nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Backstepping Based Control of PWM DC-DC Boost Power Converters

This paper focuses on the problem of controlling DC-to-DC switched power converter of Boost type. The system nonlinear feature is coped with by resorting to the backstepping control approach. Both adaptive and nonadaptive versions are designed and shown to yield quite interesting tracking and robustness performances. A comparison study shows that backstepping nonlinear controllers perform as well as passivity- based controllers. For both the choice of design parameters proves to be crucial to ensure robustness with respect to load resistance variations. From this viewpoint, adaptive backstepping controllers are more interesting as they prove to be less sensitive to design parameters.
All in good time: the Arabidopsis circadian clock.

Biological time-keeping mechanisms have fascinated researchers since the movement of leaves with a daily rhythm was first described >270 years ago. The circadian clock confers a approximately 24-hour rhythm on a range of processes including leaf movements and the expression of some genes. Molecular mechanisms and components underlying clock function have been described in recent years for several animal and prokaryotic organisms, and those of plants are beginning to be characterized. The emerging model of the Arabidopsis clock has mechanistic parallels with the clocks of other model organisms, which consist of positive and negative feedback loops, but the molecular components appear to be unique to plants.
Building Brand Equity through Advertising Africa Makasi

The study examined the impact of advertising on building brand equity in Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Auction floors. In this study, 100 farmers were selected from 88 244 farmers registered in the four tobacco growing regions of country. A structured questionnaire was used as a tool to collect primary data. A pilot survey with 20 participants was initially conducted to test the reliability of the questionnaire. Results of the pilot study were analysed to test for reliability using SPSS.Results of the study found that advertising affects brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand association and perceived quality. 55% of the respondents agreed that advertising changed their perceived quality on auction floors. A linear regression analysis was performed to predict brand quality as a function of the type of farmer, source of information, competitive average pricing, loyalty, input assistance, service delivery, number of floors, advert mode, customer service, floor reputation and attitude. There was a strong relationship between brand quality and the independent variables as depicted by the regression coefficient of 0.885 and the model fit is perfect at 78.3%. From the ANOVA tables, a good fit was established between advertising and brand equity with p=0.001 which is less than the significance level of 0.05. While previous researches concentrated on the elements of brand equity as suggested by Keller’s brand equity model, this research has managed to extend the body of knowledge on brand equity by exploring the role of advertising. Future research should assess the relationship between advertising and a brand association.
On Defining Virtual Emotional Intelligence

In this paper virtual teams are defined as living systems and as such made up of people with different needs and characteristics. Groups generally perform better when they are able to establish a high level of group cohesion. According to Druskat and Wolff [2001] this status can be reached by establishing group emotional intelligence. Group emotional intelligence is reached via interactions among members and the interactions are allowed through the disposable linking factors. Virtual linking factors differ from traditional linking factors; therefore, the concept of Virtual Emotional Intelligence is here introduced in order to distinguish the group cohesion reaching process in virtual teams.
Wnt signaling pathway participates in valproic acid-induced neuronal differentiation of neural stem cells.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are multipotent cells that have the capacity for differentiation into the major cell types of the nervous system, i.e. neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Valproic acid (VPA) is a widely prescribed drug for seizures and bipolar disorder in clinic. Previously, a number of researches have been shown that VPA has differential effects on growth, proliferation and differentiation in many types of cells. However, whether VPA can induce NSCs from embryonic cerebral cortex differentiate into neurons and its possible molecular mechanism is also not clear. Wnt signaling is implicated in the control of cell growth and differentiation during CNS development in animal model, but its action at the cellular level has been poorly understood. In this experiment, we examined neuronal differentiation of NSCs induced by VPA culture media using vitro immunochemistry assay. The neuronal differentiation of NSCs was examined after treated with 0.75 mM VPA for three, seven and ten days. RT-PCR assay was employed to examine the level of Wnt-3α and β-catenin. The results indicated that there were more β-tublin III positive cells in NSCs treated with VPA medium compared to the control group. The expression of Wnt-3α and β-catenin in NSCs treated with VPA medium was significantly greater compared to that of control media. In conclusion, these findings indicated that VPA could induce neuronal differentiation of NSCs by activating Wnt signal pathway.
Data Mining Approach for Analyzing Call Center Performance

The aim of our research was to apply well-known data mining techniques (such as linear neural networks, multi-layered perceptrons, probabilistic neural networks, classification and regression trees, support vector machines and finally a hybrid decision tree – neural network approach) to the problem of predicting the quality of service in call centers; based on the performance data actually collected in a call center of a large insurance company. Our aim was two-fold. First, to compare the performance of models built using the abovementioned techniques and, second, to analyze the characteristics of the input sensitivity in order to better understand the relationship between the performance evaluation process and the actual performance and in this way help improve the performance of call centers. In this paper we summarize our findings.
Learning to Classify Text from Labeled and Unlabeled Documents

