nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
The role of vitamin D in male fertility: A focus on the testis
Venue: Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders
Year: 2017

In the last decade, vitamin D has emerged as a pleiotropic molecule with a multitude of autocrine, paracrine and endocrine functions, mediated by classical genomic as well as non classical non genomic actions, on multiple target organs and systems. The expression of vitamin D receptor and vitamin D metabolizing enzymes in male reproductive system, particularly in the testis, suggests the occurrence of vitamin D synthesis and regulation as well as function in the testis. The role of vitamin D in the modulation of testis functions, including hormone production and spermatogenesis, has been investigated in animals and humans. Experimental studies support a beneficial effect of vitamin D on male fertility, by modulating hormone production through genomic and non genomic actions, and, particularly, by improving semen quality essentially through non genomic actions. However, clinical studies in humans are controversial. Indeed, vitamin D seems to contribute to the modulation of the bioavailable rather than total testosterone. Moreover, although an increased prevalence or risk for testosterone deficiency was reported in men with vitamin D deficiency in observational studies, the majority of interventional studies demonstrated the lack of effect of vitamin D supplementation on circulating levels of testosterone. The most consistent effect of vitamin D was reported on semen quality. Indeed, vitamin D was shown to be positively associated to sperm motility, and to exert direct actions on spermatozoa, including non genomic driven modulation of intracellular calcium homeostasis and activation of molecular pathways involved in sperm motility, capacitation and acrosome reaction. The current review provides a summary of current knowledge on the role of vitamin D in male fertility, by reporting clinical and experimental studies in humans and animals addressing the relationship between vitamin D and testis function.
Estimation of the glottal flow from speech pressure signals: Evaluation of three variants of iterative adaptive inverse filtering using computational physical modelling of voice production
Venue: Speech Commun.
Year: 2018

The aim of this study is to comparatively review and evaluate three variants of the glottal inverse filtering algorithm based on iterative adaptive inverse filtering (IAIF) the Standard algorithm, and two recently proposed variants that use iterative optimal preemphasis (IOP) and a glottal flow model (GFM) respectively. To enable an objective evaluation, a computational physical model of voice production is used to generate time domain signals pertaining to both the input glottal flow and the output speech pressure, for a wide range of vowels, fundamental frequencies, and voice qualities (involving co variation of phonation type and loudness) Furthermore, for a fair comparison, the three key parameters of IAIF are selected by an exhaustive search to minimize the root mean square error between the estimated and reference glottal flow derivative in each analyzed frame and performance is assessed with two time domain and two frequency domain error measures. A conventional evaluation is also carried out with fixed parameter values determined by cross validation. Results indicate that IOP tends to yield the lowest errors for nonback vowels (reducing errors by 31% on average compared with Standard) especially for not too high fundamental frequencies and not too pressed voice qualities; GFM becomes competitive for normal phonations when fixed parameter values are used; and in other cases, Standard IAIF is still recommended. In addition, the results suggest that not only the overall spectral tilt (as controlled by IOP and GFM) but also the balance between the levels of different spectral regions, can be important for accurate estimation of the glottal flow.
Urban green space cooling effect in cities
Venue: Heliyon
Year: 2019

Urban green spaces are considered an appropriate way to reduce urban heat island effects and provide comfort to the nearby occupants. In addition to cooling the actual space, urban green spaces are also able to influence the surrounding area, and this phenomenon is called the urban green space cooling effect. The most important issues with regard to the cooling effects of urban green spaces are the intensity and density of the cooling, which can play a major role for urban designers and planners in dealing with urban heat island. This article reviews the latest studies that have examined the cooling effects of urban green spaces in recent years. Based on the method of evaluation of their samples, the studies are divided into three groups. The first category consists of research into a set of urban green spaces in one part of or in an entire city, mainly conducted through remote sensing and satellite maps. The second category investigates city parks or several urban parks with recognizable shapes and locations. In this section, information was mainly gathered by virtue of field observations. The third category relates to studies in which a part of urban space according to different scenarios of green space placement was modeled by simulation. The results of the present study illustrate that the highest cooling effect distance and cooling effect intensity are for large urban parks with an area of more than 10 ha; however, in addition to the area, the natural elements and qualities of the urban green spaces, as well as climate characteristics, highly inform the urban green space cooling effect.
Advances in shrub willow crops for bioenergy, renewable products, and environmental benefits.
Year: 2016

Short rotation coppice systems like shrub willow are projected to be an important source of biomass in the United States for the production of bioenergy, biofuels, and renewable bio based products, with the potential for auxiliary environmental benefits and multifunctional systems. Almost three decades of research has focused on the development of shrub willow crops for biomass and ecosystem services. The current expansion of willow in New York State (about 500 ha) for the production of renewable power and heat has been possible because of incentive programs offered by the federal government, commitments by end users, the development of reliable harvesting systems, and extension services offered to growers. Improvements in the economics of the system are expected as willow production expands further, which should help lower establishment costs, enhance crop management options and increase efficiencies in harvesting and logistics. As a result, deploying willow in multifunctional value added systems provides opportunities for both potential producers and end users to learn about the system and the quality of the biomass feedstock, which in turn will help overcome barriers to expansion.
Block allograft technique versus standard guided bone regeneration: a randomized clinical trial.
Venue: Clinical implant dentistry and related research
Year: 2014

The aim of this randomized clinical trial was to compare the potential of deproteinized bovine bone added to autologous bone or corticocancellous allograft block with or without the addition of recombinant human platelet derived growth factor BB (rhPDGF BB) to regenerate mandibular atrophic ridges.   adult patients; bilateral atrophic edentulous areas in the posterior area of the mandible; a preoperatory cone beam computed tomography scan; and absence of systemic diseases affecting the bone metabolism. Bone graft intervention for control group consisted of bone chips collected with a scraper mixed with deproteinized bovine bone covered with a resorbable membrane. Bone graft intervention for test group consisted of a corticocancellous allograft block, shaped before surgery, and protected with a collagen membrane. In addition, both groups received rhPDGF BB or a saline solution as control. As primary outcome quantity, bone variation after a 1 year healing period was considered. A p value of.05 was considered statistically significant.  Sixteen patients were enrolled in this trial. A total of 50 implants and 32 bone grafts were placed. All patients concluded the study (no dropouts) Change at 1 year in bone volume was not significantly different between the two groups (p value .25) Effect of treatment in terms of change in bone volume at 1 year was not significant (p value .89) when saline solution was used while was at limit of significance when rhPDGF BB was used (p value .052) After 1 year, all the implants were successfully integrated.  The block allograft and the standard regenerative procedure showed similar results in terms of regenerated bone volume after 1 year of functional loading. The rhPDGF BB positively influenced soft tissue healing.
A top down positioning scheme for underwater wireless sensor networks
Venue: Science China Information Sciences
Year: 2013

In order to increase the localization coverage while keeping the localization error small in a unique network architecture in which there are not evenly distributed anchor nodes with great ability of communication or additional infrastructure, a Top down Positioning Scheme (TPS) for underwater acoustic sensor networks is proposed. By defining node's confidence reasonably, TPS insures the quality of the new reference nodes. TPS also refines the nodes which have just been positioned via the gradient method and helps non localized nodes search for more reference nodes via the new scheme for 3D Euclidean distance estimation. By comparing the new scheme for 3D Euclidean distance estimation with the existing scheme, the new scheme is shown to have greater ability to estimate two hop Euclidean distance in 3D space. Simulation results show that TPS which integrates node's confidence defined reasonably, the gradient method, and the new scheme for 3D Euclidean distance estimation can increase the localization coverage ratio, while keeping the localization error small.
Principles for public space design, planning to do better
Year: 2019

This paper sets out a series of normative principles for planners and others to use when planning for and regulating public space design and management. Based on an exhaustive examination of public space in London, the substance of which is reported elsewhere, a first section sets out three overarching principles relating to the critical but often missing strategic planning framework for the development and regeneration of public spaces. A second and final section sets out seven more detailed considerations for evaluating the quality of public space design. This is an unashamedly positive framework for shaping public space, based on the notion that public spaces in our cities come in many different forms and guises, but collectively add huge value to the experience and potential of urban areas. Consequently, they deserve serious consideration by those with regulatory and other responsibilities for their delivery.
Penerapan Aplikasi Komputer dalam Analisis Pengaruh Kualitas Pelayanan, Fasilitas dan Harga Terhadap Kepuasan Pelanggan (Studi Kasus: Kereta Api Ekonomi AC Yogyakarta)
Year: 2014

Teknologi informasi yang semakin berkembang, semakin memposisikan program komputer sebagai salah satu tool penting untuk membantu menyelesaikan suatu masalah. Dalam penentuan kualitas pelayanan, fasilitas, dan harga terhadap kepuasan pelanggan pada jasa transportasi kereta api ekonomi AC Yogyakarta dibantu oleh aplikasi komputer. Peranannya yang penting dapat membantu dalam pengolahan data dan beberapa pengujian data sehingga dapat dianalisis tentang pengaruh fasilitas, harga, pelayanan terhadap kepuasan pelanggannya. Analisis yang digunakan adalah analisis deskriptif dan inferensial. Oleh karena itu, aplikasi yang digunakan antara lain: (1) MS. Excel untuk pengolahan data mentah dengan membuat data dalam bentuk tabulasi untuk digunakan pada proses pengujian dan analisis; (2) SPSS untuk pengujian validitas dan reliabel untuk analisis deskriptif; (3) SmartPLS untuk pengujian indikator (outer model) dan pengujian hipotesis (inner model) untuk analisis inferensial. Hasil yang diperoleh bahwa: (1) aplikasi komputer cukup memiliki peranan penting dalam menentukan pengaruh variabel terhadap kepuasan pelanggan; (2) aplikasi cukup mudah digunakan, apabila pengguna menguasai teori dan konsep tentang metode analisis yang digunakan serta menyiapkan data yang lengkap sebagai syarat untuk analisis; (3) hasil pengujian dan analisis yang diperoleh cukup baik dan valid
The Emotional Confluence of Borders, Refugees and Visual Culture: The Case of Behrouz Boochani, Held in Australia's Offshore Detention Regime
Year: 2020

This article focuses on borders as both physical and metaphysical boundaries ones that are manifest in systems of meaning, punishment and surveillance. These systems operate on the human body as discipline and punishment in multiple ways. Drawing on a critical framework of the racialized carceral state, this article explores artistic and literary interventions by refugees against the architecture of externalized borders imposed by the Australian state. The works of the Kurdish Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani and his collaborators are explored as a case study. Boochani is subject to Australia's offshore detention regime, detained on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. This article asks what new concepts are needed to disrupt the hierarchy of humans that is a by product of the national border and its systems of control, criminalization and exclusion.
Analysis of the Application of Universal Design Standards to Interior Architecture Design
Year: 2019

A lot of research shows the findings of cases of public facilities that are not accessible to people with disabilities and see the importance of a design especially in the field of architecture interior that is able to produce a user friendly and barrier free built environment Accessibility rights for persons with disabilities are regulated in various regulations starting from the regulations in the central government in the form of laws, government regulations, to ministerial regulations on public works and regional regulations. There is one regulation of the minister of public works and Republic of Indonesia's public housing No.14 2017 which regulates the provision of facilities in buildings and the environment that meet the needs of all age groups and conditions of physical, mental, and intellectual, or sensory limitations based on the function of buildings users and visitors on activities in public buildings, but this guideline has not been discussed in detail. This study is intended to review the analysis of universal design standards in the Interior Architecture design process specifically in public buildings.  Universal Design, Evaluation, Architecture, Interior,
Impact of Autonomous Vehicles in Cities: User Perception
Venue: 2019 Smart City Symposium Prague (SCSP)
Year: 2019

Autonomous driving is a very important topic aiming on changing mobility in smart cities. A lot of research has been dedicated to development of vehicles without drivers and quite many tests and real world demonstrations have been reported especially in the last years. The first expectations were very optimistic. Researchers as well as general public expected high positive influence in the congestions, travel time and other mobility aspects. However, the latest research questions these purely positive expectations and suggest that autonomous driving might have positive or negative effect based on city policies in place.In order to gain a better understanding about the current expectations of general public about the impact of autonomous driving, a survey has been conducted as part of a European project MAVEN. This paper provides a short description of the survey design and then summarizes the main findings and results of this survey. The results can get us a better way to understand the feeling of citizens about autonomous vehicles and the transition to full automated cities.The results confirmed the general trends and at the same time gave us more insight into the special questions related to MAVEN use cases. These findings will be further validated in simulation experiments.
Applications of UV/Vis Spectroscopy in Characterization and Catalytic Activity of Noble Metal Nanoparticles Fabricated in Responsive Polymer Microgels: A Review
Venue: Critical reviews in analytical chemistry
Year: 2018

Noble metal nanoparticles loaded smart polymer microgels have gained much attention due to fascinating combination of their properties in a single system. These hybrid systems have been extensively used in biomedicines, photonics, and catalysis. Hybrid microgels are characterized by using various techniques but UV/Vis spectroscopy is an easily available technique for characterization of noble metal nanoparticles loaded microgels. This technique is widely used for determination of size and shape of metal nanoparticles. The tuning of optical properties of noble metal nanoparticles under various stimuli can be studied using UV/Vis spectroscopic method. Time course UV/Vis spectroscopy can also be used to monitor the kinetics of swelling and deswelling of microgels and hybrid microgels. Growth of metal nanoparticles in polymeric network or growth of polymeric network around metal nanoparticle core can be studied by using UV/Vis spectroscopy. This technique can also be used for investigation of various applications of hybrid materials in catalysis, photonics, and sensing. This tutorial review describes the uses of UV/Vis spectroscopy in characterization and catalytic applications of responsive hybrid microgels with respect to recent research progress in this area.
Rethinking System Health Management
Venue: ArXiv
Year: 2019

Health management of complex dynamic systems has traditionally evolved separately from automated control, planning, and scheduling (generally referred to in the paper as decision making) A goal of Integrated System Health Management has been to enable coordination between system health management and decision making, although successful practical implementations have remained limited. This paper proposes that, rather than being treated as connected, yet distinct entities, system health management and decision making should be unified in their formulations. Enabled by advances in modeling and computing, we argue that the unified approach will increase a system's operational effectiveness and may also lead to a lower overall system complexity. We overview the prevalent system health management methodology and illustrate its limitations through numerical examples. We then describe the proposed unification approach and show how it accommodates the typical system health management concepts.
Verification of an agent based disease model of human Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection
Venue: International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering
Year: 2021

Agent based models (ABMs) are a powerful class of computational models widely used to simulate complex phenomena in many different application areas. However, one of the most critical aspects, poorly investigated in the literature, regards an important step of the model credibility assessment: solution verification. This study overcomes this limitation by proposing a general verification framework for ABMs that aims at evaluating the numerical errors associated with the model. A step by step procedure, which consists of two main verification studies (deterministic and stochastic model verification) is described in detail and applied to a specific mission critical scenario: the quantification of the numerical approximation error for UISS TB, an ABM of the human immune system developed to predict the progression of pulmonary tuberculosis. Results provide indications on the possibility to use the proposed model verification workflow to systematically identify and quantify numerical approximation errors associated with UISS TB and, in general, with any other ABMs.
Structural insight into hormone recognition and transmembrane signaling by the atrial natriuretic peptide receptor
Year: 2020

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) is an endogenous and potent hypotensive hormone that elicits natriuretic, diuretic, vasorelaxant, and anti proliferative effects, which play a central role in the regulation of blood pressure and volume. To investigate the hormone binding and membrane signaling mechanisms mediated by the ANP receptor, we elucidated the crystal structures of the ANP receptor extracellular hormone binding domain (ANPR) complexed with full length ANP, truncated mutants of ANP, and dendroaspis natriuretic peptide (DNP) isolated from the venom of the green Mamba snake, Dendroaspis angusticeps. The bound peptides possessed pseudo two fold symmetry to which the tight coupling of the peptide to the receptor and guanylyl cyclase activity was attributed. The crystal structures and our results from kinetic experiments provide insight into the ligand recognition and transmembrane signaling mechanism of the ANP receptor. Our findings provide useful information that can be applied to drug discovery for heart failure therapies.
Genome Wide Study of KNOX Regulatory Network Reveals Brassinosteroid Catabolic Genes Important for Shoot Meristem Function in Rice[W][OPEN]
Venue: Plant Cell
Year: 2014

Gain and loss of function studies revealed that the rice KNOX transcription factor OSH1 negatively regulates the brassinosteroid (BR) phytohormone pathway. Genomics approaches identified BR catabolism genes as direct targets of OSH1 in the shoot meristems. RNAi knockdown studies suggested that BR catabolism is important for shoot meristem function and for regulation of panicle branch angle. In flowering plants, knotted1 like homeobox (KNOX) transcription factors play crucial roles in establishment and maintenance of the shoot apical meristem (SAM) from which aerial organs such as leaves, stems, and flowers initiate. We report that a rice (Oryza sativa) KNOX gene Oryza sativa homeobox1 (OSH1) represses the brassinosteroid (BR) phytohormone pathway through activation of BR catabolism genes. Inducible overexpression of OSH1 caused BR insensitivity, whereas loss of function showed a BR overproduction phenotype. Genome wide identification of loci bound and regulated by OSH1 revealed hormonal and transcriptional regulation as the major function of OSH1. Among these targets, BR catabolism genes CYP734A2, CYP734A4, and CYP734A6 were rapidly upregulated by OSH1 induction. Furthermore, RNA interference knockdown plants of CYP734A genes arrested growth of the SAM and mimicked some osh1 phenotypes. Thus, we suggest that local control of BR levels by KNOX genes is a key regulatory step in SAM function.