nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Stress and Desire for Control on Superstitious Behavior

Research shows that the frequency of magical thinking and superstitious behavior increases under conditions of stress. A possible explanation for this finding is that stress reduces the individual’s sense of control and that to regain control she or he engages in magical rituals or superstitions. This study tested the validity of this explanation. To this end, the effects of stress on the frequency of superstitious behavior in individuals with high and low desire for control (DC) were examined. The Desirability of Control Scale was administered to 108 participants, half of whom were exposed to low-stress conditions and half to high-stress conditions. They were interviewed and asked questions designed to elicit a “knock on wood” ritual. It was found that the difference in the number of knocks on wood between high-DC and low-DC individuals was greater in the high-stress than in the low-stress condition. Similar findings emerged when the degree of the need to knock on wood, as reported by the participants, was used as a dependent variable.

Field of study: Psychology
Preparation and Thermoelectric Performance of BaTiO3/Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 Composite Materials

A series of xBaTiO3/Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 (xBTO/BST) nanocomposite thermoelectric materials were prepared by the method of ultrasonic dispersion combined spark plasma sintering. The thermoelectric performance was systematically investigated in the temperature range from 300 K to 500 K. Combined with the analysis of phase composition and microstructure, the results indicated that the BTO nanoparticles were uniformly dispersed in the grain boundaries of the BST matrix, which can optimize carrier concentration and produce an energy filtering effect to a certain extent to improve the Seebeck coefficient, and also reduced the thermal conductivity. The highest ZT value of the sample with x = 0.2% was achieved 1.2 at 340 K, which was 20% larger than that of the matrix. This work is helpful for exploring new composite systems to improve the thermoelectric performance of composites.

Field of study: Materials science
Species persistence decreases with habitat fragmentation: an analysis in periodic stochastic environments

This paper presents a study of a nonlinear reaction–diffusion population model in fragmented environments. The model is set on $$\mathbb{R}^N$$, with periodic heterogeneous coefficients obtained using stochastic processes. Using a criterion of species persistence based on the notion of principal eigenvalue of an elliptic operator, we provided a precise numerical analysis of the interactions between habitat fragmentation and species persistence. The obtained results clearly indicated that species persistence strongly tends to decrease with habitat fragmentation. Moreover, comparing two stochastic models of landscape pattern generation, we observed that in addition to local fragmentation, a more global effect of the position of the habitat patches also influenced species persistence.

Field of study: Biology, Mathematics
Reference scenarios for deforestation and forest degradation in support of REDD: a review of data and methods

Global climate policy initiatives are now being proposed to compensate tropical forest nations for reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). These proposals have the potential to include developing countries more actively in international greenhouse gas mitigation and to address a substantial share of the world's emissions which come from tropical deforestation. For such a policy to be viable it must have a credible benchmark against which emissions reduction can be calculated. This benchmark, sometimes termed a baseline or reference emissions scenario, can be based directly on historical emissions or can use historical emissions as input for business as usual projections. Here, we review existing data and methods that could be used to measure historical deforestation and forest degradation reference scenarios including FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) national statistics and various remote sensing sources. The freely available and corrected global Landsat imagery for 1990, 2000 and soon to come for 2005 may be the best primary data source for most developing countries with other coarser resolution high frequency or radar data as a valuable complement for addressing problems with cloud cover and for distinguishing larger scale degradation. While sampling of imagery has been effectively useful for pan-tropical and continental estimates of deforestation, wall-to-wall (or full coverage) allows more detailed assessments for measuring national-level reference emissions. It is possible to measure historical deforestation with sufficient certainty for determining reference emissions, but there must be continued calls at the international level for making high-resolution imagery available, and for financial and technical assistance to help countries determine credible reference scenarios. The data available for past years may not be sufficient for assessing all forms of forest degradation, but new data sources will have greater potential in 2007 and after. This paper focuses only on the methods for measuring changes in forest area, but this information must be coupled with estimates of change in forest carbon stocks in order to quantify emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

Field of study: Environmental science
The 4-MeV Separated-Orbit Cyclotron

The Separated-Orbit Cyclotron Experiment (SOCE) will extend and complement earlier theoretical and experimental studies and will provide a unique facility for the evaluation of an operating SOC system. The six-sector, fourturn accelerator will provide maximum energies of 4 MeV for protons and deuterons and 8 MeV for 3He++ and 4He++ ions. The output energy is variable over a 2:1 range by adjustment of the magnetic field and acceleration of the ions at the appropriate harmonic of the ion frequency. Ions are injected into the SOC at one quarter the final energy. The injection system consists of a duoplasmatron ion source, a 500-kV dc accelerator, and a three-cavity linear accelerator. Proton currents in the 10-to 20-mA range are predicted. The principal characteristics of the accelerator are given in Table I. All of the major components have been fabricated and delivered on site except the injector's linac cavities, which are expected shortly. The photograph  The tops of the magnet yokes have been temporarily removed to permit completion of pole tip alignment. An rf power amplifier will be mounted on the outer wall of each cavity. One of the PA units can be seen in the background  on a test stand with a water-cooled dummy load.

