nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Early Pleistocene (Olduvai Subchron) vegetation and climate change based on palynological records from the Yinchuan Basin of northwestern China

Many recent studies focus on the relatively cold and humid interval during the Early Pleistocene Olduvai Subchron (1.95–1.77 Ma), but detailed environmental records for this interval are still rare. Here we present a high-resolution pollen record from the PL02 core (38°55′26.62″N, 106°36′3.82″E) from the Yinchuan Basin of northwestern China to reconstruct vegetation and infer climatic changes. Vegetation was dominated by desert steppe from 1.95 to 1.89 Ma suggesting a cold and dry climate. High percentages of Picea and Abies pollen indicate cold and humid conditions between 1.89 and 1.87 Ma while pollen percentages of broadleaved taxa increased rapidly between 1.87 and 1.84 Ma reflecting relatively warm and humid conditions. Palynological assemblages from 1.84 to 1.82 Ma reflect a colder and drier climate with an increase in xerophytic taxa and a decrease in conifers. Further increases of xerophytic taxa suggest a relatively cold and dry climate prevailed after 1.80 Ma. The new high-resolution palynological record suggests that environmental changes in the Yinchuan Basin are synchronous with global fluctuations. The inferred climate fluctuations show 20-kyr cycles during the Olduvai Subchron, supporting the view that climate changes in the study region were mainly controlled by orbital factors.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
Mechanisms of uremic suppression of appetite

Food intake is regulated by short-term satiety factors (gastric distension, amino acids, peptide hormones), as well as factors involved in long-term appetite regulation (leptin, insulin). Integration of the various signals takes place in the central nervous system (CNS). Appetite suppression in uremia is multifactorial and may include effects of uremia per se and of various comorbidity and psychosocial factors. Uremic anorexia is associated with elevated levels in plasma and CNS of short-term satiety factors (cholecystokinine, glucagon, serotonin, middle molecules) and factors that influence long-range regulation of appetite (leptin, insulin), but it is still unsettled to what extent these factors cause or contribute to appetite loss in uremic patients. Proinflammatory cytokines most probably also have a role in appetite suppression and malnutrition in patients with chronic renal failure.

Field of study: Medicine
Introduction to the special issue on circadian rhythms in behavioral neuroscience.

Circadian rhythms influence virtually every aspect of behavior. This special issue provides updates on the current state and future directions for the field of circadian rhythms in behavioral neuroscience. Recent data have linked circadian rhythms to behavioral and physiological phenomena and disease states in virtually every area of behavioral and biomedical science. Specifically, a growing interest in the cognitive, neuropsychiatric, and metabolic consequences of circadian rhythm disorders and dysfunction is emerging. This special issue is not intended to provide an exhaustive overview of the entire field of chronobiology or behavioral rhythms. Instead, we invited researchers from a variety of fields to critically review and integrate studies that address the roles of circadian rhythms in behavioral neuroscience. The papers included in this issue range from the molecular biology of clock genes to the behavior of free-living animals, and cover a wide variety of species ranging from insects, to rodents, to humans. As such, the reviews provide an overview of the burgeoning field of circadian rhythms within behavioral neuroscience.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Trifluoromethyl-substituted Photochromic Indolylfulgide. A Remarkably Durable Fulgide towards Photochemical and Thermal Treatments

An indolylfulgide having a 1-(1,2-dimethyl-3-indolyl)-2,2,2-trifluoroethylidene group on the succinic anhydride showed an excellent resistivity towards the repetition of photochromic transformation between the photostationary states of UV- and visible-light irradiation both in toluene and in a PMMA film under the atmospheric environment. The colored form also showed the remarkable thermal stability.

Field of study: Chemistry
14C-Carbaryl Residues in Hazelnut

A hazelnut ocak (shrub growing form) in the field in Black Sea region of Turkey was treated with commercial carbaryl insecticide spiked with 14C-carbaryl. Three months later, the harvested hazelnuts were separated into husk, shell, and kernel components, then homogenized and analyzed. The total and unextractable (bound) 14C-residues were determined by combustion and the extractable 14C-residues were obtained by extracting the samples with methanol. Concentrated extracts were first analyzed by thin layer chromatography (TLC). The extracts were also subjected to a series of liquid-liquid extraction procedures for clean-up and the final extracts were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Crude hazelnut oil was also extracted with hexane and analyzed for total 14C-residue. A total of 1.3% of applied radioactivity was recovered from the total nut harvested, with 0.04%, 0.06%, and 1.2% present in shell, kernel, and husk, respectively. The results show that the inedible husk and shell contained 95.7% 14C, whereas the edible kernel contained 4.3% of the total 14C recovered. The terminal 14C-residue in hazelnut kernel and oil did not contain carbaryl and/or its metabolite naphthol.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Ionic conductivity of low yttria-doped cubic zirconium oxide nitride single crystals

Low yttria-doped cubic zirconium oxide nitride single crystals with high nitrogen contents show unexpected high oxygen ion conductivity in a temperature range between 100 °C and 300 °C. The observed values are about two orders of magnitude higher than the conductivities for conventionally used 9.5 YSZ. This can be related to an optimal anion vacancy concentration within the oxide nitride material and the low activation energy of the vacancy-based conductivity process.

