman rank correlation analyses was used to evaluate the degree of association between ΣONS-PAH concentrations and urban land-use/land-cover metrics along an urban-rural transect at two spatial scales (500-m and 1000-m upstream). Combined ΣONS-PAH concentrations showed highly significant (p < 0.0001) correlations with ΣPAH19, residential and commercial/industrial land use (RESCI), and combined state and local road miles (MILES), suggesting that ΣONS-PAHs originate from similar sources as PAHs. To evaluate OPAH sources, a subset of ΣONS-PAHs for which reference assemblages exist, an average OPAH fractional assemblage for urban sediments was derived using agglomerative hierarchal cluster (AHC) analysis, and compared to published OPAH source profiles. Urban sediments from the Condoguinet Creek (n = 21) showed highly significant correlations with urban particulate matter (X(2) = 0.05, r = 0.91, p = 0.0047), suggesting that urban particulate matter is an important OPAH source to sediments in this watershed. Results suggest the inclusion of ΣONS-PAH measurements adds value to traditional PAH analyses, and may help elucidate and refine pollutant source identification in urban watersheds.

Field of study: Environmental science
Shakespeare and Language (review)

Heinemann (44), Mark Matheson (48), Paul Franssen (54), Günter Walch (40), John Drakakis (44), Terence Hawkes (40), E. Pearlman (39), and Barbara Hodgdon (52). Put bluntly, this book offers no new work. Libraries that buy it will, in most cases, already own all it contains; but some individual readers will no doubt find having these articles together convenient. Taken together, the authors represented touch on most of the Shakespeare canon; but the lion’s share of their attention is given to Coriolanus above all, and to a lesser extent, to Richard II, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Henry VIII, Henry V, 2 Henry VI, Measure for Measure, Othello, and Hamlet. In addition, two chapters focus on Shakespeare on film, specifically film versions of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. “Politics” is a big umbrella. Given the miscellaneous gathering here of widely divergent articles and the easy accessibility of these articles in nearly any research library (one third have appeared together already in the 1992 number of Shakespeare Survey), it might have been a better service to scholars to have done something quite different. At the very least, perhaps a more thematically focused gathering (for example, on republicanism vs. monarchy in Shakespeare) would have better justified a new book, especially if it had pulled together pieces from a wider and less-available set of sources. JOHN BIENZ Mount Union College

Field of study: History
AST Spectrometer of Charged Particles, Based on Strip Semiconductor Detectors for Radiation Measurements

The AST is the next step of the SilEye experiment. It is dedicated to the systematic measurement of the nuclear component of cosmic ray and radiation environment investigation on board of the International Space Station (ISS). The objective of this project are the measurements of flux and nuclear component of cosmic rays, the spatial and time characteristics of cosmic ionizing radiation fields in range of linear transfers of energy ˜ 10-1 - 103 KeV/m inside ISS. The instrument consists of 8 silicon strip detectors and two scintillation counters. Each silicon strip detector (8cm*8cm and 380 mm thick) has 32 strips with 2.5 mm wideness. The distance between two neighbor planes is 1.5 cm. The couple of 1 mm thickness scintillation counters are producing trigger pulse, which starts the data acquisition system to read silicon strip detectors information. The beam test of the telescope prototype was curried out in Svedberg Laboratory of Uppsala University.

Field of study: Physics
A stochastic model for the Iberoatlantic sardine fishery. Global warming and economic effects

The literature of natural resources has made wide use of deterministic dynamic models to optimally manage marine fishery resources. However, the ever-changing weather condition and, most importantly, the warming of ocean waters have a significant impact on the evolution of fishery resources. In fact, the latter of the two is a significant random component closely linked to climate change. This paper uses sea surface temperature (from here on SST) to explain the dynamics of the ecosystem biomass in stochastic growth. Observations of SST, biomass, catch and effort in the area of the Atlantic waters bathing the Iberian Peninsula are used to implement the stochastic dynamic optimization theory in a model of production to obtain optimal results for all of these variables in the short and medium term.