Field of study: Physics
Based on the ZigBee Automatic Fire Alarm System Design and Implementation

ZigBee wireless communication technology has low power consumption,low cost,convenient networking,and in the environmental monitoring,industry control,intelligent building,wireless sensor network,a broad field application.This article in view of the existing two bus type automatic fire alarm system,the problems of put forward based on the IEEE802.15.4 ZigBee wireless communication technology automatic fire alarm system.

Field of study: Engineering
A high-resolution VLT/FLAMES study of individual stars in the centre of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy

For the first time we show the detailed, late-stage, chemical evolution history of a small nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the Local 
Group. We present the results of a high-resolution (R ~ 20 000, λ = 5340–5620; 6120–6701) FLAMES/GIRAFFE abundance study 
at ESO/VLT of 81 photometrically selected, red giant branch stars in the central 25 of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy. We also 
carried out a detailed comparison of the effects of recent developments in abundance analysis (e.g., spherical models vs. plane-parallel) 
and the automation that is required to efficiently deal with such large data sets. We present abundances of α-elements (Mg, Si, Ca, 
and Ti), iron-peak elements (Fe, Ni, and Cr), and heavy elements (Y, Ba, La, Nd, and Eu). Our sample was randomly selected and 
is clearly dominated by the younger and more metal-rich component of Fornax, which represents the major fraction of stars in the 
central region. This means that the majority of our stars are 1−4 Gyr old, and thus represent the end phase of chemical evolution in 
this system. Our sample of stars has unusually low [α/Fe], [Ni/Fe], and [Na/Fe] compared to the Milky Way stellar populations at the 
same [Fe/H]. The particularly important role of stellar winds from low-metallicity AGB stars in the creation of s-process elements is 
clearly seen from the high [Ba/Y]. Furthermore, we present evidence of an s-process origin of Eu.

Field of study: Physics
Compartmentation and transport of zinc in barley primary leaves as basic mechanisms involved in zinc tolerance

The heavy metal zinc was administered to barley seedlings by increasing its concentration in the hydroponic medium. The most dramatic effect was a severe inhibition of root elongation with little effect on root biomass production. The growth of primary leaves was little affected although the zinc content of the primary leaves increased several-fold. A detailed compartment analysis was performed for 10-d-old barley primary leaves. Under low zinc nutrition (2mmol m −3), highest zinc contents were observed in the cytoplasm of mesophyll protoplasts. At inhibitory zinc concentrations in the hydroponic medium (400 μmol m −3), zinc levels dramatically and preferentially increased in the apoplastic space. Elevated zinc levels were also observed in the epidermal cells, and to a lesser extent, in mesophyll vacuoles. The cytoplasmic content of mesophyll protoplasts was unchanged, indicating perfect zinc homeostasis within the leaf. In order to understand the transport mechanisms underlying the steady-state distribution profile, we used 65Zn to conduct uptake experiments with leaves whose lower epidermis had been stripped. The leaves were placed on zinc solutions of varying concentrations containing 65Zn for 5 min to 6 h. After the incubation, the leaves were fractionated into mesophyll and epidermis protoplasts and residue, the latter mainly representing cell wall. Adsorption of Zn to the extracellular matrix was 100 times faster than Zn uptake into the cells. By far the largest portion taken up into the mesophyll protoplasts rapidly appeared in the vacuolar compartment. These results demonstrate the importance of compartmentation and transport as homeostatic mechanisms within the leaves to handle high, possibly toxic, zinc levels in the shoot.

Field of study: Environmental science
A spectator-quark-model for the photoproduction of kaons

A simple model for the photoproduction of kaons off protons with a lambda hyperon in the final state is presented. In a quark model, the interaction is modelled by the pair-creation of the (anti-) strange quarks in the final state which recombine with the three quarks of the proton to form the lambda and kaon. The calculated scattering cross sections for photon energies up toEν = 1.9 GeV are compared to experiment. The pair-creation process is found to have a significant contribution to the total cross section.

Field of study: Physics
Brief Motivational Intervention for Underage Young Adult Drinkers: Results from a Randomized Clinical Trial

While there is a substantial literature on the efficacy of brief motivational intervention (BMI) for college student drinkers, research has focused less on young adults who do not attend a 4-year college, despite their elevated risk for excessive alcohol use and associated harmful consequences.



This randomized controlled trial (NCT01546025) compared the efficacy of BMI to a time-matched attention control intervention (relaxation training [REL]) for reducing alcohol consumption and related negative consequences in an underage young adult sample. BMI was tailored to the developmental transition out of high school for young adults who were not immediately planning to enroll in a 4-year college. Non-treatment-seeking underage drinkers who reported past-month heavy drinking (N = 167; ages 17 to 20; 42% female; 59% non-Hispanic White) were randomly assigned to receive a single session of BMI or REL. Outcomes were evaluated 6 weeks and 3 months postintervention via in-person assessments.



Generalized estimating equation models provided strong support for the efficacy of BMI for reducing harmful drinking in these young adults. Compared to REL, and after controlling for baseline covariates including gender, those who received BMI subsequently reported significantly fewer average drinks per week, percent drinking days, percent heavy drinking days, lower peak and typical estimated blood alcohol concentration on drinking days, and fewer adverse consequences of drinking (all ps < 0.05). These between-group effects did not weaken over the course of the 3-month follow-up period.



These findings demonstrate an efficacious approach to tailoring BMI for non-college-attending young adults. Future research should replicate and extend these findings over a longer follow-up period.

Field of study: Medicine
Common knowledge of rationality and market clearing in economies with asymmetric information

Consider an exchange economy with asymmetric information. What is the set of outcomes that are consistent with common knowledge of rationality and market clearing? To address this question we define an epistemic model for the economy that provides a complete description not only of the beliefs of each agent on the relationship between states of nature and prices but also of the whole system of interactive beliefs. The main result, theorem 1, provides a characterization of outcomes that are consistent with common knowledge of rationality and market clearing (henceforth, CKRMC outcomes) in terms of a solution notion - Ex - Post Rationalizability - that is defined directly in terms of the parameters that define the economy. We then apply theorem 1 to characterize the set of CKRMC outcomes in a general class of economies with two commodities. CKRMC manifests several intuitive properties that stand in contrast to the full revelation property of Rational Expectations Equilibrium: In particular, we obtain that for a robust class of economies: (1) there is a continuum of prices that are consistent with CKRMC in every state of nature, and hence these prices do not reveal the true state, (2) the range of CKRMC outcomes is monotonically decreasing as agents become more informed about the economic fundamentals, and (3) trade is consistent with common knowledge of rationality and market clearing even when there is common knowledge that there are no mutual gains from trade.

Field of study: Economics
Determination of the major amino acid components by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with fluorescence detection during the development of strawberry fruits.

Amino acid,as one of important compositions influencing fruit quality,takes a wide participation in a lot of physiological metabolisms in fruit trees.The qualitative and quantitative analysis on the amino acids in fruit trees and fruits,provide the research clue for illustrating the complicated mechanism of carbon-nitrogen metabolism and evaluating fruit quality accurately.In this paper,high performance liquid chromatography coupled with fluorescence detection was applied for the analysis on the major amino acids during the development of strawberry "Fengxiang" fruits.The results showed that the components of amino acids in strawberry fruits can be well separated with the eluted gradient of acetate-phosphate buffer(A phase),acetonitrile(B phase)and water(C phase).The method showed perfect accuracy,stability,reproducibility and good sample recovery on the basis of the methodological analysis.The quantitative analysis suggested the major amino acids were serine,arginine,glutamic acid,histidine,aspartic acid and proline in strawberry fruits.During the development of strawberry fruits,the total content of amino acids decreased gradually,from 48.39 μg·g-1 in immature stage to 8.62 μg·g-1 in mature stage.The major components of amino acids with higher contents differed significantly such as serine,arginine and histidine,and the amino acids with lower contents often gave small decrease.The comparing results in this experiment provided the experimental foundation for the qualitative and quantitative analysis on the amino acids in fruit trees and other biological samples.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Expression analysis and characterization of alternatively spliced transcripts of human IL-7Ralpha chain encoding two truncated receptor proteins in relapsed childhood all.

In the family of cytokines and cytokine receptors, alternative splicing of pre-mRNA is a frequently observed process that generates different protein isoforms from a single genetic locus. The splicing-derived cytokine receptor protein isoforms are mostly soluble receptors or show alterations in their cytoplasmic domain. It is possible that receptor abnormalities or a pathological ratio of different isoforms may contribute to leukaemia by circumventing normal growth factor control or altering the balance of proliferation and differentiation. IL-7 plays a critical role in early stages of both B and T cell maturation. Moreover, it stimulates the expansion of mature T cells including anti-tumour reactive cells as well as a number of T and B cell malignancies underlining its potential importance for deregulated lymphoid proliferation and leukaemogenesis. Here, we present detailed data on the expression of the interleukin 7 receptor alpha chain (IL-7Ralpha) in leukaemic cells from 210 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and describe two novel alternatively spliced transcripts of human IL-7Ralpha coding for truncated receptor proteins which are still capable of binding IL-7. IL-7Ralpha mRNA expression was more frequent in more mature pre-B ALL [91% (30/33)] than in common [81% (81/100)] or pro-B ALL [64% (18/28)], or even in T ALL [64% (29/45)]. These results are in concordance with flow cytometric analyses on the proportion of IL-7Ralpha bearing cells among total blast cell population. Our results lead us to assume that splicing derived IL-7Ralpha isoforms play a potential role in modulating IL-7 signal transduction and might be important for the pathogenesis of leukaemia.

Field of study: Medicine
Late Glacial and Holocene paleoceanography in the Skagerrak from high-resolution grain size records

High-resolution grain size analyses of the AMS 14C-dated, 32 m long core MD99-2286 from the northeastern Skagerrak were performed in order to study late Glacial and Holocene paleoceanographic and sedimentary changes. All ages in this study are given in calibrated thousand years before present (= AD 1950), abbreviated ‘kyr’, unless otherwise noted. The distinct ending of IRD (ice rafted debris) in core MD99-2286, which was retrieved from a location down current from the final calving ice margin in the region, indicates that iceberg calving in the Skagerrak ended between 10.6 and 10.2 kyr. A clay-rich sequence in core MD99-2286, deposited between 11.3 and 10.3 kyr, is attributed to outflow from the Baltic basin across south central Sweden. The sequence is correlated to similar units from cores along the Swedish west coast. The onset of this clay-rich deposition occurs progressively later in cores further south along the coast, supporting a previous hypothesis that differential glacio-isostatic uplift caused a southward migration of the Baltic outflow from the Otteid-Stenselva to the Gota Alv outlet. A distinct coarsening towards younger sediments in core MD99-2286 indicates a hydrographic shift at 8.5 kyr, which is correlated to a shift previously reported in the Skagerrak, Kattegat and the Norwegian Channel. This shift reflects the establishment of the modern circulation system in the eastern North Sea, as a consequence of the opening of the English Channel and the Danish straits and increased Atlantic water inflow, and the subsequent development of the South Jutland Current. A general trend of coarsening, poorer sorting and increasing variability from 8.5 kyr until the present indicates increasing strength and influence of the variable South Jutland Current. A series of changes from ca. 6.3 to ca. 3.8 kyr in core MD99-2286 reflects strengthening of the Jutland Current towards the present day sedimentation system in the Skagerrak–Kattegat. These changes are correlated to previously reported hydrographic shifts at 5.5 14C years BP in the Skagerrak and at 4.0 14C years BP in the Kattegat. It is suggested that these shifts were separate features of a transitional period related to strengthening of the current system. The resulting changes are differently manifested in different parts of the Skagerrak–Kattegat, due to the complex circulation system. The last 800 years are characterised by poorly sorted sediments with a relatively high and variable proportion of coarse material, reflecting a circulation system significantly modified by regional climatic conditions, especially the general wind directions and storm frequency over the southern North Sea.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
A dynamic regularized radial basis function network for nonlinear, nonstationary time series prediction

In this paper, constructive approximation theorems are given which show that under certain conditions, the standard Nadaraya-Watson (1964) regression estimate (NWRE) can be considered a specially regularized form of radial basis function networks (RBFNs). From this and another related result, we deduce that regularized RBFNs are m.s., consistent, like the NWRE for the one-step-ahead prediction of Markovian nonstationary, nonlinear autoregressive time series generated by an i.i.d. noise processes. Additionally, choosing the regularization parameter to be asymptotically optimal gives regularized RBFNs the advantage of asymptotically realizing minimum m.s. prediction error. Two update algorithms (one with augmented networks/infinite memory and the other with fixed-size networks/finite memory) are then proposed to deal with nonstationarity induced by time-varying regression functions. For the latter algorithm, tests on several phonetically balanced male and female speech samples show an average 2.2-dB improvement in the predicted signal/noise (error) ratio over corresponding adaptive linear predictors using the exponentially-weighted RLS algorithm. Further RLS filtering of the predictions from an ensemble of three such RBFNs combined with the usual autoregressive inputs increases the improvement to 4.2 dB, on average, over the linear predictors.

Field of study: Engineering
A Survey of Attacks on Ethereum Smart Contracts (SoK)

Smart contracts are computer programs that can be correctly executed by a network of mutually distrusting nodes, without the need of an external trusted authority. Since smart contracts handle and transfer assets of considerable value, besides their correct execution it is also crucial that their implementation is secure against attacks which aim at stealing or tampering the assets. We study this problem in Ethereum, the most well-known and used framework for smart contracts so far. We analyse the security vulnerabilities of Ethereum smart contracts, providing a taxonomy of common programming pitfalls which may lead to vulnerabilities. We show a series of attacks which exploit these vulnerabilities, allowing an adversary to steal money or cause other damage.

Field of study: Computer science, Mathematics