nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD CONSIDERING SHEAR LAG EFFECT FOR CURVED BOX BEAMS

Based on the principle of minimum potential energy, this paper presents a curved thin-walled box finite beam element method for curved thin-walled boxes. The shear lag and warping torsion effects are considered and a modified formula for bi-moment is proposed. To validate the present approach, an example of two-cell curved box beam is given. The numerical results of this paper agree well with the predictions of finite shell element method and experimental results.

Field of study: Engineering
Design and Prototype Implementation of SIP Multi-party Video Conference

Multi-party video conference as the typical application of new multimedia applications has got more and more concern. Now the IETF XCON work group has proposed the XCON framework to meet this need. This Paper details the XCON framework and provides a prototype implementation of Multi-party video conference system based on the XCON framework. The prototype implementation is scalable,secure and has loose-coupled modules and good interaction with other sip multi-party video conference.

Field of study: Computer science
Influence of Diabetes on the Outcome of Acute Coronary Syndrome in Kuwait

To describe the baseline characteristics and management of patients with and without diabetes mellitus (DM) hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and to assess the influence of DM on hospital outcomes and hospital mortality.  We analyzed data from a 6-month observational study (Kuwait Acute Coronary Syndrome Registry) of unselected patients admitted with a diagnosis of AMI over a period of 6 months, from December 2003 through May 2004.  Of 1,295 patients enrolled, 609 (47%) were diabetics and 686 (53%) were non-diabetics. Diabetics were more likely to have a past history of coronary artery disease, hypertension and left ventricular systolic dysfunction than non-diabetics. There was less use of β-blockers and aspirin in diabetics as compared to non-diabetics (62 vs. 71% and 95.5 vs. 97.9%, p < 0.03, for β-blockers and aspirin, respectively). Left ventricular failure and cardiogenic shock occurred more often in diabetics compared to non-diabetics (16 vs. 7% and 5 vs. 3%, p < 0.001, for left ventricular failure and shock, respectively). The mortality rate was 6% for diabetics and 2% for non-diabetics (p < 0.001).  DM is a major health problem among the adult population in Kuwait, and almost half the AMI population suffer from diabetes. Diabetic patients had higher rates of complications, especially left ventricular failure and cardiogenic shock, as compared to non-diabetic patients. The in-hospital mortality among diabetics with AMI was almost triple that of non-diabetics. The results of this study highlight the need to improve adherence to evidence-based treatment in diabetic patients with AMI.

Field of study: Medicine
An Investigation of the Efficacy of Teachers’ Advisory Centre Tutors, in Enhancing Kenya Certificate of Primary Education Performance in Nairobi North Area, Nairobi County

Teachers Advisory Centres Tutors is an establishment whose optimal role is to enhance quality teaching and learning through sustainable teacher support system. This study was an investigation into the efficacy of Teachers Advisory Centre Tutors, in their role of equipping teachers with pedagogical skills in Nairobi North Region in Kenya.In this region, poor performance in national examinations for public primary schools have continued being witnessed despite the fact that there were six (6) TAC Tutors to cater for the seventy five (75) public primary schools with a total of one thousand six hundred and seventy nine teachers. The study used mixed methodology with exploratory research design. The method was the most appropriate for collecting information on people’s attitudes, habits and opinions, Orodho (2004).Exploratory design was used since people’s meanings are best derived through exploration, and Descombe (2005) .Nairobi North region was randomly sampled out of the three regions in Nairobi County. All the six TAC Tutors in the region were included in the sample size.1/3 of target population was selected i.e. 1/3 of 34 head teachers and 750 teachers to get 11 head teachers and 250 teachers for the purpose of the study. Data was collected by use of questionnaires and interview schedules.Reliability of the research instruments was assessed using split-half method whereby the test was divided into two equivalent halves and scores of one half correlated with those of other half. A reliability of coefficient of 0.95 was considered acceptable and reliable since it lies within the acceptable range of 0.8-1.0, Gray (1992).Validity of the instrument was based on the content which was appropriate, content was logical in getting intended variables and questions were representative to research objectives. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies for qualitative data and thematic analysis for qualitative data. Teachers’ Advisory Centre Tutors, KCPE Performance,Directorate of Quality Assurance,TAC Tutors

