nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Characterization of a thermostable alpha-amylase from a thermophilic Streptomyces megasporus strain SD12.

An extracellular alpha-amylase (1,4-alpha D-glucan glucan hydrolase; EC 3.2.1.1) was isolated from the cell free broth of Streptomyces megasporus SD12 grown in glucose, soluble starch and raw starch. The enzyme was purified 55-fold with a specific activity of 847.33 U mg-1 of protein and with a yield of 36% activity. The apparent molecular mass of the enzyme was 97 kDa, as estimated by SDS-PAGE. The pI of the enzyme was 5.4 and it was stable at a pH range of 5.5 to 8.5 with an optimum pH 6. The enzyme was stable upto 85 degrees C with a half life of 60 min. With soluble starch as substrate the enzyme exhibited a K(m) and kcat value of 4.4 mg ml-1 and 2335 U min-1 mg-1 of protein respectively. The major end products of starch hydrolysis were maltotriose and maltose depending on the incubation period. The production of the enzyme with agricultural wastes as substrates was 643 to 804 U min-1 mg-1 of protein in submerged fermentation whereas solid state fermentation could produce only 206 U min-1 mg-1 of protein.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry, Physics
Institutions and the Significance of Relative Prices

Douglass North's recent work traverses much of the gulf that separates so-called old institutional economics (OIE) and new institutional economics (NIE). To elaborate this assertion, I focus on the particular issue of the significance of relative prices. To do so, I will briefly review the OIE case against the prevalent presumption that price equals value. Thereafter, I will consider aspects of North's work that seem to have a bearing on the issue of the significance of relative prices and by extension on the question of the relation of OIE and NIE.

Field of study: Economics
The Power of Aries: Myth and Reality in Karen Blixen's Life (review)

families sticking together, of small groups of people who love each other, and the laws of hospitality, charity, purity of heart, compassion, and community (not society)" and the assertion that Christa Wolf "has come within inches of being the most thoughtful writer of the Green movement on either side of the Wall." It is tempting to speculate upon the origin of such reductive formulations. Upon first reading, one may assume that the attempt to make the book accessible to a general audience could account for them. Upon further reflection, however, it seems more likely that Demetz' explicitly nontheoretical (and possibly even antitheoretical) orientation is the source of the book's more reductive aspects. By setting up in the book's preface an antithesis of pure theory and of his own "terrestial interests" in knowing "how good poems, plays, and novels are made, and how they relate to each other and to the kind of writing to which they belong, within the social context of their time," Demetz sidesteps the problem of defining the social context in any rigorous, theoreticaUy grounded way, resting content instead with the commonly accepted views of East and West German, Swiss, and Austrian societies and the role that literature plays within them. In the preface Demetz acknowledges that an exclusive interest in literary forms would constitute an approach close to his fundamental inclinations. That he has chosen to go beyond those fundamental inclinations speaks for the seriousness of his concern with extraliterary German history. One might only wish that his treatment of the relationship of literature and society and of the political dimensions of that relationship in particular had more fully realized his serious intention.

Field of study: Art
An overview of practice facilitation programs in Canada: current perspectives and future directions.

Practice facilitation has proven to be effective in improving the quality of primary care. A practice facilitator is a health professional, usually external to the practice, who regularly visits the practice to provide support in change management that targets improvements in the delivery of care. Our environmental scan shows that several initiatives across Canada utilize practice facilitation as a quality improvement method; however, many are conducted in isolation as there is a lack of coordinated effort, knowledge translation and dissemination in this field across the country. We recommend that investments be made in capacity building, knowledge exchange and facilitator training, and that partnership building be considered a priority in this field.

Field of study: Medicine, Political science
A theoretical description of energy spectra and two-neutron separation energies for neutron-rich zirconium isotopes

Very recently the atomic masses of neutron-rich Zr isotopes, from 96Zr to 104Zr, have been measured with high precision. Using a schematic Interacting Boson Model (IBM) Hamiltonian, the evolution from spherical to deformed shapes along the chain of Zr isotopes, describing at the same time the excitation energies as well as the two-neutron separation energies, can be rather well reproduced. The interplay between phase transitions and configuration mixing of intruder excitations in this mass region is succinctly addressed.

