nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
MRI T2 Mapping of Knee Articular Cartilage Using Different Acquisition Sequences and Calculation Methods at 1.5 Tesla

This study aims to determine how magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) acquisition techniques and calculation methods affect T2 values of knee cartilage at 1.5 tesla and to identify sequences that can be used for high-resolution T2 mapping in short scanning times.  This study was performed on phantom and 29 patients who underwent MRI of the knee joint at 1.5 tesla. The protocol includes T2 mapping sequences based on Single-Echo Spin Echo (SESE), Multi-Echo Spin Echo (MESE), Fast Spin Echo (FSE) and Turbo Gradient Spin Echo (TGSE). The T2 relaxation times were quantified and evaluated using three calculation methods (MapIt, Syngo Offline and mono-exponential fit). signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) were measured in all sequences. All statistical analyses were performed using the t-test.  The average T2 values in phantom were 41.7 ± 13.8 ms for SESE, 43.2 ± 14.4 ms for MESE, 42.4 ± 14.1 ms for FSE and 44 ± 14.5 ms for TGSE. In the patient study, the mean differences were 6.5 ± 8.2 ms, 7.8 ± 7.6 ms and 8.4 ± 14.2 ms for MESE, FSE and TGSE compared to SESE, respectively; these statistical results were not significantly different (p > 0.05). The comparison between the three calculation methods showed no significant difference (p > 0.05). The t-test showed no significant difference between SNR values for all sequences.  T2 values depend not only on the sequence type but also on the calculation method. None of the sequences revealed significant differences compared to the SESE reference sequence. TGSE with its short scanning time can be used for high-resolution T2 mapping.

Field of study: Medicine
Analyzing Length-Biased Data With Semiparametric Transformation and Accelerated Failure Time Models

Right-censored time-to-event data are often observed from a cohort of prevalent cases that are subject to length-biased sampling. Informative right censoring of data from the prevalent cohort within the population often makes it difficult to model risk factors on the unbiased failure times for the general population, because the observed failure times are length biased. In this paper, we consider two classes of flexible semiparametric models: the transformation models and the accelerated failure time models, to assess covariate effects on the population failure times by modeling the length-biased times. We develop unbiased estimating equation approaches to obtain the consistent estimators of the regression coefficients. Large sample properties for the estimators are derived. The methods are confirmed through simulations and illustrated by application to data from a study of a prevalent cohort of dementia patients.

Field of study: Mathematics
Current-phase relationship, thermal and quantum phase slips in superconducting nanowires made on a scaffold created using adhesive tape.

Quantum phase slippage (QPS) in a superconducting nanowire is a new candidate for developing a quantum bit [Mooij et al.  2005, 7, 219; Mooij et al.  2006, 2, 169; Khlebnikov  2007]. It has also been theoretically predicted that the occurrence of QPS significantly changes the current-phase relationship (CPR) of the wire due to the tunneling between topologically different metastable states [Khlebnikov Phys. Rev. B 2008, 78, 014512]. We present studies on the microwave response of the superconducting nanowires to reveal their CPRs. First, we demonstrate a simple nanowire fabrication technique, based on commercially available adhesive tapes, which allows making thin superconducting wire from different metals. We compare the resistance vs temperature curves of Mo(76)Ge(24) and Al nanowires to the classical and quantum models of phase slips. In order to describe the experimentally observed microwave responses of these nanowires, we use the McCumber-Stewart model [McCumber  1968, 39, 3113;  1968, 12, 277], which is generalized to include either classical or quantum CPR.

Field of study: Physics
Effects of alcohol on intrauterine oxygen tension in the rat.

