nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Constructing a recombinant adenovirus carrying human cytomegalovirus UL138 gene and evaluating the effects of UL138 gene on the functions of monocytes

To construct a recombinant adenovirus carrying UL138 gene, which was related to the latent infection of human cytomegalovirus, and to investigate the effects of UL138 gene on the functions of THP-1 mononuclear cells. 
 
 
 
The recombinant adenovirus expressing the UL138 gene was packaged. The titer of the recombinant adenovirus was determined by calculating 50% tissue culture infective dose (TCID50). THP-1 mononuclear cells were infected with the recombinant adenovirus at different multiplicity of infection (MOI) and the optimal MOI was determined (100 PFU/cell) by observing the expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP). Changes in the expression of proinflammatory cytokines by THP-1 mononuclear cells that was induced by overexpressed UL138 were analyzed by quantitative PCR. The expression of chemokines and their receptors were measured by quantitative PCR array. 
 
 
 
The recombinant adenovirus carrying the UL138 gene was successfully constructed with a titer of 1×1011 PFU/ml. The rate of THP-1 mononuclear cells that was infected with the recombinant adenovirus was 60% at the MOI of 1∶100. Results of the RT-PCR analysis and Western blot assay further confirmed that the recombinant adenovirus could infect THP-1 mononuclear cells successfully and the expression of UL138 protein increased gradually over time. The overexpressed UL138 in THP-1 mononuclear cells significantly inhibited the expression of IL-18, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α as indicated by the results of quantitative PCR. Results obtained from the quantitative PCR array analysis showed that most of the chemokines and their receptors were downregulated in the transfected THP-1 mononuclear cells except for the chemokines of CCL17, CCL21, CCL2 and XCL2 and the receptors of CCR2, CXCR1, CXCR2, CXCR4 and CX3CR1 which were upregulated. 
 
 
 
We successfully constructed the recombinant adenovirus carrying UL138 gene which could be used to infect THP-1 mononuclear cells. Overexpressed UL138 in THP-1 mononuclear cells significantly affected the functions of THP-1 mononuclear cells. 
 
 
 
Human cytomegalovirus; Latent infection; UL138; Recombinant adenovirus; THP-1 mononuclear cell; Chemokine and receptor

Field of study: Biology
Labour Activism and the Political Self in Inter-War Working-Class Women's Politics.

This article explores working-class women's experiences of political activism in the Labour Party in the 1930s. The article focuses upon the relationships formed with leaders, the bonds with fellow women, and the emotional fulfilment politics could bring, rather than considering the policies and campaigns which drew women into the party. It suggests how working-class women performed a political self which was shaped by but distinctive from a domestic self. Official political party materials from across Britain are drawn upon to uncover how working-class women in the years after equal franchise was won carved out a political space and the meanings of activism. Party members' private and public portrayals of women's activism are considered. Although the focus is upon working-class women's political experiences, the conclusions drawn here have implications for how the creation of a political self can be considered in studies of other political parties and voluntary organizations.

Field of study: History
Effect of Heat Treatment on the Microstructures and Properties of Modified High Boron Cast Steel

The effect of quenching temperature on the microstructures and properties of high boron cast steel modified with rare earth and titanium has been investigated.The results show that the solidification structures of cast steel consists of high hardness boride,ferrite,pearlite and a small quantity of martenisite that is fabricated by adding a suitable boron element in the low carbon steel and modification with rare earth and titanium.The metallic matrix of modified high boron cast steel changes into the single martensite from the composite structures of ferrite,pearlite and martenisite along with the increase of quenching temperature.The increase in quenching temperature also leads to the transformation of boride from continuous shape to isolated shape and promotes the coarsening of boride.Moreover,when quenching temperature is increased,the hardness and impact toughness of high boron cast steel are increased also.The hardness and impact toughness have no obvious change while exceeding 1 000 ℃.High boron cast steel quenching at 1 000 ℃ consists of single martensite and isolated boride and has excellent wear resistance.

Field of study: Materials science
Could rapid diameter changes be facilitated by a variable hydraulic conductance?

Adequate radial water transport between elastic bark tissue and xylem is crucial in trees, because it smoothens abrupt changes in xylem water potential, greatly reducing the likelihood of suffering dangerous levels of embolism. The radial hydraulic conductance involved is generally thought to be constant. Evidence collected about variable root and leaf hydraulic conductance led us to speculate that radial hydraulic conductance in stem/branches might also be variable and possibly modulated by putative aquaporins. We therefore correlated diameter changes in walnut (Juglans regia L.) with changes in water potential, altered by perfusion of twig samples with D-mannitol solutions having different osmotic potentials. Temperature and cycloheximide (CHX; a protein synthesis inhibitor) treatments were performed. The temperature response and diameter change inhibition found in CHX-treated twigs underpinned our hypothesis that radial hydraulic conductance is variable and likely mediated by a putative aquaporin abundance and/or activity. Our data demonstrate that radial water transport in stem/branches can take two routes in parallel: an apoplastic and a cell-to-cell route. The contribution of either route depends on the hydraulic demand and is closely linked to a boost of putative aquaporins, causing radial conductance to be variable. This variability should be considered when interpreting and modelling diameter changes.