In many important ext classification problems, acquiring class labels for training documents is costly, while gathering large quantities of unlabeled ata is cheap. This paper shows that the accuracy of text classifiers trained with a small number of labeled documents can be improved by augmenting this small training set with a large pool of unlabeled documents. We present a theoretical argument showing that, under common assumptions, unlabeled data contain information about the target function. We then introduce an algorithm for learning from labeled and unlabeled text based on the combination of Expectation-Maximization with a naive Bayes classifier. The algorithm first trains a classifter using the available labeled documents, and probabilistically labels the unlabeled documents; it then trains a new classifier using the labels for all the documents, and iterates to convergence. Experimental results, obtained using text from three different realworld tasks, show that the use of unlabeled data reduces classification error by up to 33%.
On the Critical Role of Divergent Selection in Evolvability

An ambitious goal in evolutionary robotics (ER) is to evolve increasingly complex robotic behaviors with minimal human design effort. Reaching this goal requires evolutionary algorithms that can unlock from genetic encodings their latent potential for evolvability. One issue clouding this goal is conceptual confusion about evolvability that often obscures important or desirable aspects of evolvability. The danger from such confusion is that it may establish unrealistic goals for evolvability that prove unproductive in practice. An important issue separate from conceptual confusion is the common misalignment between selection and evolvability in ER. While more expressive encodings can represent higher-level adaptations (e.g. sexual reproduction or developmental systems) that increase long-term evolutionary potential (i.e. evolvability), realizing such potential requires gradients of fitness and evolvability to align. In other words, selection is often a critical factor limiting increasing evolvability. Thus, drawing from a series of recent papers, this article seeks to both (1) clarify and focus the ways in which the term evolvability is used within artificial evolution and (2) argue for the importance of one type of selection, i.e. divergent selection, for enabling evolvability. The main argument is that there is a fundamental connection between divergent selection and evolvability (on both the individual and population level) that does not hold for typical goal-oriented selection. The conclusion is that selection pressure plays a critical role in realizing the potential for evolvability and that divergent selection in particular provides a principled mechanism for encouraging evolvability in artificial evolution.
When Adults Don’t Exercise: Behavioral Strategies to Increase Physical Activity in Sedentary Middle-Aged and Older Adults

Physical activity is one of the most promising nonpharmacological, noninvasive, and cost-effective methods of health-promotion, yet statistics show that only a small percentage of middle-aged and older adults engage in the recommended amount of regular exercise. This state of affairs is less likely due to a lack of knowledge about the benefits of exercise than to failures of motivation and self-regulatory mechanisms. Many types of intervention programs target exercise in later life, but they typically do not achieve sustained behavior change, and there has been very little increase in the exercise rate in the population over the last decade. The goal of this paper is to consider the use of effective low-cost motivational and behavioral strategies for increasing physical activity, which could have far-reaching benefits at the individual and population levels. We present a multicomponent framework to guide development of behavior change interventions to increase and maintain physical activity among sedentary adults and others at risk for health problems. This involves a personalized approach to motivation and behavior change, which includes social support, goal setting, and positive affect coupled with cognitive restructuring of negative and self-defeating attitudes and misconceptions. These strategies can lead to increases in exercise self-efficacy and control beliefs as well as self- management skills such as self-regulation and action planning, which in turn are expected to lead to long-term increases in activity. These changes in activity frequency and intensity can ultimately lead to improvements in physical and psychological well-being among middle-aged and older adults, including those from underserved, vulnerable populations. Even a modest increase in physical activity can have a significant impact on health and quality of life. Recommendations for future interventions include a focus on ways to achieve personalized approaches, broad outreach, and maintenance of behavior changes.
Four new species of Ixora (Rubiaceae, Ixoreae) from Brazil

Four new species of Ixora (Rubiaceae, Ixoreae) from Brazil are described and illustrated and their relationships to morphologically similar species as well as their conservation status are discussed. The new species, Ixora cabraliensis, Ixora emygdioi, Ixora grazielae, and Ixora pilosostyla are endemic to the Atlantic Forest of southern Bahia and Espirito Santo. São descritas e ilustradas quatro novas espécies de Ixora (Rubiaceae, Ixoreae) para o Brasil bem como discutidos o relacionamento morfológico com espécies mais similares e o estado de conservação. As novas espécies Ixora cabraliensis, Ixora emygdioi, Ixora grazielae e Ixora pilosostyla são endêmicas da Floresta Atlântica, no trecho do sul do estado da Bahia e o estado do Espírito Santo.
Measuring Cognitive Activities in Software Engineering