The effects of alcohol on the availability of oxygen within the uterine lumen of rats were determined on Day 4 of pseudopregnancy. Intraluminal oxygen tension (pO2) was measured in vivo in anesthetized rats using a 22-gauge polarographic oxygen sensor. Intrauterine pO2 was measured for 15 min before and after intravenous injection of alcohol (1.0 g/kg: 100% ethanol/saline, 1:2v/v) or vehicle (physiological saline). Alcohol administration increased mean intrauterine pO2 (mm Hg) from a pretreatment level of 28.3 +/- 2.8 to 38.7 +/- 3.8 mm Hg (p less than 0.05, n = 10) at 15 min postinjection. The rapid rise in oxygen tension was accompanied by increased frequency of fluctuation (peaks/hr) in intraluminal pO2 (prealcohol: 64.2 +/- 8.8 vs. postalcohol 96.0 +/- 7.7 peaks/hr; (p less than 0.05, n = 10). Injection of saline did not alter any aspect of intrauterine pO2. During the period of measurement of luminal pO2, blood alcohol levels increased from 0 during pretreatment to 106 mg% within 10 min of injection. These results indicate that alcohol increases the availability of oxygen within the uterus during the time of endometrial sensitivity to deciduogenic stimuli and blastocyst implantation.

Field of study: Medicine
ANALYSIS OF ELASTIC FOUNDATION-BEAM FOR THE DEEP-SEATED CONCRETE SLAB

The bridge approach treated with a deep-seated concrete slab can redistribute the soil pressure under the slab and transit the settlement smoothly,and subsequently avoid differential settlement.The deep-seated slab is simplified to an elastic foundation plate under bidirectional stress on Winkler foundation soil.The analytical solution of deflection and base reaction of the foundation plate with specific boundaries under uniformly distributed loading are calculated based on elastic foundation beam theory.The results of theoretical analysis and field observation show that the earth pressure under the deep-seated concrete slab decreases significantly.The deep-seated concrete slab can control the settlement difference effectively.

Field of study: Engineering
Evidence for feedback and stellar-dynamically regulated bursty star cluster formation: the case of the Orion Nebula Cluster

(abridged) A scenario for the formation of multiple co-eval populations separated in age by about 1 Myr in very young clusters (VYCs, ages less than 10 Myr) and with masses in the range 600-20000 Msun is outlined. It rests upon a converging inflow of molecular gas building up a first population of pre-main sequence stars. The associated just-formed O stars ionise the inflow and suppress star formation in the embedded cluster. However, they typically eject each other out of the embedded cluster within 10^6 yr, that is before the molecular cloud filament can be ionised entirely. The inflow of molecular gas can then resume forming a second population. This sequence of events can be repeated multiply. This model is applied to the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), in which three well-separated pre-main sequences in the color-magnitude diagram of the cluster have recently been discovered. The mass-inflow history is constrained using this model and the number of OB stars ejected from each population are estimated for verification using Gaia data. As a consequence of the proposed model, the three runaway O star systems, AE Aur, mu Col and iota Ori, are considered as significant observational evidence for stellar-dynamical ejections of massive stars from the oldest population in the ONC.

Field of study: Physics
[The study of the association between the C677T polymorphism of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene and severity of symptoms in patients with schizophrenia].

To study the association of the C677T polymorphism of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene with the risk of schizophrenia in a large sample, including schizophrenic patients and mentally healthy people, and to investigate the relationship of this polymorphism with the severity of schizophrenia symptoms and genotype-environment interaction effects on these symptoms.



The sample for genotyping consisted of 1357 patients with schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders and 711 people of the control group. The severity of symptoms was assessed with the PANSS. Obstetrical complications and a traumatic brain injury in medical history were studied as environmental factors.



No association was found between MTHFR C677T polymorphism and schizophrenia. There was no genotype effect on the severity of symptoms on the PANSS subscales. The effect of genotype-environment interactions on the severity of schizophrenia symptoms was not detected. The results do not confirm the data of a number of studies on the relationship of MTHFR C677T polymorphism with schizophrenia symptoms.