Field of study: Environmental science
SGK1: Aldosterone-Induced Relay of Na+ Transport Regulation in Distal Kidney Nephron Cells

Aldosterone increases within 30 min renal Na+reabsorption and K+secretion by a mechanism that is triggered at the level of gene transcription. Thus, gene products that are rapidly up- or down-regulated transmit this effect to the transport machinery within the distal nephron target cells. One such rapidly up-regulated gene product is a structural element of the transport machinery, namely the a subunit of ENaC. Its amount might in certain conditions play a rate limiting role for Na+transport. Cell-surface localization and function of ENaC and of the Na,K-ATPase are also tightly controlled by a complex regulatory network and aldosterone appears to acutely regulate the expression of elements of this network such as the small G-protein K-Ras (in A6 cells) and the kinase SGK1 (also in ENaC-expressing cells of the mammalian distal nephron). The kinase SGK1 is an early aldosterone-induced protein that relays signals from pathways that are transmitted via PDK1/2 and possibly PKA. Active SGK1 has been shown to increase ENaC and Na,K-ATPase cell-surface expression in Xenopus oocytes. This effect at the level of ENaC has been recently shown to be mediated by the ubiquitin ligase Nedd4-2 which is a direct target of SGK1. Once phosphorylated by SGK1, Nedd4-2 is prevented from interacting with ENaC and thus from decreasing ENaC cell-surface expression. This SGK1-Nedd4-2-ENaC pathway is the first direct link between aldosterone-induced transcriptional regulation and the function of the Na+transport machinery to be unravelled. The physiological importance of this pathway for mediating the aldosterone response in different target epithelia remains to be verified in vivo, in particular in view of the axial gradient of ENaC apical translocation observed along the aldosterone-sensitive distal nephron.

Field of study: Biology, Chemistry
Ca2+ transient induced by extracellular changes in osmotic pressure in Arabidopsis leaves: differential involvement of cell wall-plasma membrane adhesion.

We investigated the mechanism underlying the perception of extracellular changes in osmotic pressure in Vallisneria gigantea Graebner and transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. expressing cytoplasmic aequorin. Hypertonic and hypotonic treatments of A. thaliana leaves each rapidly induced a Ca2+ transient. Both responses were essentially dependent on the presence of extracellular Ca2+ and were sensitive to Gd3+ a potential blocker of stretch-activated Ca2+ channels. Immediately after plasmolysis caused by hypertonic treatment and subsequent deplasmolysis caused by hypotonic treatment, the cells did not respond to a second hypertonic treatment and exhibited an impaired adhesion of the plasma membrane (PM) to the cell wall (CW). Recovery of the responsiveness required about 6 h. By contrast, no refractory phenomenon was observed in response to hypotonic treatment. Pretreatment with cellulase completely inhibited the Ca2+ transient induced by hypertonic treatment, but it did not affect the response to hypotonic treatment. V. gigantea mesophyll cells pretreated with cellulase exhibited an impaired adhesion of the PM to the CW. The leaf cells of multicellular plants can respond to both hypertonic and hypotonic treatments through the stretch-activated Ca2+ channels, whereas cellulase-sensitive adhesion of the PM to the CW is involved only in the response to hypertonic treatment.

Field of study: Environmental science
Banking on interoperability: Secure, interoperable credential management

An interoperable credential system allows users to reference a single asymmetric key pair to logon to multiple web sites and digitally sign transactions. Models that govern how keys are created, authorized, validated, and revoked are a crucial part of such a system. These models have security, scalability, and liability implications for businesses, so the requirements vary depending on the parties involved. However, the prevailing the public key infrastructure (PKI) system does not meet these diverse needs. PKI requires a certificate authority (CA) to act as a trusted third party for the parties in a transaction. For example, PKI features a receiver key validation model that requires the receiver of the transaction to communicate with a CA to validate the sender’s key used to sign a transaction. These aspects conflict with liability concerns and interoperability goals of businesses doing high-value transactions such as wholesale banking. This paper presents Partner Key Management (PKM) as a mechanism which sufficiently addresses security and liability concerns of businesses performing high-value online transactions, and uses wholesale banking as the motivating example. PKM does not rely on a trusted third party, and features several flexible revocation models to accommodate diverse regulations. PKM is not merely a proposal. Rather, the financial industry has implemented the technology in some of its wholesale banking sites thereby securing millions of dollars of transactions every day. Finally, this paper justifies the security of PKM and its flexible revocation models; and illustrates the justification with proofs through formal logic.