This paper presents an approach to the study of cognitive activities in collaborative software development. This approach has been developed by a multidisciplinary team made up of software engineers and cognitive psychologists. The basis of this approach is to improve our understanding of software development by observing professionals at work. The goal is to derive lines of conduct or good practices based on observations and analyses of the processes that are naturally used by software engineers. The strategy involved is derived from a standard approach in cognitive science. It is based on the videotaping of the activities of software engineers, transcription of the videos, coding of the transcription, defining categories from the coded episodes and defining cognitive behaviors or dialogs from the categories. This project presents two original contributions that make this approach generic in software engineering. The first contribution is the introduction of a formal hierarchical coding scheme, which will enable comparison of various types of observations. The second is the merging of psychological and statistical analysis approaches to build a cognitive model. The details of this new approach are illustrated with the initial data obtained from the analysis of technical review meetings.
4 . 2 : Design of an Improved Pixel for a Polysilicon Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode Display

A polysilicon transistor based active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) pixel with high pixel to pixel luminance uniformity is reported. The new pixel powers the OLEDs with small constant currents to ensure consistent brightness and extended life. Excellent pixel to pixel current drive uniformity is obtained despite the threshold voltage variation inherent in polysilicon transistors. Other considerations in the design of pixels for high information content AMOLED displays are discussed.
Weighted-Graph-Coloring-Based Pilot Decontamination for Multicell Massive MIMO Systems

A multicell massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system, which utilizes a large number of base-station antennas to simultaneously serve a set of users, suffers from pilot contamination (PC) due to unavoidable reuse of pilots in adjacent cells. In this paper, a weighted-graph-coloring-based pilot decontamination (WGC-PD) scheme is proposed to mitigate PC for multicell massive MIMO systems. Specifically, based on limited cooperation among cells, an edge-weighted interference graph (EWIG) is first constructed to depict the potential PC relationship among users, whereby two users in different cells are connected by a weighted edge, indicating the strength of potential PC when they reuse the same pilot. Then, inspired by classical graph coloring algorithms, we develop the WGC-PD scheme by denoting each color as a pilot and each vertex as a user in the EWIG, which is able to mitigate PC by assigning different pilots to connected users with a large weight in a greedy way with insufficient pilot resource. Compared with exhaustive search among numerous pilot assignment solutions, the proposed WGC-PD scheme is able to mitigate PC with significantly reduced complexity, which is verified by numerical results.
Ranking facial attractiveness.

The first aim of this investigation was to assemble a group of photographs of 30 male and 30 female faces representing a standardized spectrum of facial attractiveness, against which orthognathic treatment outcomes could be compared. The second aim was to investigate the influence of the relationship between ANB differences and anterior lower face height (ALFH) percentages on facial attractiveness. The initial sample comprised standardized photographs of 41 female and 35 male Caucasian subjects. From these, the photographs of two groups of 30 male and 30 female subjects were compiled. A panel of six clinicians and six non-clinicians ranked the photographs. The results showed there to be a good level of reliability for each assessor when ranking the photographs on two occasions, particularly for the clinicians (female subjects r = 0.76-0.97, male subjects r = 0.72-0.94). Agreement among individuals within each group was also high, particularly when ranking facial attractiveness in male subjects (female subjects r = 0.57-0.84, male subjects r = 0.91-0.94). Antero-posterior (AP) discrepancies, as measured by soft tissue ANB, showed minimal correlation with facial attractiveness. However, a trend emerged that would suggest that in faces where the ANB varies widely from 5 degrees, the face is considered less attractive. The ALFH percentage also showed minimal correlation with facial attractiveness. However, there was a trend that suggested that greater ALFH percentages are considered less attractive in female faces, while in males the opposite trend was seen. Either of the two series of ranked photographs as judged by clinicians and non-clinicians could be used as a standard against which facial attractiveness could be assessed, as both were in total agreement about the most attractive faces. However, to judge the outcome of orthognathic treatment, the series of ranked photographs produced by the non-clinician group should be used as the 'standard' to reflect lay opinion.
A review of genome-wide association studies for multiple sclerosis: classical and hypothesis-driven approaches

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a common complex neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system. It develops with autoimmune inflammation and demyelination. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) serve as a powerful tool for investigating the genetic architecture of MS and are generally used to identify the genetic factors of disease susceptibility, clinical phenotypes, and treatment response. This review considers the main achievements and challenges of using GWAS to identify the genes involved in MS. It also describes hypothesis-driven studies with extensive genome coverage of the selected regions, complementary to GWASs. To date, over 100 MS risk loci have been identified by the combination of both approaches; 40 of them were found in at least two GWASs and meet genome-wide significance threshold (p ≤ 5 × 10−8) in at least one GWAS, whereas the threshold for the rest of GWASs was set in our review at p < 1 × 10−5. Yet, MS risk loci identified to date explain only a part of the total heritability, and the reasons of “missing heritability” are discussed. The functions of MS-associated genes are described briefly; the majority of them encode immune-response proteins involved in the main stages of MS pathogenesis.
Low-cost USB interface for operant research using Arduino and Visual Basic.

This note describes the design of a low-cost interface using Arduino microcontroller boards and Visual Basic programming for operant conditioning research. The board executes one program in Arduino programming language that polls the state of the inputs and generates outputs in an operant chamber. This program communicates through a USB port with another program written in Visual Basic 2010 Express Edition running on a laptop, desktop, netbook computer, or even a tablet equipped with Windows operating system. The Visual Basic program controls schedules of reinforcement and records real-time data. A single Arduino board can be used to control a total of 52 inputs/output lines, and multiple Arduino boards can be used to control multiple operant chambers. An external power supply and a series of micro relays are required to control 28-V DC devices commonly used in operant chambers. Instructions for downloading and using the programs to generate simple and concurrent schedules of reinforcement are provided. Testing suggests that the interface is reliable, accurate, and could serve as an inexpensive alternative to commercial equipment.
Semantic soft segmentation

Accurate representation of soft transitions between image regions is essential for high-quality image editing and compositing. Current techniques for generating such representations depend heavily on interaction by a skilled visual artist, as creating such accurate object selections is a tedious task. In this work, we introduce semantic soft segments, a set of layers that correspond to semantically meaningful regions in an image with accurate soft transitions between different objects. We approach this problem from a spectral segmentation angle and propose a graph structure that embeds texture and color features from the image as well as higher-level semantic information generated by a neural network. The soft segments are generated via eigendecomposition of the carefully constructed Laplacian matrix fully automatically. We demonstrate that otherwise complex image editing tasks can be done with little effort using semantic soft segments.
Combining a harmonic-based NMF decomposition with transient analysis for instantaneous percussion separation

Many recent approaches on musical source separation rely on model-based inference methods that take into account the signal's harmonic structure. To address the particular case of instantaneous percussion separation, we propose a method that combines a harmonic-based decomposition using a Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) algorithm, with the transient analysis of spectral peaks from a single audio frame. The signal model allows the estimation of harmonic and non-harmonic sources. Later, as shown in the evaluation, adding transient peak information improves the Signal-to-Distortion Ratio (SDR). Compared to other existing methods, this approach achieves a comparable performance, being suitable at the same time for low-latency conditions.
Maturogenesis of a cariously exposed immature permanent tooth using MTA for direct pulp capping: a case report.

Successful direct pulp capping of cariously exposed permanent teeth with reversible pulpitis and incomplete apex formation can prevent the need for root canal treatment. A case report is presented which demonstrates the use of mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) as a direct pulp capping material for the purpose of continued maturogenesis of the root. Clinical and radiographic follow-up demonstrated a vital pulp and physiologic root development in comparison with the contralateral tooth. MTA can be considered as an effective material for vital pulp therapy, with the goal of maturogenesis.
A Mars VTOL Aerobot - Preliminary Design, Dynamics and Control

In this paper, we propose the use of a novel fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aerobot. A mission profile to investigate the Isidis Planitia region of Mars is proposed based on the knowledge of the planet's geophysical characteristics, its atmosphere and terrain. The aerobot design is described from the aspects of vehicle selection, its propulsion system, power system, payload, thermal management, structure, mass budget, and control strategy and sensor suite. The aerobot proposed in this paper is believed to be a practical and realistic solution to the problem of investigating the Martian surface. A six-degree-of-freedom flight simulator has been created to support the aerobot design process by providing performance evaluations. The nonlinear dynamics is then linearized to a state-space formulation at a certain trimmed equilibrium point. Basic autopilot modes are developed for the aerobot based on the linearized state-space model. The results of the simulation show the aerobot is stable and controllable.
Multipath Estimation in the Global Positioning System for Multicorrelator Receivers

In urban areas, multipath (MP) is one of the main error sources when tracking signals used in global navigation satellite systems. The received signals subjected to MP are the sum of several delayed replicas leading to biased estimations. This paper studies a sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) algorithm which mitigates MP effects. The proposed algorithm is based on a state-space model associated to a multicorrelator GPS receiver and on a Rao Blackwellized technique which allows to achieve good performance.