Field of study: Medicine, Psychology
Monitoring the Degree of Conversion of Cyclic Butylene Terephthalate Using Dielectric Analysis

Dielectric analysis (DEA) is the most common technique used to determine the state of cure in-process for many thermosetting resins systems such as epoxies, polyesters, polyurethanes, polyimides, silicones, bismaleimides, and phenolics. The objective of this work is to investigate the processing characteristics of cyclic butylene terephthalate (CBT) (supplied by Cyclics Corporation) which polymerises to form a thermoplastic, polybutylene terephthalate (PBT). This paper reports on the interim results of ongoing experimental investigations in which DEA is used to correlate the process cycle to composite structural features and mechanical performance of a complex composite part. Through adjustments in process cycle, the significant processing parameters have been identified which optimise the production of thermoplastic PBT composite parts. The recorded ion viscosity is used to indicate change in material viscosity, conversion rate and process time. These results have been analysed and presented as a guide for correct process control.

Field of study: Materials science
Genetic Diversity Analysis of Seedling Resources of Mango (Mangifera indica L.) by SSR Markers

Eightteen pairs of SSR primers were used to amplified SSR-PCR of the 116 mango germplasm resources,193 bands of 202 bands had polymorphism fragments,and the overall polymorphic loci percentage was 95.54 %,average of PIC was 0.57.UPGMA phenogram showed 109 seedling had abundant genetic diversity and the genetic similarity coefficients ranged from 0.6 to 1.0,which were clustered into four geographical regions groups,they are demark Guangdong and Hainan of local mango,Baise of Guangxi local mango,Nanlin of Guangxi local mango and the Yunnan Xiaoji mango.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Clonal stability and heterogeneity of hybridomas: analysis by multiparameter flow cytometry.

Flow cytometry of cellular DNA and RNA content was employed to determine DNA ploidy, proliferation, and RNA content of hybridoma cultures shortly after cell fusion and sequentially thereafter. The parental mouse myeloma cell line P3UI was characterized by tetraploid DNA content, S-phase 50%, and high RNA, the parental mouse spleen cells by diploid DNA content, low proliferation, and low RNA content. Hybridoma cultures studied as early as 21 days after fusion were found to contain the sum of the parental cells' DNA content (hexaploid), or if less, more than that of the myeloma parental cells. Only one clone of 35 tested was shown to be hexaploid and the rest hypertetraploid or hyperpentaploid. Hybrid cell cultures were frequently found to contain a variable mixture of unfused parental cells. The high proliferation of hybridoma cells determined by flow cytometry indicates that these cells would eventually overgrow the parental cells. Flow cytometry also enabled an accurate estimation of the effect of various doses of dexamethasone added to HAT medium immediately after cell fusion on hybridoma formation. Cultures treated with 10(-5) mM of the hormone had a higher DNA ploidy than cultures grown in the presence of 10(-3) mM dexamethasone. No parental cells were observed in the hybridoma cultures studied with this hormone. Sequential DNA/RNA measurements of hybridoma clones showed a decrease in DNA ploidy over time with high dexamethasone doses and a minimal increase or no change with low hormone dose. Flow cytometry is suggested to be a useful technique for evaluating the effects of various agents on DNA ploidy and proliferation and on stability of fused cells.

Field of study: Biology
Selection of CO2 laser lines by a reflecting diffraction interferometer

An analysis is made of the selection of the CO2 laser emission lines by a diffraction structure consisting of a thin metal coating. A method is proposed for design calculations of a resonator containing such a structure. It is shown that the ratio of the selection sharpness to the losses experienced by the selected line can be varied within a fairly wide range by the choice of the refractive indices of the media surrounding the structure and of the relative proportion of the area occupied by the metal. It is shown that if the metal coating is characterized by a low (0.1–1%) transmission, the losses introduced in the resonator by such a reflecting interferometer are smaller than the losses in a good-quality gold mirror; moreover, the minimal thermal effects are also retained. The results are reported of an experimental study of a low-pressure CO2 laser with diffraction structures in the form of silver and aluminum gratings. The experimental results are in agreement with the theory. It is shown that vibrational-rotational laser transitions can be selected without additional losses compared with a nonselective resonator. A method for experimental determination of the selector parameters is described.