Field of study: Physics
A stochastic model for tumor geometry evolution during radiation therapy in cervical cancer.

To develop mathematical models to predict the evolution of tumor geometry in cervical cancer undergoing radiation therapy.



The authors develop two mathematical models to estimate tumor geometry change: a Markov model and an isomorphic shrinkage model. The Markov model describes tumor evolution by investigating the change in state (either tumor or nontumor) of voxels on the tumor surface. It assumes that the evolution follows a Markov process. Transition probabilities are obtained using maximum likelihood estimation and depend on the states of neighboring voxels. The isomorphic shrinkage model describes tumor shrinkage or growth in terms of layers of voxels on the tumor surface, instead of modeling individual voxels. The two proposed models were applied to data from 29 cervical cancer patients treated at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and then compared to a constant volume approach. Model performance was measured using sensitivity and specificity.



The Markov model outperformed both the isomorphic shrinkage and constant volume models in terms of the trade-off between sensitivity (target coverage) and specificity (normal tissue sparing). Generally, the Markov model achieved a few percentage points in improvement in either sensitivity or specificity compared to the other models. The isomorphic shrinkage model was comparable to the Markov approach under certain parameter settings. Convex tumor shapes were easier to predict.



By modeling tumor geometry change at the voxel level using a probabilistic model, improvements in target coverage and normal tissue sparing are possible. Our Markov model is flexible and has tunable parameters to adjust model performance to meet a range of criteria. Such a model may support the development of an adaptive paradigm for radiation therapy of cervical cancer.

Field of study: Medicine, Physics
Robustness of Crossover Operation of Genetic Algorithm in a Production Ordering Problem

This paper deals with an optimal production ordering problem for a modified flowshop manufacturing process having multiple machines and a carrier. The carrier carries a product between the machines and the yards. The schedule condition includes the due date and the setup time of each product. The makespan, the lateness, the tardiness, the number of tardy products and the constant rate of production are considered, respectively, as the objective function. For obtaining a good suboptimal solution, the genetic algorithm (GA) is applied to this problem. Since cross over operation plays an important role in GA, five crossover operations are introduced for this problem. This paper aims at examining robustness of crossover operation, that is, which crossover operation can find a good solution regardless of variation of schedule conditions. Numerical results show that the most desirable opera tion is the order crossover from this viewpoint.

Field of study: Computer science
The Expansion of Europe I

Concurrent with the political and diplomatic developments just described, and exercising a significant influence upon them, there occurred a vast overseas expansion of Western Civilization. Although the Crusades were the first phase of this expansion, not until the early modern period did European energies burst forth with sufficient vigor that their impact became worldwide. In the intervening centuries such things as the growth of commercial capitalism, the rise of the strong national state, and the intellectual upsurge associated with the Renaissance prepared Europeans for the mighty task of discovering, exploring, and colonizing areas in all parts of the globe. [excerpt]

Field of study: Political science
Enhancement of papillomavirus L1 gene expression and the immune responses of DNA vaccine and its mechanisms

To explore the approaches and the possible mechanisms of the papillomavirus (PV) L1 gene expression and the immune responses of DNA vaccinations.  Recombinant eukaryotic expression vectors containing codon optimized BPVL1-GFP (HL1-GFP) fusion gene and wild type BPVL1-GFP (WL1-GFP) fusion gene transfected HaCAT cells alone or cotransfected with pSVyRNAser separately. The transient expressions of the fusion proteins were examined by fluorescence microscopy and Western blot method. Message RNA expression of different L1 genes was measured by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. For in vivo studies, some female BALB/c mice were immunized intramuscularly with wild-type and codon modified L1 DNA vaccine individually, meanwhile, some other female BALB/c mice were immunized with the combination of pSVtRNAser and L1 DNA vaccine.  Fluorescence microscopy and Western blot results showed that HL1-GFP gene readily expressed in HaCAT cells, while WL1-GFP gene failed to express. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR suggested that there was no significant difference in mRNA expression levels between HL1 and WL1 genes. Cells cotransfected with pS-VtRNAser and WLl-GFP gene produced higher levels of L1 protein than those transfected with WL1 gene only. In vivo study results indicated that mice immunized with HLl DNA vaccination elicited significandy higher levels of L1-specific serum IgG than those with WLl immunization. The mice immunized with tRNAser and WL1 gene produced higher IgG antibody level than those with WLl immunization only.  Codon usage optimization can significandy enhance PV L1 protein expression in mammalian cells and the humoral immune response of DNA vaccine, and supplementation of exogenous tRNA can also promote wild-type L1 protein expression in mammalian cells and the humoral immune response.

Field of study: Biology
Promoter analysis and characteristics of the 5'-untranslated region of the mouse glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor gene.

We have cloned the mouse GDNF cDNA and genomic DNA to study the molecular mechanism of gene expression. Primer extension and RT-PCR analyses indicated that the mouse gene contains 1086 bp of 5'-untranslated region (5'-UTR) [Gene 203 (1997) 149]. In this report, we identified the core promoter region of mouse GDNF and examined the role of the 5'-UTR in gene expression. Promoter deletion analyses indicated that the proximal region (-81 to +28), which includes a TATA-box, is necessary for high-level expression of GDNF. Using reporter constructs encoding luciferase or fusion gene of GDNF to enhanced green fluorescent protein that were transiently transfected to mouse astroglial cell-line TGA-3 cells and rat glioma C6 cells, we investigated effects of the 5'-UTR on promoter activity. Luciferase reporter assay indicated that a region downstream of the transcription initiation site may include a positive regulatory element, while two more distal regions appear to contain negative regulatory elements, which was correlated to the mRNA level based on RNase protection assay. Both negative regulatory elements attenuated promoter activity in a position-dependent manner. Nuclear proteins from C6 glioma cells were shown to interact with several regions (+65/+105, +233/+265, and +554/+582) including each of the regulatory elements, suggesting that regulation of GDNF expression by the 5'-UTR occurred mainly at the transcriptional level.

Field of study: Biology
Multilingual label quests: A practice for the 'asymmetrical' multilingual classroom

Research on multilingual classrooms usually focuses on contexts where both teachers and pupils share the same linguistic repertoire; what can be called ‘symmetrical’ multilingual classrooms. This paper sets out to investigate whether (and how) pupils’ multilingual resources can be used in classrooms where the teacher does not share pupils’ multilingual repertoire; what can be called ‘asymmetrical’ multilingual classrooms. It focuses on the case of an induction classroom for newly arrived immigrant children in France, where the teacher is a French monolingual speaker while eight languages are spoken among the twelve pupils. Drawing on a sequential analysis ( Schegloff, 2007 ) of a set of interactions audio-recorded in that classroom, I show how the traditional teaching practice of ‘label quests’ ( Heath, 1986 ) can be accomplished multilingually. These examples of ‘multilingual label quests’ suggest that multilingual teaching practices are possible in the asymmetrical multilingual classroom.

Field of study: Education, Linguistics
Evaluating the Comparative Toxicity of DBP Mixtures from Different Disinfection Scenarios: A New Approach by Combining Freeze-Drying or Rotoevaporation with a Marine Polychaete Bioassay.