Field of study: Computer science
Biodegradation of pesticides in soil: Rapid induction of carbamate degrading factors after carbofuran treatment

Degradation rates of carbofuran were greatly increased by a single 10 ppm carbofuran pre‐treatment of a sandy loam soil with no previous history of pesticide use. Thorough mixing was required to homogeneously distribute the active agent(s). Numbers of bacteria and fungi were not affected by the pre‐treatment, but the drastic reduction in activity produced by heat sterilization, freezing or drying suggests soil microorganisms are the active agents. Increased degradation rates for a variety of aryl‐ and oximino‐ methyl carbamates were observed in carbofuran‐activate'd soil but this soil did not affect the degradation rates of the thiolcarbamate, butylate, the phenylcarbamate, chlorpropham or the organophosphorus insecticide, phorate.

Field of study: Agricultural and Food sciences
Remote plasma-enhanced CVD of silicon: Reaction kinetics as a function of growth parameters

The reaction kinetics in Remote Plasma-enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (RPCVD) have been studied for a chamber pressure of 200 mTorr, rf powers between 4 and 8 W, diluted silane flow rates between 5 and 40 sccm, and temperatures between 190 and 480° C. The observed temperature dependence of growth rate reveals a change in activation energy at 300–325° C, suggesting that hydrogen desorption is the rate limiting step in the deposition reaction. A strong dependence of growth rate on rf power has been attributed in part to the extension of the glow discharge region closer to the substrate at higher rf powers. Growth rate has been shown to increase when the sample is positioned closer to the glow, indicating that the reaction precursor is a short-lived species, probably SiH2 or SiH3. Growth rate has been shown to exhibit a sublinear dependence on silane partial pressure. Oxygen incorporation in the deposited films has been studied using Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS), and it has been found that the main source of oxygen contamination is the process gases. However, it has also been found that “point of use” purification of the process gases reduces water and oxygen contamination significantly, reducing the oxygen incorporation in the films by an order of magnitude.

Field of study: Materials science
Stability and oscillation of MTG high-T/sub c/ superconductors in inhomogeneous magnetic field

The dependencies of the oscillation amplitude on the oscillation frequency of high-T/sub c/ superconducting (HTSC) melt-texture growth (MTG) ball-sample suspended or levitated in an inhomogeneous magnetic field have been investigated. The dependence of the oscillation amplitude versus the oscillation frequency has maxima. The rotation of the levitated or suspended MTG ring-sample in the rotating magnetic field have been studied. The curve of the sample rotation frequency versus the magnet rotation frequency has maxima which correlate with maxima of the dependence of the oscillation amplitude of the levitated HTSC MTG ball-sample on the frequency of the external magnetic field.

Field of study: Physics
Different handling of parathyrin by basal-lateral and brush-border membranes of the bovine kidney cortex.

The two parts of the bovine kidney cortex plasma membrane, the basal-lateral and the brush-border membrane, were simultaneously prepared from the same organ. Both types of membrane bound parathyrin, but only from the basal-lateral fraction was the hormone displaceable by its bioactive N-terminal fragment. In parallel, parathyrin-stimulated adenylate cyclase was predominantly found in basal-lateral membranes. The hormone was fragmented by both membrane types. Basal-lateral membranes generated fragments with a rather uniform size distribution (somewhat smaller than the intact peptide) and apparently preferred the hormone itself as a substrate. In contrast, the fragments produced by brush-border membranes were numberous small peptides.

Field of study: Biology, Computer science
Studies on the specificity of agglutinins against human erythrocytes modified by Newcastle disease virus.

The specificity of agglutinins in human sera against human erythrocytes modified by Newcastle disease virus (NDV-O agglutinins) was studied with agglutination and agglutination inhibition techniques. Virus grown in both embryonic eggs and tissue culture was used in the experiments. The findings were compatible with the existence of four specificities of agglutinins. In some sera, including those from subjects recently inoculated with vaccines prepared in eggs, the agglutinins were directed against a component of the allantoic fluid. In high-titred infectious mononucleosis (IM sera the agglutinins were directed against antigenic groupings present in the Vic strain but not the B1 strain of NDV, whereas in certain other sera they were directed against antigens present in both of them. Finally, in some sera the agglutinins probably reacted with a red cell antigen uncovered by the viral neuraminidase.