Field of study: Engineering, Physics
Extended School Year for the Handicapped: Is It Working?

Extended school year programs for handicapped students have been advocated in order to maintain or increase their skill levels and provide them with recreational activities. This article analyzes the results of 18 extended school year programs in the state of Washington and concludes that some handicapped students do lose skills over the summer months and that extended school year programs can, at times, increase students' skill levels. The authors maintain that the true impact of extended school year programs on student performance can only be measured at the end of the next school year. An evaluation design is suggested in order to determine whether or not extended school year programs are successful.

Field of study: Education
Gold coral (Savalia savaglia) and gorgonian forests enhance benthic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in the mesophotic zone

The twilight or mesophotic zone is amongst the less explored marine regions. In coastal areas, investigations and manipulative experiments on benthic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning at depths up to >50 m have been recently made possible by the progress of SCUBA techniques. In this study, we tested the effects of the presence of a gorgonian forest characterised by a large and dense population of the gold coral Savalia savaglia (Bertoloni 1819) on the benthic biodiversity (nematode species richness, and meiofauna community structure and richness of taxa), trophic guilds state (molluscs) and ecosystem functioning in the surrounding sediments. The S. savaglia colonies create elevated and complex tertiary structures. Our results indicate that the presence of these colonies was associated with a significantly increased deposition of bioavailable substrates and enhanced biodiversity, when compared with soft bottoms at the same depth but without gold corals. The higher biodiversity and altered trophic conditions resulted in higher rates of ecosystem functioning (e.g., higher benthic biomasses). These results suggest that S. savaglia should be particularly protected not only for its specific rarity, endemism and vulnerability but also because it has a prominent role in sustaining high levels of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in the surrounding benthos of the twilight zone.

Field of study: Environmental science
Content discovery for information-centric networking

The information-centric networking (ICN) adopts a content name as a network identifier and utilizes in-network storages to cache the contents. With the name-based routing and content caching, ICN can provide substantial benefits such as faster content retrieval and network traffic reduction by exploiting a nearby (cached) copy of content and reducing duplicated transmissions for the same content request. Prior researches on ICN usually rely on an opportunistic cache-hit (happen-to-meet) to utilize the in-network storages. In the happen-to-meet fashion, only the content cached on the path towards the content source can be utilized, which limits the network-wide usage of the in-network storages. To exploit cached contents better, we propose a content discovery scheme, dubbed SCAN, which can exploit nearby content copies for the efficient delivery. SCAN exchanges the cached content information among the neighbor routers using Bloom filters for the content discovery. With extensive simulations, SCAN shows better performance than a happen-to-meet cache-hit scheme in terms of average hop counts, traffic volume, and load balancing among links.

Field of study: Computer science
Solidification of phase change material on vertical cylindrical surface in holdup air bubbles

Solidification of phase change material around a vertical cylindrical surface was studied to investigate the performance of ice storage system and stored thermal energy. Air bubbles were generated in the phase change material at various air flow rate as a gas holdup to enhance the heat transfer rate and accelerate the ice layer growth at the solid–liquid interface. The test tube surface was cooled by ethylene glycol–water solution at a flow rate of 40% concentration by weight. The ice layer growth and solidification front velocity at solid–liquid interface were estimated from the temperature–time recorded data of a set of thermocouples fixed in a radial position perpendicular to cooled surface. The ice layer growth at the first instants of solidification process is much higher. Thereafter it decreased gradually according to the increasing of thermal resistance of ice layer. The increasing of ethylene glycol–water solution mass flow rate seems to accelerate the solidification process with small rate. The effect of air bubbles agitation was found to increase the ice layer growth rate and solidification front velocity by about of 20–45%. As a consequence the stored thermal energy was increased by about 55–115% with increasing air bubbles flow according to the attribute of generates turbulence at the solid–liquid interface. The measured data showed that with stirring the bulk water in energy storage tank, the storage time can be reduced by 10–35% of that without stirring.