Field of study: Education
Conversion of carbonaceous material to graphite within the Greywacke Zone of the Eastern Alps

Morphology and reflectance of carbonaceous material (CM) in Late Carboniferous metasediments of the eastern Greywacke Zone (Eastern Alps) indicate a mixture of vitrinite, grainy textured and lamellar shaped particles. As imaged by high-resolution atomic-force microscopy, vitrinite and the grainy textured particles show mesophase structures which can be described as facetted nanocrystals within the carbon matrix. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy has revealed two types of microtextures representing different degrees of graphitization. The first type is characterized by elongated ring-shaped microtextures, whereas the second type is characterized by graphite lamellae and polygonal flakes with long-range ordered aromatic layers. In spite of the heterogeneity of the CMs, the geographical distribution of quantitative metamorphic parameter (Raman spectra parameter, X-ray diffraction pattern, microscopic reflectance) suggests a graphitization process which is promoted by advective heat transport during post-collisional processes. In a tentative pressure-time path, Late Cretaceous thrusting results in a turbostratic ordering of the aromatic layer. Ordering to long-range ordered aromatic layers was achieved during the Late Cretaceous-Paleogene exhumation of mid-crustal rocks beneath the eastern Greywacke Zone.

Field of study: Environmental science
Lawyers doing Philosophy

Kristen Rundle’s paper can be understood as an attempt not only to combine Fuller’s and Arendt’s approach, but to use their insights to ‘develop a distinctive project of normative legal theory concerned with law’s public aspect, which pivots on the status of persons within the legal frame. It seems to me that Rundle hopes to find building blocks for the view that the law cannot be identified with the commands of a sovereign, but should be understood as a kind of living law, to use Ehrlich’s term,2 as something that originates from ‘below,’ and which is based on the expectations and experiences of the human actors who both make and are guided by that law.

Field of study: Philosophy
Comparison of the regional CO 2 mole fraction filtering approaches at a WMO/GAW regional station in China

The identification of atmospheric CO2 observation data which are minimally influenced by very local emissions/removals is essential for trend analysis, for the estimation of regional sources and sinks, and for the modeling of long-range transport of CO2. In this study, four approaches are used to filter the atmospheric CO2 observation records from 2009 to 2011 at one World Meteorological Organization/Global Atmosphere Watch (WMO/GAW) regional station (Lin'an, LAN) in China. The methods are based on the concentration of atmospheric black carbon (BC), on a statistical approach (robust extraction of baseline signal, REBS), on CH4 as an auxiliary tracer (AUX), and on meteorological parameters (MET). All approaches do suitably well to capture the seasonal CO2 cycle at LAN. Differences are observed in the average regional mole fractions with annual values in the REBS method at least 1.7 ± 0.2 ppm higher than the other methods. The BC method may underestimate the regional CO2 mole fractions during the winter–spring period and should be treated with caution. The REBS method is a purely statistical method and it may also introduce errors on the regional CO2 mole fraction evaluations, as the filtered trend may be influenced by the "noisy" raw data series. Although there are correlations between CH4 and CO2 mole fractions at LAN, the different source/sink regimes may introduce bias on the regional CO2 estimation in the AUX method, typically in summer. Overall, the MET method seems to be the most favorable because it mainly focuses on the influence of potential local sources and sinks, and considers diurnal variations and meteorological conditions. Using the MET method, the annual growth rate of regional CO2 at LAN is determined to be 3.1 ± 0.01 ppm yr−1 (standard error) from 2009 to 2011.

Field of study: Environmental science
A stochastic model of brain cell differentiation in tissue culture

The timing of cell differentiation can be controlled both by cell-intrinsic mechanisms and by cell-extrinsic signals. Oligodendrocyte type-2 astrocyte progenitor cells are known to be the precursor cells that give rise to oligodendrocytes. When stimulated to divide by purifed cortical astrocytes or by platelet-derived growth factor, these progenitor cells generate oligodendrocytes in vitro with a timing like that observed in vivo. The most widely accepted model of this process assumes a cell-intrinsic biological clock that resides in the progenitor cell. The intrinsic clock model originally proposed in 1986 remains as the dominant theoretical concept for the analysis of timed differentiation in this cell lineage. However, the results of a recent experimental study (Ibarrola et al., Developmental Biology, vol. 180, 1–21, 1996) are most consistent with the hypothesis that the propensity of a clone of dividing O-2A progenitor cells initially to generate at least one oligodendrocyte may be regulated by cell-intrinsic mechanisms, but that environmental signals regulate the extent of further oligodendrocyte generation. We propose a stochastic model of cell differentiation in culture to accommodate the most recent experimental findings. Our model is an age-dependent branching stochastic process with two types of cells. The model makes it possible to derive analytical expressions for the expected number of progenitor cells and of oligodendrocytes as functions of time. The model parameters were estimated by fitting these functions through data on the average (sample mean) number of both types of cells per colony at different time intervals from start of experiment. Using this method we provide a biologically meaningful interpretation of the observed pattern of oligodendrocyte generation in vitro and its modification in the presence of thyroid hormone.

Field of study: Biology, Mathematics
Untersuchung der allergenen Prinzipien aus Kolophonium: Autoxidation, Synthese und Sensibilisierung

Investigation of the Allergenic Principles from Colophony: Autoxidation, Synthesis, and Sensitization 
 
 
 
The autoxidation of abietic acid (1a), levopimaric acid (2a), and dehydroabietic acid (3a) was studied and the compounds 3a as well as (after esterification) 8b, 9b, 10b, 11b (from 1a); 6b (from 2a); and 4b, 5b (from 3a) were isolated for the first time. Some derivatives (6a, 6b, 13b/14b, and 7b) were semisynthezised. The isolated autoxidation products, the synthetic compounds and some polar fractions of natural colophony were tested for their sensitizing capacity. Compounds 4a, 10b, 16, and 18 as well as the combined polar fraction A–D of colophony show enhanced sensitizing capacity. Methylation of the acids to the ester significantly reduces their activity.

Field of study: Chemistry
Retreat of a tidewater margin of the Laurentide ice sheet in eastern coastal Maine between ca. 14 000 and 13 000 14C yr B.P.

Ice-margin retreat, glacial processes, and associated marine environmental conditions were investigated along a tidewater margin of the Laurentide ice sheet in eastern coastal Maine. The ubiquitous presence of recessional moraines that typically show crosscutting relationships indicates that numerous stillstands and readvances interrupted net ice-margin retreat. Commonly, moraines exhibit changes in orientation associated with elevation changes, suggesting topographic control on retreat. Till, glaciofluvial facies, and glaciomarine sediment are the dominant components of the moraines. These sediments show that the ice terminated in the sea and that glacial meltwater played a key role in their deposition. The most continuous landforms in the study area are the Pond Ridge moraine and Pineo Ridge moraine system. Both landforms crosscut older moraines and contain ice-shove features, and crosscutting of moraines exists within the Pineo Ridge moraine system, indicating that the ice sheet readvanced during their formation. The Pond Ridge moraine and Pineo Ridge moraine system are straighter across elevation changes, compared to other moraines in the area, implying that during their formation, topography had less of a destabilizing influence on ice-margin dynamics. Foraminifera, Ostracoda, and mollusk species in ice-proximal and ice-distal glaciomarine sediments indicate that arctic to subarctic climatic conditions existed during deglaciation. Despite the persistence of a cold environment, 20 km of net ice-margin retreat occurred between ca. 14 000 and 13 000 14 C yr B.P., mostly in contact with the sea.

Field of study: Geology
Einige Bemerkungen zur Diracschen Theorie des relativistischen Drehelektrons

ZusammenfassungEinige Eigenschaften des Diracschen Drehelektrons werden näher analysiert, und zwar die Natur der monochromatischen de Broglie-Wellen, die Transformationseigenschaften der vier Ψ- Komponenten, sowie der Energie-Strom-Vektor (dessen Zeitkomponente die Wahrscheinlichkeit ist).

Field of study: Physics
Consistency of priorities for quality improvement for nursing homes in Italy and Canada: A comparison of optimization models of resident satisfaction.

The paper seeks to identify aspects of care that may be easily modified to yield a desired level of improvement in residents' overall satisfaction with nursing homes, comparing data across Canada and Italy. Using a structured questionnaire, 681 and 1116 nursing home residents were surveyed in Ontario in 2009 and in Tuscany in 2012, respectively. Fourteen items were common to the surveys, including willingness to recommend (WTR), which was used as the dependent variable and measure of global satisfaction. The other analogous items were entered as covariates in ordinal logistic regression models predicting residents' WTR in each jurisdiction separately. Regression coefficients were then incorporated into a constrained nonlinear optimization problem selecting the most efficient combination of predictors necessary to increase WTR by as much as 15%. Staff-related aspects of care were selected first in the optimization models of each jurisdiction. In Ontario, to improve WTR the primary focus should be on staff relationships with residents, while in Tuscany it was the technical skill and knowledge of staff that was selected first by the optimization model. Different optimization solutions might mean that the strategies required to improve global satisfaction in one jurisdiction could be different than those for the other jurisdictions. The optimization model employed provides a novel solution for prioritizing areas of focus for quality improvement for nursing homes.

Field of study: Medicine, Political science
An approximation to the exact distribution of the wilcoxon-mann-whitney rank sum test statistic

An approximation to the exact distribution of the Wilcoxon rank sum test (Mann-Whitney U-test) and the Siegel-Tukey test based on a linear combination of the two-sample t-test applied to ranks and the normal approximation is compared with the usual normal approximation. The normal approximation results in a conservative test in the tails while the linear combination of the test statistics provides a test that has a very high percentage of agreement with tables of the exact distribution. Sample sizes 3≤m, n≤50 were considered.

Field of study: Mathematics
Shallow traps in As-implanted silicon dioxide

The shallow electron traps introduced by As implantation in thermal SiO2 were investigated using the avalanche injection technique. In oxygen-deficient oxides the trapping behaviour was dominated by a shallow trap with a capture cross section of 1*10-15 cm2. The supply of oxygen leads to a decrease in the density of this trap and in a fully oxidized network it is completely annihilated. In the latter case all As atoms are incorporated in the SiO2 network as deep electron traps.

Field of study: Materials science
Limitation of transpiration by hydraulic conductance and xylem cavitation in Betula occidentalis

The extent to which stomatal conductance (gs) was capable of responding to reduced hydraulic conductance (k)and preventing cavitation-inducing xylem pressures was evaluated in the small riparian tree, Betula occidentalis Hook. We decreased k by inducing xylem cavitation in shoots using an air-injection technique. From 1 to 18 d after shoot injection we measured midday transpiration rate (E), gs, and xylem pressure (Ψp-xylem) on individual leaves of the crown. We then harvested the shoot and made direct measurements of k from the trunk (2–3 cm diameter) to the distal tip of the petioles of the same leaves measured for E and gs. The k measurement was expressed per unit leaf area (kl, leaf-specific conductance). Leaves measured within 2 d of shoot injection showed reduced gs and E relative to non-injected controls, and both parameters were strongly correlated with kl At this time, there was no difference in leaf Ψp-xylem between injected shoots and controls, and leaf Ψp-xylem was not significantly different from the highest cavitation-inducing pressure (Ψp-cav) in the branch xylem (-1.43 ± 0.029 MPa, n=8). Leaves measured 7–18 d after shoots were injected exhibited a partial return of gs and E values to the control range. This was associated with a decrease in leaf Ψp-xylem below Ψp-cav and loss of foliage. The results suggest the stomata were incapable of long-term regulation of E below control values and that reversion to higher E caused dieback via cavitation.

Field of study: Environmental science
The impact of evaporator fouling and filtration on the performance of packaged air conditioners

The goal of the study presented in this paper was to evaluate the impact of different filter types on the performance of three typical packaged air conditioners under both clean and fouled conditions. In a companion paper, combinations of six different levels of filtration and four different coils were tested under clean and fouled conditions. From the tests, it was found that fouling has a relatively small impact on air-side effective heat transfer coefficient, but can have a large impact on coil pressure drop. Data from the experimental study were used in developing simulation models for the three packaged air conditioners. Simulations show that the equipment cooling capacity is reduced with fouling primarily because of a decrease in air flow due to the increased pressure drop. In most cases, EER (energy efficiency ratio) was reduced with fouling primarily due to increased fan power. However, the changes in EER were relatively small, in the range of 1–10%. Equipment having low efficiency filters had higher EER after fouling than equipment with high efficiency filters, because high efficiency filters result in significantly higher pressure drops than low efficiency filters. The impact of the evaporator side fan efficiency was found to be significant. The energy penalty associated with high efficiency filters was reduced greatly when fan efficiency increased. Although high efficiency filters cause higher energy penalties they provide considerably better air quality. The quantity of dust passing through the coil with an MERV14 filter was approximately 30 times less than the dust passing the coil with an MERV4 filter. This difference was doubled when the MERV14 filter was compared to a case with no filter in place.

Field of study: Engineering
The Effect of Leadership Commitment and Integrity on the Effectiveness of Education Bimas Catholic North Sulawesi Province - Indonesia

This research aimed to describe and analyze: 1) the effect of leadership commitment toward the effectiveness of BIMAS Catholic North Sulawesi, 2) the effect of integrity toward the effectiveness of BIMAS Catholic North Sulawesi, and 3) the effect of leadership commitment and integrity simultaneously toward the effectiveness of BIMAS Catholic North Sulawesi.Survey method was implemented with qualitative approach. Population unit were 92 employees. Research sample were 48 which randomly selected from 92. Questionnaire with Likert scale was the technique used to collect the data. Testing the hypothesis were using simple and multiple correlation analysis.The result of data analysis showed that: 1) there was effect of leadership commitment toward the effectiveness of BIMAS Catholic North Sulawesi, 2) there was effect of integrity toward the effectiveness of BIMAS Catholic North Sulawesi, and 3) there was effect of leadership commitment and integrity simultaneously toward the effectiveness of BIMAS Catholic North Sulawesi. Based on these conclusion, it could be recommended that: 1) the selection of Catholic BIMAS leaders in the regions needs to consider the level of commitment of their prospective leaders so that in their leadership they will receive support from all stakeholders, 2) Providing flexibility for employees, extension workers, supervisors and other stakeholders to express and create so that they can explore the potential within themselves so that the expected goals can be achieved.  Leadership Commitment, Integrity, Effectiveness.

Field of study: Education
The Challenges of Conflict Management: A Case Study of Sri Lanka

Conflict processes are determined both by the larger geopolitical context and the domestic political structure. Yet current studies tend to examine either international or domestic factors, neglecting their interaction. This article undertakes an analysis of the Tamil conflict in Sri Lanka in order to examine domestic-international intersections. In countries where civil war coexists with stable, democratic institutions, conflict management becomes a complex process of balancing competing demands within the government. Under such conditions, noncoercive intervention, such as mediation, can play a more constructive role than military action. The argument of this paper marks a shift from the existing literature which tends to focus on conflicts in failed, anarchic states where coercive intervention becomes necessary.

Field of study: History, Sociology