The unintended formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) may compromise the safety of drinking water. Since no specified DBPs have been found to be responsible for the overall adverse effects and over half of total organic halogen (TOX) remains unidentified, DBP mixture toxicity is gaining increasing interest as a potential indicator of how risky drinking water might be. In this study, a new approach to evaluating the toxicity of drinking water DBP mixtures was developed by combining freeze-drying or rotoevaporation pretreatment with an in vivo high-salinity-tolerance bioassay with the embryos of a marine polychaete Platynereis dumerilii. The DBP recoveries by freeze-drying or rotoevaporation were compared with those by commonly applied liquid-liquid-extraction (LLE). For drinking water subjected to typical disinfection processes (i.e., chlorination, chloramination, chlorine dioxide treatment, and ozonation with or without postchlorination), LLE led to the lowest TOX recovery (11-18%) and the loss of all inorganic DBPs, while freeze-drying and rotoevaporation recovered 28-58% and 35-61% of TOX, respectively, and effectively recovered 81-99% and 85-104% of inorganic DBPs, respectively. Thus, LLE caused an underestimation of the toxicity of DBP mixtures compared with freeze-drying and rotoevaporation. Besides, the comparative toxicity varied significantly for water samples pretreated with different methods due to the effect of inorganic DBPs and a synergistic effect of organic and inorganic DBPs. The new approach revealed that the bromide-rich source water disinfected with ozone caused the highest developmental toxicity, followed by those disinfected with chlorine, chlorine dioxide, and chloramine in that order.

Field of study: Environmental science
Block–Savits Characterization and Star Ordering of Exponential Mixtures

Block and Savits (1980) established a characterization of life distributions using the Laplace transform. In this article, we remark that one of the necessary conditions to be IFRA distribution is equivalent to the star ordering of exponential mixtures. It leads to the definition of two new classes of life distributions, called LIFR and LIFRA, and their dual classes: LDFR and LDFRA. It occurs that these classes have many useful aging properties and preserve known reliability operations. Properties of the classes are studied and relations with known classes are established.

Field of study: Mathematics
Toward a Comprehensive Theoretical Framework for Disability Research

This article critiques three features of Bronfenbrenner's (1979, 1992) ecological theory of human development in relationship to the development of children with disabilities: (a) developmentally instigative person characteristics, (b) hierarchical environmental systems of influence, and (c) the dimension of time. The study of development within the context of home, school, and community has been significantly advanced by ecological psychology. Although the ecological paradigm has been invoked in the disability literature as a framework for child, classroom, and family investigations, few studies provide a comprehensive treatment of the model. Bronfenbrenner's recently expanded theory provides a provocative framework for the study of children with disabilities. This framework includes the identification of ecological niches; that is, unique regions in the environment that differentially influence children with particular personal characteristics. Selected studies from the disability literature illustrate the incorporation of the three features into research on children with disabilities and their families. Suggestions for shifting research paradigms toward a more comprehensive approach to the study of development and change in children with disabilities are provided.

Field of study: Education
Insecticide Washoff from Cotton Plants as a Function of Time Between Application and Rainfall

METHYL parathion (MP), toxaphene (TOX), and fenvalerate (FEN), as emulsifiable concentrates, were tank mixed with water and applied at 1.15 + 2.30 + 0.11 kg active ingredient/ha to cotton plants (triplicate plots) by ground equipment. Plant sampling showed that insecticide loads on the plants decreased hyperbolically with time. Simulated rainfall (51 mm) was applied at 53 mm/h to a new test plot at 2, 6, 29, 50, 98, and 146 h after insecticide application to determine the fractions of the insecticides washed from the plants. The fraction of MP washed from the plants decreased exponentially with time after application and linearly with load on the plants. In contrast to MP, the fractions of TOX and FEN washed from the plants were relatively constant at 10 and 7%, respectively, regardless of time after application and loads on the plants. About 50% of the MP, TOX, and FEN washed from the plants by any one storm was washed off by only 7 to 8 mm of rainfall, regardless of when rain occurred. This information will improve the accuracy of predictions made in mathematical simulations of foliar washoff and routing and may aid in developing guidelines for respraying for pest control following natural rainfall or overhead irrigation..