Field of study: Engineering
Conditioned activity and instrumental reinforcement following long-term oral consumption of cocaine by rats.

Food-reinforced conditioned activity and instrumental responding were measured in rats after 50 weeks of continuous access to a cocaine-saccharin solution in their home cages. The elevation of conditioned activity produced by acute access to the cocaine-saccharin solution in the home cage during testing was abolished by long-term preexposure to the cocaine solution, an effect that was reversed by systemic administration of cocaine immediately prior to testing. By contrast, chronic cocaine preexposure enhanced instrumental responding for both cocaine-sucrose and pure sucrose solutions. These results support the idea that long-term cocaine exposure enhances subsequent reinforcement.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Huntingtin processing in pathogenesis of Huntington disease.

Huntingtons disease (HD) is caused by an expansion of the polyglutamine tract in the protein named huntingtin. The expansion of polyglutamine tract induces selective degeneration of striatal projection neurons and cortical pyramidal neurons. The bio-hallmark of HD is the formation of intranuclear inclusions and cytoplasmic aggregates in association with other cellular proteins in vulnerable neurons. Accumulation of N-terminal mutant huntingtin in HD brains is prominent. These pathological features are related to protein misfolding and impairments in protein processing and degradation in neurons. This review focused on the role of proteases in huntingtin cleavage and degradation and the contribution of altered processing of mutant huntingtin to HD pathogenesis.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry, Medicine
A Novel Desalting Method on Target for MALDI-TOF-MS Analysis Based on Fe3O4/TiO2 Nanoparticles

A novel method for desalting protein directly on MALDI-TOF-MS target has been established based on the absorption of peptides with Fe3O4/TiO2 nanoparticles. After optimization of experimental conditions, such as the amounts of nanoparticles and washing solutions, 100 fmol myoglobin digested by trypsin in 10 M urea solution could be identified successfully, and reliable results could also be obtained for 10 fmol myoglobin in 3 M urea solution. The experimental results show that the method developed can be easily and effectively used for the protein identification in high-salt buffer and has great potential for the large scale proteomics studies in future.

Field of study: Chemistry
Study on degradation of organic phosphorus in vegetables by Ozone

The residues of organic phosphorus pesticide is one of the major problems influencing food safety of China. The simulation model of the degradation of three kinds of organic phosphorus(dichlorvos,metha-midophos,omethoate) in vegetables was established. With different ways of degradation by Ozone,the efficiency of degradation was investigated. The results showed that the degradation way of closed-turbocharged-dynamic-high concentration Ozone is superior to the other degradation methods by Ozone,the effect of degradation is significant,the degradation rates exceeded 90%.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
The Emerging Roles of Long Noncoding RNA ROR (lincRNA-ROR) and its Possible Mechanisms in Human Cancers

To date, there is only up to 2% of protein-coding genes that are stably transcribed, whereas the vast majority are non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). These ncRNAs, also known as non-messenger RNAs (nmRNAs) or functional RNAs (fRNAs), include transfer RNAs, ribosomal RNAs, microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). With the advance of high-resolution microarrays and massively parallel sequencing technology, lncRNAs have gained extended attentions nowadays and are found to play important roles in tumorigenesis and progression of human cancers. Long intergenic non-protein coding RNA, regulator of reprogramming (linc-ROR), was first discovered in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), where it was controlled by the key pluripotency factors Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog. Linc-ROR has been shown to be dysregulated in many types of cancers, including breast cancer (BC), pancreatic cancer (PC), hepatocellular cancer (HCC), endometrial cancer (EC), and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Also, linc-ROR functions as regulatory molecule in a large amount of biological processes. However, the underlying mechanisms of its contribution to carcinogenesis remain to be elucidated. In this review, we will emphasize on the characteristics of linc-ROR and their roles in different types of human cancers.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry