nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
The effect of evidence-based drug coverage policies on pharmaceutical r&d: a case study from british columbia.

To manage public expenditures in the mid-1990s, British Columbia implemented evidence-based drug coverage policies, including "reference pricing." Industry lobbied against the province's policy, arguing that reference pricing harms patients and that it is inconsistent with federal and provincial legislation. Researchers and the courts have studied and rejected industry's claims. However, industry also threatened to halt R&D investment in British Columbia and continues to so threaten other provinces contemplating evidence-based drug coverage policies. The purpose of this study is to review evidence regarding these threats.



Provincial-level R&D data for 1988-2006 were used to analyze the impact of BC PharmaCare's policies on pharmaceutical R&D in British Columbia. We used statistical analyses to determine whether the province's policies affected BC-based R&D as expressed in two ways: (1) as inflation-adjusted expenditure per capita in British Columbia and (2) as the ratio of expenditure per capita in the province to expenditure per capita in the rest of Canada.



Evidence-based drug coverage policies had no statistically significant negative effects on BC-based pharmaceutical R&D. BC R&D was slightly above expected trends in 1997 and slightly below expected trends in 1998 and 1999 (though not statistically significantly in either case). From 2001 to 2003, BC R&D was (statistically significantly) above expected trends.



While they are part of the politics of the pharmaceutical sector, claims and threats regarding connections between coverage policy and location of R&D investment are not borne out in British Columbia's experience. This is likely because, as suggested by business and economic literature, firms locate R&D based on the expected cost-to-firm and productivity of the R&D investment itself. Prudent policy would therefore manage pharmaceutical expenditures using evidence-based policies and pursue scientific and economic development goals through direct and strategic government investment in local scientific capacity.

Field of study: Medicine, Political science
Choice: Some quantitative relations.

Six pigeons responded in fifty-six conditions on a concurrent-chains procedure. Conditions included several with equal initial links and unequal terminal links, several with unequal initial links and equal terminal links, and several with both unequal initial and terminal links. Although the delay-reduction hypothesis accounted well for choice when the initial links were equal (mean deviation of .04), it fit the data poorly when the initial links were unequal (mean deviation of .18). A modification of the delay-reduction hypothesis, replacing the rates of reinforcement with the square roots of these rates, fit the data better than either the unmodified delay-reduction equation or Killeen's (1982) model. The modified delay-reduction equation was also consistent with data from prior studies using concurrent chains. The absolute rates of responding in each terminal link were well described by the same hyperbola (Herrnstein, 1970) that describes response rates on simple interval schedules.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Klein begin, groot gewin

Die waarde van melkaantekeninge is reeds teen die draai van die vorige eeu besef en die eerste volwaardige toets lopies is tussen 1900 en 1910 in Frankryk gedoen. In Denemarke is die eerste melkaantekeninge reeds in 1895 op klein skaal georganiseer en teen 1925 het die meeste lande wereldwyd reeds die een of ander vorm van melkaantekeningskema gevestig.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Direct reactions in/for astrophysics

Precise nuclear reaction rates are needed for a detailed des cription of the production of elements in primordial nucleosynthesis and during the hydrostatic burning of stars to constrain the astrophysical models. The relevant reactions are extremely difficult to measure directly in the laboratory at the small astrophysical energies. In recent years direct reactions methods have been developed and applied to extract low-energy astrophysical S-factors. The application of these methods requires a combination of experimental and theoretical efforts. This contribution focuses on the underlying reaction theories that have to be well understood in order to assess the precision and limitations of the various approaches.

Field of study: Physics
Effects of spacing on contextual vocabulary learning: Spacing facilitates the acquisition of explicit, but not tacit, vocabulary knowledge

Studies examining decontextualized associative vocabulary learning have shown that long spacing between encounters with an item facilitates learning more than short or no spacing, a phenomenon known as distributed practice effect. However, the effect of spacing on learning words in context is less researched and the results, so far, are inconsistent. In this study, we compared the effect of massed and spaced distributions on second language vocabulary learning from reading. Japanese speakers of English encountered 48 novel vocabulary items embedded in informative English sentences, inferred their meanings from contexts, and received feedback in the form of English synonyms and Japanese translation equivalents. To test the hypothesis that the effects of spacing might differentially affect the development of explicit or tacit word knowledge, spacing effects were measured using semantic priming as well as a meaning recall and a meaning–form matching posttest. Results showed an advantage of spaced over massed learning on the meaning recall and meaning–form matching posttests. However, a similar semantic priming effect was observed irrespective of whether an item was encountered in the massed or spaced distribution. These results suggest that the spacing effect holds in contextual word learning for the development of explicit vocabulary knowledge, but massing appears to be as effective as spacing for the acquisition of tacit semantic knowledge.