Field of study: Materials science
Metastatic spinal tumors.

Metastatic spinal tumors are the most common type of malignant lesions of the spine. Prompt diagnosis and identification of the primary malignancy is crucial to overall treatment. Numerous factors affect outcome including the nature of the primary cancer, the number of lesions, the presence of distant nonskeletal metastases, and the presence and/or severity of spinal cord compression. Initial management consists of chemotherapy, external beam radiotherapy, and external orthoses. Surgical intervention must be carefully considered in each case. Patients expected to live longer than 12 weeks should be considered as candidates for surgery. Indications for surgery include intractable pain, spinal cord compression, and the need for stabilization of impending pathological fractures. Whereas various surgical approaches have been advocated, anterior-approach surgery is the most accepted procedure for spinal cord decompression. Posterior approaches have also been used with success, but they require longer-length fusion. To obtain a stable fixation, the placement of instrumentation, in conjunction with judicious use of polymethylmethacrylate augmentation, is crucial. Preoperative embolization should be considered in patients with extremely vascular tumors such as renal cell carcinoma. Vertebroplasty, a newly described procedure in which the metastatic spinal lesions are treated via a percutaneous approach, may be indicated in selected cases of intractable pain caused by non- or minimally fractured vertebrae.

Field of study: Medicine
Irony and the moral order of secondary school classrooms

This paper describes how irony is used to negatively evaluate student behaviour in sequences where students disrupt or resist the official business of the lesson and thus challenge the teacher's authority. Irony-implicative utterances, i.e. utterances hearable as ironic in their context, are examined from two complementary perspectives: (i) the intricate interactional work utterances involve; how utterances are hearable as ironic and how participants negotiate their implications within the sequences of action in which the utterances are occasioned and used, and (ii) the use of irony in the local management of moral orders in the classroom. Findings show that irony-implicative utterances are used to deal with designedly cheeky utterances by students and invoke the boundaries of acceptable conduct especially at transitional phases during lessons. Irony can also be embedded in instructional questioning sequences, where it serves to convey disapproval or criticism for inappropriate student action. Finally, irony or sarcasm is used in conflictual exchanges to build opposition and manage resistance.

Field of study: Education, Linguistics
A shared component model for detecting joint and selective clustering of two diseases

The study of spatial variations in disease rates is a common epidemiological approach used to describe the geographical clustering of diseases and to generate hypotheses about the possible 'causes' which could explain apparent differences in risk. Recent statistical and computational developments have led to the use of realistically complex models to account for overdispersion and spatial correlation. However, these developments have focused almost exclusively on spatial modelling of a single disease. Many diseases share common risk factors (smoking being an obvious example) and, if similar patterns of geographical variation of related diseases can be identified, this may provide more convincing evidence of real clustering in the underlying risk surface. We propose a shared component model for the joint spatial analysis of two diseases. The key idea is to separate the underlying risk surface for each disease into a shared and a disease-specific component. The various components of this formulation are modelled simultaneously by using spatial cluster models implemented via reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. We illustrate the methodology through an analysis of oral and oesophageal cancer mortality in the 544 districts of Germany, 1986–1990.

Field of study: Mathematics
Properties of Bi(Pb)-2223 precursor powders calcined in reduced oxygen partial pressure

The performance of Ag/Bi-2223 superconducting tapes is affected by complex processing parameters, especially by the characteristics of the precursor powder, i.e., the nominal stoichiometry, phase assemblage, purity, particle size and distribution, etc. Calcination in a low oxygen partial pressure (3 torr oxygen) resulted in a reactive precursor powder by the accelerated decomposition of the carbonates. In addition, the type of second phase and the distribution of lead in this precursor powder are different compared to those of the powder calcined in atmospheric air. Ag/Bi-2223 tapes have been fabricated and the phase evolution, critical current density, and microstructure of the two tapes have been compared.

Field of study: Physics
Helicobacter pylori infection and the risk of colorectal cancer: a nationwide population-based cohort study.

The role of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection in the development of colorectal neoplasia has been a matter of scientific debate with controversial findings.



This study examined the association between H. pylori infection and colorectal cancer (CRC) in a nationwide population-based Chinese cohort study.



A total of approximately 3,936 individuals with newly diagnosed H. pylori infection (the H. pylori-infected cohort) and 15,744 age- and sex-matched patients with diagnoses absence of H. pylori infection (the comparison cohort) from 2000 to 2005 were identified from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. The Kaplan-Meier method was used for measuring the cumulative incidence of CRC in each cohort. Cox proportional hazards models were used to compute hazards ratios (HRs) and accompanying 95% CIs for the estimation of the association between H. pylori infection and CRC.



The cumulative incidence of CRC was higher in H. pylori-infected cohort than that in the comparison cohort (log rank test, P < .001). After adjustment for potential confounders, H. pylori infection was associated with a significantly increased risk of CRC (adjusted HR = 1.87, 95% CI = 1.37-2.57). In addition, the HR of CRC appeared to increase with increasing frequency of clinical visits for H. pylori infection.



Our study demonstrated that H. pylori infection was associated with an increased risk of CRC, which warrants confirmation and exploration of the underlying biologic mechanisms by future studies.

Field of study: Medicine
Comparing satellite- to ground-based automated and manual cloud coverage observations – a case study

In this case study we compare cloud fractional cover measured by radiometers on polar satellites (AVHRR) and on one geostationary satellite (SEVIRI) to ground-based manual (SYNOP) and automated observations by a cloud camera (Hemispherical Sky Imager, HSI). These observations took place in Hannover, Germany, and in Lauder, New Zealand, over time frames of 3 and 2 months, respectively. Daily mean comparisons between satellite derivations and the ground-based HSI found the deviation to be 6 ± 14% for AVHRR and 8 ± 16% for SEVIRI, which can be considered satisfactory. AVHRR's instantaneous differences are smaller (2 ± 22%) than instantaneous SEVIRI cloud fraction estimates (8 ± 29%) when compared to HSI due to resolution and scenery effect issues. All spaceborne observations show a very good skill in detecting completely overcast skies (cloud cover g 6 oktas) with probabilities between 92 and 94% and false alarm rates between 21 and 29% for AVHRR and SEVIRI in Hannover, Germany. In the case of a clear sky (cloud cover lower than 3 oktas) we find good skill with detection probabilities between 72 and 76%. We find poor skill, however, whenever broken clouds occur (probability of detection is 32% for AVHRR and 12% for SEVIRI in Hannover, Germany). In order to better understand these discrepancies we analyze the influence of algorithm features on the satellite-based data. We find that the differences between SEVIRI and HSI cloud fractional cover (CFC) decrease (from a bias of 8 to almost 0%) with decreasing number of spatially averaged pixels and decreasing index which determines the cloud coverage in each "cloud-contaminated" pixel of the binary map. We conclude that window size and index need to be adjusted in order to improve instantaneous SEVIRI and AVHRR estimates. Due to its automated operation and its spatial, temporal and spectral resolution, we recommend as well that more automated ground-based instruments in the form of cloud cameras should be installed as they cover larger areas of the sky than other automated ground-based instruments. These cameras could be an essential supplement to SYNOP observation as they cover the same spectral wavelengths as the human eye.

Field of study: Environmental science
Use and Misuse of the MMPI in Multiple Sclerosis

A corrected profile for multiple-sclerosis-related symptoms was developed for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). 64 multiple sclerosis (definite) patients' original and multiple sclerosis-corrected MMPI profiles were compared. Scale 1 (Hypochondriasis), Scale 3 (Hysteria), and Scale 8 (Schizophrenia) were significantly lowered when items relating to multiple-sclerosis symptomatology were deleted. The multiple sclerosis-corrected profile improved Shaw-Matthew's Pseudoneurological Scale's effectiveness in differentiating multiple sclerosis patients from pseudoneurotic patients. The need for symptom-correction scores for other neurological disorders is emphasized.

Field of study: Psychology
Sevoflurane postconditioning protects against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury by restoring autophagic flux via an NO-dependent mechanism

Volatile anesthetics improve postischemic cardiac function and reduce infarction even when administered for only a brief time at the onset of reperfusion. A recent study showed that sevoflurane postconditioning (SPC) attenuated myocardial reperfusion injury, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we examined the effects of sevoflurane on nitric oxide (NO) release and autophagic flux during the myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in rats in vivo and ex vivo. Male rats were subjected to 30 min ischemia and 2 h reperfusion in the presence or absence of sevoflurane (1.0 minimum alveolar concentration) during the first 15 min of reperfusion. We found that SPC significantly improved hemodynamic performance after reperfusion, alleviated postischemic myocardial infarction, reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide content loss, and cytochrome c release in heart tissues. Furthermore, SPC significantly increased the phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and neuronal nitric oxide synthase, and elevated myocardial NOS activity and NO production. All these effects were abolished by treatment with an NOS inhibitor NG-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME, 10 mg/kg, i.v.). We also observed myocardial I/R-induced accumulation of autophagosomes in heart tissues, as evidenced by increased ratios of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 II/I, up-regulation of Beclin 1 and P62, and reduced lysosome-associated membrane protein-2 expression. SPC significantly attenuated I/R-impaired autophagic flux, which were blocked by l-NAME. Moreover, pretreatment with the autophagic flux blocker chloroquine (10 mg/kg, i.p.) increased autophagosome accumulation in SPC-treated heart following I/R and blocked SPC-induced cardioprotection. The same results were also observed in a rat model of myocardial I/R injury ex vivo, suggesting that SPC protects rat hearts against myocardial reperfusion injury by restoring I/R-impaired autophagic flux via an NO-dependent mechanism.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry, Medicine
No Home for Housing: The Situation of the Commonwealth's Housing Policy Advisory Function

The Commonwealth's policy capacity with regard to housing policy and provision has been erratic and patchy. Partly this is because housing was not traditionally a formal Commonwealth responsibility but something in which Commonwealth governments episodically intervened, and partly it was because Commonwealth ministers often did not exercise demand for policy advice in this area. When policy capacity was exercised it tended to define housing narrowly as a welfare initiative, thereby limiting its conception and excluding other important questions and problems involved with housing as a policy domain. This trajectory meant that the advisory deficiencies of the Commonwealth were often exposed at exactly those times when they were most needed. It also meant that the Commonwealth lacked the detailed knowledge and understanding of housing issues when it was called upon to deliver various programs. The article argues that the Commonwealth needs to adopt a more strategic housing policy that addresses longer term needs as well as the economic, social and environmental consequences of its housing policy.

Field of study: Political science
Clustering Segmentation of Ferrography Based on Gabor Transform and Fractal Feature

Aiming at the segmentation problem of ferrography,and making full use of ferrography fractal feature,clustering segmentation algorithm that based on Gabor transform and fractal feature was put forward. After being filtered by Gabor filter bank,multi-scale and multi-orientation filtered images were got. Fractal feature of every image was calculated,pulsing grey feature,ferrography feature vector was acquired. In order to decrease the dimension of features greatly and reduce the complexity of computation,the kernel principal component analysis method was used. Then the fuzzy C-means clustering method was employed to achieve ferrography segmentation. At last,example shows that the proposed algorithm can make full use of fractal feature differences between wear particle,wear particle chain and background area,and can segment ferrography quickly and accurately.

Field of study: Computer science
Suspended Fictions: Reading Novels by Manuel Puig, and: Novel Lives: The Fictional Autobiographies of Guillermo Cabrera Infante and Mario Vargas Llosa, and: Social Realism in the Argentine Narrative, and: Questing Fictions: Latin America's Family Romance (review)

P, 1987. 266 pp. $21.95. Rosemary Geisdorfer Feal.  The Fictional Autobiographies of Guillermo Cabrera Infante and Mario Vargas Llosa. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1986. 175 pp. pb. $12.00. David William Foster. Social Realism in the Argentine Narrative. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1986. 159 pp. pb. $12.00. Djelal Kadir.  Latin America's Family Romance.  U of Minnesota P, 1986. 150 pp. $29.50; pb. $12.95.

Field of study: Art
Widely Linear MVDR Beamformers for the Reception of an Unknown Signal Corrupted by Noncircular Interferences

For nonstationary observations, potentially second-order (SO) noncircular, the SO optimal complex filters are time variant (TV) and, under some conditions of noncircularity, widely linear (WL). Moreover, for applications such as spectrum monitoring or passive listening, the sources' waveforms are unknown and no training sequence or spreading code is a priori available. In this context, this paper aims at introducing the time invariant (TI) WL minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamformer for the optimal reception of an unknown signal, whose waveform is unknown but whose steering vector is known, corrupted by potentially noncircular interferences. Its properties, performance, and adaptive implementation in noncircular contexts are analyzed in this paper. This optimal beamformer is shown to always improve, in the steady state, the performance of the well-known Capon's beamformer for noncircular interferences. Moreover, it should be noticed that this optimal beamformer allows the processing of up to 2 (N-1) rectilinear interferences from an array of N sensors. Finally, at the end of this paper, a TV extension of this TI WL MVDR beamformer is presented to process SO noncircular interferences having a nonnull carrier residue or frequency offset.

Field of study: Engineering
Pedagogical Reasoning in Teacher Education: The Unexplored Route to Intellectual Development--A Study of the Practicum in Kenya.

In this paper, I argue that when teacher education (TE) only aims at student teachers’ mastery of procedural knowledge, the envisaged intellectual development that teachers need so that they can, in turn, facilitate similar development in their learners cannot be realised. My argument is based on a study I conducted in Kenya, in which I investigated what English language student teachers learn during the practicum and the issues that influence their learning. Generally, the data showed that they mainly acquired procedural knowledge but failed to develop pedagogical reasoning, which - arguably - ought to be the main goal of TE.  Reasoning, education, learning, practicum, development

Field of study: Education