Field of study: Environmental science
Labouring against Neoliberalism: Unions and Patterns of Reform in Latin America

In recent years Latin American countries have enacted sweeping privatisation measures and major trade, financial and tax reforms, but they have moved much more slowly to reform their pension systems and labour laws. This pattern of reform partly reflects differences in the intensity of organised labour's opposition to the reforms. Organised labour has undertaken greater efforts to block labour law reforms and, to a lesser extent, pension reforms, because these measures impose severe losses on more unions than other types of reforms. These greater efforts, moreover, have had significant effects on policy outcomes. The article shows how organised labour reacted quite differently to various types of market-oriented reforms in Argentina and Mexico in the 1990s, and describes how the reaction of the unions helped shape the fate of the reform proposals.

Field of study: Political science
Indium- and tungsten-doped ZnGa2O4 phosphor

This paper describes the optical characteristics of indium- and tungsten-doped ZnGa2O4 phosphor for field emission display (FED). The solid-state reaction is used to synthesize the phosphor powder, and the phosphor film is prepared by electrophoresis. Indium doping enhances the luminescence of ZnGa2O4 phosphor; nevertheless, the emission of phosphor doped by tungsten shifts to the short wavelength region. From the measurement of the cathodoluminescence (CL), it reveals that the luminescence of the phosphor film is improved when it is annealed in an O2/Ar atmosphere. A luminance of 2,080 cd/m2 is obtained as the phosphor film is excited at an electron voltage of 5 kV and an anode current of 30 µA.

Field of study: Materials science
Complementary and alternative medications consumed by renal patients in southern Germany.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is frequently used in the general population, yet scant data are available regarding the prevalence of these medications in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD).



To survey patients with ESRD regarding their use of CAM and health foods.



Consecutive patients treated with dialysis or renal transplantation for ESRD were approached by nephrologists of 5 renal centers to report their usage of and knowledge on CAM and health foods by answering a questionnaire. Of 180 approached patients, 164 returned completed questionnaires for analysis.



Fifty-seven percent of dialysis patients and 49% of transplant patients reported to be regular CAM-consumers. CAM consumption was positively associated with female sex and negatively with diabetes as comorbidity. Forty-one different CAM products had been named, with mineral supplements and vitamins ranking first. Besides CAM, many renal patients had regularly consumed herbal teas and citrus-juices (50% and 35%, respectively). Close to 40% of the documented CAM/health food consumptions have potential risks for patients because of constituents that either accumulate in renal failure or interact with pharmaceutical medication. However, only about 50% of dialysis patients, but 73% of transplant patients used to inform their physicians about CAM consumption (P = .005). Awareness about interaction risks linked to CAM was especially low in dialysis patients when compared to transplant patients (39% versus 78%, P < .0001) and increased when physicians had routinely questioned patients about their CAM consumption. Currently, however, patients reported that only a minority of physicians had taken an active interest into consumption of these substances.



Consumption of CAM and health food is common among renal patients. Physicians are currently not adequately informed about CAM consumption by their patients. Because many products are at risk to either accumulate or cause interactions with medication, physicians should take an active role to inform themselves.

Field of study: Medicine
Rise and fall of molecular clouds across the M33 disk

We carried out deep searches for CO line emission in the outer disk of M33, at R>7 kpc, and examined the dynamical conditions that can explain variations in the mass distribution of the molecular cloud throughout the disk of M33. We used the IRAM-30~m telescope to search for CO lines in the outer disk toward 12 faint mid-infrared (MIR) selected sources and in an area of the southern outer disk hosting MA1, a bright HII region. We detect narrow CO lines at the location of two MIR sources at galactocentric distances of about 8 kpc that are associated with low-mass young stellar clusters, and at four locations in the proximity of MA1. The paucity of CO lines at the location of weak MIR-selected sources probably arises because most of them are not star-forming sites in M33, but background sources. Although very uncertain, the total molecular mass of the detected clouds around MA1 is lower than expected given the stellar mass of the cluster, because dispersal of the molecular gas is taking place as the HII region expands. The mean mass of the giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in M33 decreases radially by a factor 2 from the center out to 4 kpc, then it stays constant until it drops at R>7 kpc. We suggest that GMCs become more massive toward the center because of the fast rotation of the disk, which drives mass growth by coalescence of smaller condensations as they cross the arms. The analysis of both HI and CO spectral data gives the consistent result that corotation of the two main arms in this galaxy is at a radius of 4.7+-0.3 kpc, and spiral shock waves become subsonic beyond 3.9 kpc. Perturbations are quenched beyond 6.5 kpc, where CO lines have been detected only around sporadic condensations associated with UV and MIR emission.

Field of study: Physics