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
SYNTHESIS OF LIQUID-CRYSTALLINE ENYNES BY PALLADIUM-CATALYZED CROSS-COUPLING REACTION

An arylvinyl bromide bearing a long-chain alkoxy group reacts with arylacetylenes in the presence of a palladium catalyst to give liquid-crystalline 1,4-diaryl-1-buten-3-yne derivatives. The new liquid-crystalline compounds with a conjugated enyne core show mesogenic phases at a wide range of temperature.

Field of study: Chemistry
Multichannel treatment of the (e, H) collision problem using the quasiparticle method

The (e, H) collision problem is treated using the multichannel quasiparticle method recently introduced by Grassberger and Sandhas. We derive single variable integral equations for the singlet and triplet transition amplitudes valid for scattering energies up toE≈8 eV and especially calculate the scattering lengths which are in good agreement with previous results found by variational methods.

Field of study: Physics
Propulsion-gear-based characterisation of artisanal fisheries in the Malindi-Ungwana Bay, Kenya and its use for fisheries management

In Kenya, like other tropical countries, coastal artisanal fishery is multispecies, multigear and multifleet in nature with many management challenges. The Malindi-Ungwana Bay in particular, supports both the artisanal fishery and the semi-industrial bottom trawl shrimp fishery presenting a management challenge. Recent stock assessment surveys have identified catch composition of the semi-industrial bottom trawl fishery in the bay but artisanal catches remain barely described. This study describes, the artisanal fish catch composition (total number of species caught, sizes and trophic levels), and catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) for each of the most popular propulsion-gear categories used in the bay. We make a case that the use of specific propulsion-gear categories can be dynamically managed to encourage the recovery of selected fish groups and thus support fisheries management. A total of 4 269 finfish belonging to 177 species and 66 families were sampled by the 5 most popular propulsion-gear categories between 2009 and 2011. The total number of species caught was highest for canoe-gillnet, mashua-gillnet and foot-seine net, and lowest for foot-handline and mashua-handline. Significant differences in catch composition existed between the different propulsion-gear categories. The CPUE was not significantly different between propulsion-gear, although this was on the average highest for canoe-gillnet and mashua-gillnet, and lowest for the foot-handline. The highest trophic level of 4.0 was recorded for mashua-gillnet and the lowest 3.4 and 3.2 for canoe-gillnet and foot-seine net respectively. The use of specific combinations of propulsion-gear categories, give an alternative approach in management recommendation of the coastal artisanal fisheries in the tropics, from the traditional gear-based management initiative. This study, singled out the mashua-gillnet, canoe-gillnet and foot-seine net as suitable units for monitoring the artisanal fisheries in Malindi-Ungwana Bay since mashua-gillnet lands the highest mean trophic level and largest sized individuals, and canoe-gillnet and foot-seine net land the highest number of species caught and smallest sized individuals.

Field of study: Environmental science
Genotyping of wild-type strains of varicella-zoster virus and their differentiation from Oka vaccine strain

To analyze the genotype of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) strains isolated from patients with chickenpox or zoster and to differentiate them from Oka vaccine strain by molecular analysis.  In the present study, single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNP) based VZV genotypes were analyzed in 19 VZV isolates using the polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphisms analysis of DNA fragments of the open reading frames 38, 54, 62, and the 1t5 repeat region.  The genotypes of 19 VZV isolates including two different groups with 52.7% of Pst Ⅰ+ Bgl Ⅰ+ R5A and 47.3% of Pst Ⅰ+ Bgl Ⅰ+ R5B, which is very different from those found in North America, Europe and Japan. All the Chinese isolates are wild-type strains with ORF62 Sma Ⅰ-. No Oka vaccine strains were revealed among the isolates.  Chinese VZV strains reported in this study showed different molecular characteristics from those circulating in Europe, North America and Japan. The SNPs in ORF62 and ORF38 may be used to distinguish VZV wild-type strains and vaccine strain in clinical isolates in China. 
 
 
Varicella-zoster virus;  Genotyping;  Oka strains;  Wild-type strains

Field of study: Biology