Field of study: Biology, Medicine
ABSOLUTE AGE OF THE FISSET BROOK FORMATION AND THE DEVONIAN-MISSISSIPPIAN BOUNDARY, CAPE BRETON ISLAND, NOVA SCOTIA

The Fisset Brook formation of sedimentary and volcanic rocks crops out in the Cheticamp area of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Its stratigraphic age has been determined as earliest Mississippian using spores contained in the sedimentary members. A rubidium–strontium age determination using whole-rock samples of the volcanic members has yielded an age of 349 ± 15 million years. This is in good agreement with age determinations elsewhere for the Devonian–Mississippian boundary. Similar rocks exposed to the east of Lake Ainslie, some thirty miles to the southwest, give an identical age, 348 ± 20 million years. These rocks are clearly correlative with the Fisset Brook formation. Mixed sedimentary and volcanic rocks in the Cape St. Lawrence area, some thirty miles to the northeast of Fisset Brook, appear to be significantly older, 462 ± 25 million years, and should be considered tentatively as Ordovician in age.

Field of study: Environmental science
Wireless Sensor Network for Wearable Physiological Monitoring

Wearable physiological monitoring system consists of an array of sensors embedded into the fabric of the wearer to continuously monitor the physiological parameters and transmit wireless to a remote monitoring station. At the remote monitoring station the data is correlated to study the overall health status of the wearer. In the conventional wearable physiological monitoring system, the sensors are integrated at specific locations on the vest and are interconnected to the wearable data acquisition hardware by wires woven into the fabric. The drawbacks associated with these systems are the cables woven in the fabric pickup noise such as power line interference and signals from nearby radiating sources and thereby corrupting the physiological signals. Also repositioning the sensors in the fabric is difficult once integrated. The problems can be overcome by the use of physiological sensors with miniaturized electronics to condition, process, digitize and wireless transmission integrated into the single module. These sensors are strategically placed at various locations on the vest. Number of sensors integrated into the fabric form a network (Personal Area Network) and interacts with the human system to acquire and transmit the physiological data to a wearable data acquisition system. The wearable data acquisition hardware collects the data from various sensors and transmits the processed data to the remote monitoring station. The paper discusses wireless sensor network and its application to wearable physiological monitoring and its applications. Also the problems associated with conventional wearable physiological monitoring are discussed.

Field of study: Computer science
Selected Human Resources Factors as Determinants of Performance Management Framework Implementation in Kenya

The purpose of this paper is to examine human resource factors on implementation of performance management framework in Kenya and, specifically, at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH). The theory of planned behaviour and the Balanced Score Card Model were used to show how people are linked to the success of the organization. This study adopted an explanatory design that used an in depth investigation of an Institution in form of case study which was undertaken at MTRH Eldoret. The target population was all the staff of MTRH, who numbered 2,040, but a sample of each department was selected, totalling 510 respondents through simple random and stratified sampling techniques out of which 505(99%) subjects responded. The study utilized questionnaires for data collection. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. Specifically Manova analysis, Correlation analysis, Factor analysis and SEMPATH model, with the help of SPSS /Amos model programme, were used to validate and test the hypotheses. Results of hypothesis testing indicate that employee attitude and leadership style have a significant relationship with implementation of performance management. The first model showed that leadership style was found not to likely affect implementation with other variable at the standardized regression measured .01 and was not significant at p>.05. This was supported by a strong correlation between leadership and attitude at .85 as compared with .37 with implementation of performance management. A second model was therefore tested whereby leadership style were conceptualized to influence attitude and in retrospect attitude affect implementation of performance management. The standardized regression between attitude and performance management directly was .41. The study established that leadership style influence attitude which, in turn, determine employee relationship with the implementation of performance management framework. It was therefore recommended that, to effectively manage the implementation of performance framework, an organization should put in place: the right strategies which can position the organization well and allow all the concerned parties execute their duties to great heights.

Field of study: Business
Bemerkung zu J. H. de Boer und M. C. Teves: Thermische und photoelektrische Emission von Cäsium-Cäsiumoxyd-Kathoden und deren Beeinflussung durch Einbau von Cäsiumatomen in das Dielektrikum

ZusammenfassungEs wird gezeigt, daß durch Einlagerung von Cäsiumatomen in dicke Cs2O-Schichten eine wesentlich größere Quantenausbeute erzielt werden kann als an Cs2 O-Schichten mit an der Oberfläche adsorbierten Cs-Ionen. Ferner wird eine neue Methode zur Herstellung von Cs2O-Schichten mit eingelagerten Cäsiumatomen angegeben.

Field of study: Physics
Simulation of the influence of TiAl3 layers on the thermal-electrical and mechanical behaviour of Al metallizations

Ti/TiN metallizations form TiAl 3 layers during the annealing process. The influence of TiAl 3 layers on the thermal–electrical–mechanical behaviour is investigated here. For high temperature automotive and industrial applications in a 0.35 μm CMOS process the test structures have to be approved. The thermal–electrical–mechanical behaviour of the test structures is calculated by simulations. Two aluminium deposition temperatures of 250 °C and 470 °C were considered. The Ti-based layer thicknesses forming the TiAl 3 as well as the whole metallization thickness were investigated. The simulations show a good correlation with measurements.

Field of study: Engineering