Field of study: Linguistics
Auger recombination in quantum well semiconductors : calculation with realistic energy bands

Auger recombination (AR) in quantum well (QW) semiconductors is re-investigated taking into account a realistic band structure instead of the usual parabolic approximation. Since direct AR is negligible in QWS phonon-assisted AR is treated. The theoretical results are in good agreement with experimental investigations. In contrast, the description of QWS by a reduced heavy-hole mass is insufficient. The influence of AR on the temperature dependence of semiconductor lasers is discussed.

Field of study: Materials science
British Association of Paediatric Urologists consensus statement on the management of the neuropathic bladder.

A large number of children with spina bifida develop a neuropathic bladder and this group of patients still forms the largest group of children who require urological management. Although there are published guidelines on the management of the neuropathic bladder, they are not specific to children. It is unsurprising, therefore, that the initial investigation, assessment and management of children with spina bifida vary considerably. The 2014 British Association of Paediatric Urologists (BAPU) meeting was devoted to the management of the neuropathic bladder. The aim was to produce a consensus on the appropriate investigation and management of a child with a neuropathic bladder.



A questionnaire was devised and the members were polled on their current practice. Six paediatric urology fellows presented an evidence-based literature review on different aspects of the neuropathic bladder. At the end of the session, the members of the organisation present were polled again using the same questions.



The BAPU felt that the use of urodynamics in the neuropathic bladder should be selectively determined by clinical parameters. Regarding CIC, the group was evenly split between universal use or only when poor emptying was established. Oxybutinin was the first-line anticholinergic of choice. Most paediatric urologists routinely used Botox and were happy to use it repeatedly. The surgical intervention most frequently employed was determined to be an ileocystoplasty, with most surgeons deferring the need for surveillance cystoscopy until at least 10 years after surgery.



It was felt that a consensus statement is not a guideline or a way to establish best practice; however, it serves as a way of surveying current practice and providing a benchmark for clinicians involved in the management of these patients.

Field of study: Medicine
Of time and the atom

In 1952, Harold Lyons of the National Bureau of Standards put into brief operation an atomic clock of the ammonia‐absorption type, and thus reflected the intense interest in devising atomic standards for measuring time intervals. This interest has grown rather than diminished. As progress continued with the advent of cesium‐beam frequency controls—first with L. Essen and J. V. L. Parry at the National Physical Laboratory in England, and later with the models investigated at the Boulder Laboratories of the NBS, and by Bonanomi in Neuchatel, Switzerland, by Kalra in Canada, and by McCoubrey and Holloway of the National Company in the United States—the standard for time measurement of highest possible accuracy was removed in effect from the astronomic realm to the atomic. In collaborating with Essen, W. Markowitz of the US Naval Obsevatory determined in 1958 the frequency characteristic of the cesium standard in terms of the accepted international unit of time, the ephemeris second. Since the international a...

Field of study: Physics
Cryptanalysis of indistinguishability obfuscation using GGH13 without ideals

Recently, Albrecht, Davidson and Larraia described a variant of the GGH13 without ideals and presented the distinguishing attacks in simplified branching program security model. Their result partially demonstrates that there seems to be a structural defect in the GGH13 encoding that is not related to the ideal 〈g〉. However, it is not clear whether a variant of the CGH attack described by Chen, Gentry and Halevi can be used to break a branching program obfuscator instantiated by GGH13 without ideals. Consequently this is left as an open problem by Albrecht, Davidson and Larraia. In this paper, we describe a variant of the CGH attack which breaks the branching program obfuscator using GGH13 without ideals. To achieve this goal, we introduce matrix approximate eigenvalues and build a relationship between the determinant and the rank of a matrix with noise. Our result further strengthens the work of Albrecht, Davidson and Larraia that there is a structural weakness in ‘GGH13-type’ encodings beyond the presence of 〈g〉.

Field of study: Computer science, Mathematics
SEE locomotor behavior test discriminates C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mouse inbred strains across laboratories and protocol conditions.

Conventional tests of behavioral phenotyping frequently have difficulties differentiating certain genotypes and replicating these differences across laboratories and protocol conditions. This study explores the hypothesis that automated tests can be designed to quantify ethologically relevant behavior patterns that more readily characterize heritable and replicable phenotypes. It used SEE (Strategy for the Exploration of Exploration) to phenotype the locomotor behavior of the C57BL/6 and DBA/2 mouse inbred strains across 3 laboratories. The 2 genotypes differed in 15 different measures of behavior, none of which had a significant genotype-laboratory interaction. Within the same laboratory, most of these differences were replicated in additional experiments despite the test photoperiod phase being changed and saline being injected. Results suggest that well-designed tests may considerably enhance replicability across laboratories.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology
Sponge-microbial build-ups from the lowermost Triassic Chanakhchi section in southern Armenia: Microfacies and stable carbon isotopes

The end-Permian mass extinction was the most severe biotic crisis in Earth's history. In its direct aftermath microbial communities colonized some of the space left vacant after the severe decline of skeletal metazoans. The Permian-Triassic boundary microbialites were peculiarly abundant on low-latitude shallow-marine carbonate shelves of central Tethyan continents. Armenia features particularly well preserved and diverse basal Triassic sponge-microbial build-ups (BTSMBs), which were not studied in detail to date. Here, the Chanakhchi section in southern Armenia is described petrographically and by means of stable isotope analyses. The Armenian BTSMBs formed in a distally open marine setting on a pelagic carbonate ramp in the course of two phases of microbial growth during the Induan (Lower Triassic). The BTSMBs are represented by predominantly thrombolitic but also dendrolitic and digitate stromatolite biostromes and mounds that vary in height between 5 cm to 12 m. The digitate stromatolites are associated with calcium carbonate crystal fans (CCFs). Microfacies analyses revealed that the BTSMBs exhibit a number of different growth forms and internal fabrics. The formation of CCFs was apparently not devoid of biological influence and took place above the sediment surface. The abundance of sponges in the BTSMBs reveals that ecologically complex metazoan-microbial reefs have been present already early after the end-Permian mass extinction. However, the formation of biostromes and mounds did not depend on sponges or other metazoans. BTSMBs that formed during the second microbial growth phase revealed similar δ13C-values like the surrounding sediment. In contrast, the δ13Cmicrobialite and δ13Csediment values from the BTSMBs and CCFs of the first growth phase show a difference of up to + 2.3‰, suggesting a significant influence of photoautotrophy during microbially induced carbonate precipitation.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
Analysis of experimental data on the key thermonuclear reactions going within the low energy range

A comparative analysis of experimental data on hydrogen and helium isotope interaction with deuterons and tritons at low energy is performed. If the energy of an incident particle falls to several keV, the astrophysical factor S(E) rises sharply, indicating that there is an electron screening effect for such interaction. The values of electron screening potentials and enhancement factors are given for key thermonuclear reactions. It is important to allow for the electron screening effect in calculations performed during astrophysical research and in designing different thermonuclear facilities.

Field of study: Physics
Composing pattern-based components and verifying correctness

Designing large software systems out of reusable components has become increasingly popular. Although liberal composition of reusable components saves time and expense, many experiments indicate that people will pay for this (liberal composition) sooner or later, sometimes paying even a higher price than the savings obtained from reusing components. Thus, we advocate that more rigorous analysis methods to check the correctness of component composition would allow combination problems to be detected early in the development process so that people can save the considerable effort of fixing errors downstream. In this paper we describe a rigorous method for component composition that can be used to solve combination and integration problems at the (architectural) design phase of the software development lifecycle. In addition, we introduce the notion of composition pattern in order to promote the reuse of composition solutions to solve routine component composition problems. Once a composition pattern is proven correct, its instances can be used in a particular application without further proof. In this way, our proposed method involves reusing compositions as well as reusing components. We illustrate our approach through an example related to the composition of design patterns as design components. Structural and behavioral correctness proofs about the composition of design patterns are provided. Case studies are also presented to show the applications of the composition patterns.

Field of study: Computer science, Engineering
Reconstruction of particle-size distributions from light-scattering patterns using three inversion methods.

By means of a numerical study we show particle-size distributions retrieved with the Chin-Shifrin, Phillips-Twomey, and singular value decomposition methods. Synthesized intensity data are generated using Mie theory, corresponding to unimodal normal, gamma, and lognormal distributions of spherical particles, covering the size parameter range from 1 to 250. Our results show the advantages and disadvantages of each method, as well as the range of applicability for the Fraunhofer approximation as compared to rigorous Mie theory.

Field of study: Physics
The role of medical associations in quality assurance.

The European governments have decided to install quality assurance programmes in their health care systems by 1990. Quality is being defined as: "safe, effective, efficient, acceptable and appropriate care rendered by competent providers on the basis of efficacious technology". A wide range of methodologies is available for the assessment of each or several of the different dimensions of quality. Implementing these methods can be the role of either voluntary organizations or of mandatory ones. Medical associations could assume a leadership role in the field of quality assurance and contribute to the development of data-poor assessment systems and to the strengthening of existing information and management systems. The prevailing concept of clinical autonomy and its use in the practice of medicine should be revised.

Field of study: Medicine, Political science
Immunosuppressive effects and mechanism of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells on allogeneic T lymphocytes

To observe the role of nitric oxide(NO) in the immune regulatory effect of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs).  Bone marrow MSCs were isolated from Lewis rats by adherence screening. Concanavalin A (ConA) was adopted as the stimulator and T-lymphocyte isolated from peripheral blood of SD rats as the reactive cells. The changes of the ability of T-lymphocyte proliferation, when co-cultured with MSCs, were measured by CCK-8 assay. The inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA and protein expression on MSCs and were detected by RT-PCR, Western blot. The contents of nitrites and the levels of Th1 type cytokine IFN-γand Th2 type cytokine IL-4 were measured by Griess test and ELISA respectively, in the co-cultured supernatant.  T-lymphocyte proliferation was inhibited by co-cultured MSCs, which was concentration-dependent. In this study, the inhibition was most obviously group[ (79.03 ± 1.70)% ] (P ＞ 0.05 ). The I NOS mRNA expression, protein and nitrite levels were signifigroups, the proliferation rate of T-lymphocyte recovered. The content of IFN-γwas increased with the ratio decline of MSCs in the experimental group and IL-4 in each group has no significant difference( P ＞ 0.05 ).Conclusion MSCs inhibited T-lymphocyte proliferation by influencing Th1/Th2 balance, and the secretion of soluble factor NO, which secreted by MSCs, may plays an important role in the immune regulation. 
 
 
Mesenchymal stem cells;  Nitric oxide;  Th1/Th2;  Immune regulation

Field of study: Biology
Stability and convergence of a new finite volume method for a two-sided space-fractional diffusion equation

In this paper, we consider a two-sided space-fractional diffusion equation with variable coefficients on a finite domain. Firstly, based on the nodal basis functions, we present a new fractional finite volume method for the two-sided space-fractional diffusion equation and derive the implicit scheme and solve it in matrix form. Secondly, we prove the stability and convergence of the implicit fractional finite volume method and conclude that the method is unconditionally stable and convergent. Finally, some numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness of the new numerical method, and the results are in excellent agreement with theoretical analysis.

Field of study: Mathematics
A new tomistomine (Crocodylia) from the Miocene of Taiwan

Penghusuchus pani gen. et sp. nov. is described on the basis of a skeleton from the upper Miocene of Penghu Island. It is the most complete vertebrate fossil from Taiwan. Penghusuchus pani is distinguished from other tomistomines mainly in features of the skull and mandible. The most diagnostic characters for the taxon are that the prefrontal and anterior process of the jugal extend as anteriorly as the lacrimal does; the seventh maxillary tooth is the largest; the choana is sharply triangular in outline; and the floor of the nasopharyngeal canal and choanal borders strongly drop downward to form a Y-shaped prominence on the ventral surface of the pterygoids. Our phylogenetic analysis indicates that the new form is closely related to two other Asian fossil tomistomines, Tomistoma petrolica from southeastern China and Toyotamaphimeia machikanensis from Japan. The discovery of P. pani certainly enriches our knowledge of the paleogeography and the phylogenetic relationships amongst tomistomines.

Field of study: Environmental science
Study on production of functional sugarless carrot yoghurt with bifidobacterium

The technology for production of sugarless carrot yoghurt was studied in the paper.The results showed the optimal process carried out when milk added with 25% of carrot juice,6% of mixture of honey and fructooligosaccharide in 1∶1 proportion and 0.4% of stabilizer fermented by 4% of mixed fermenting agents of Lac.bulgaricus,str.thermophilus and bifidobacterium in 1∶1∶2 proportion under 42 ℃ for 6 h.The product had good taste and high nutritive value.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Traumatic Stress and Accelerated Cellular Aging: From Epigenetics to Cardiometabolic Disease

Purpose of ReviewThe aim of this paper is to review the recent literature on traumatic stress-related accelerated aging, including a focus on cellular mechanisms and biomarkers of cellular aging and on the clinical manifestations of accelerated biological aging.Recent FindingsMultiple lines of research converge to suggest that PTSD is associated with accelerated aging in the epigenome, and the immune and inflammation systems, and this may be reflected in premature onset of cardiometabolic and cardiovascular disease.SummaryThe current state of research paves the way for future work focused on identifying the peripheral and central biological mechanisms linking traumatic stress to accelerated biological aging and medical morbidity, with an emphasis on processes involved in inflammation, immune functioning, oxidative stress, autonomic arousal, and stress response. Ultimately, such work could help reduce the pace of biological aging and improve health and wellness.

Field of study: Medicine, Psychology