gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Efficiency of extraction and conversion of pseudoephedrine to methamphetamine from tamper-resistant and non-tamper-resistant formulations (2018)

Clandestine chemists have demonstrated an ability to convert commercially available pseudoephedrine formulations to methamphetamine. Some of these formulations have properties that manufacturers claim limit or block the extraction of pseudoephedrine and its direct conversion to methamphetamine. In this study, 3 commercially available pseudoephedrine formulations were evaluated for ease of extraction and conversion to methamphetamine using a common chemistry technique called the one-pot method that is frequently employed by clandestine chemists. Two marketed pseudoephedrine formulations with claimed tamper-resistant properties - Zephrex-D<sup>®</sup> and Nexafed<sup>®</sup> - were compared to Sunmark<sup>®</sup>, a comparator formulation of pseudoephedrine without tamper-resistant properties. Particle size reduction was conducted using 8 readily available tools; solubility was assessed using 2 common aqueous solutions and various reaction conditions (e.g., temperature, stirring); extractability was evaluated using 8 common organic solvents. The one-pot (single vessel) method commonly used in clandestine processes was employed; chemicals and equipment were purchased locally on the open market. Quantities and addition times of the chemicals used to carry out the procedure and the duration of the reaction were varied to determine the effect on methamphetamine yield. The procedure was appropriately scaled and conducted in a controlled environment to reduce risk and maximize yields. Pseudoephedrine and methamphetamine were quantified using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Standard quantitative procedures were used to determine the quantities of pseudoephedrine and methamphetamine recovered and produced, respectively. Particle size reduction resulted in some loss of material of each pseudoephedrine formulation; Zephrex-D tablets were broken down to a coarse material; Nexafed and Sunmark tablets were reduced to a fine powder. The solubility rates of intact and ground tablets varied by product; Zephrex-D was most resistant to solubilizing while Nexafed and Sunmark were comparable and dissolved completely, demonstrating no solubility-resistant properties. Conditions of the one-pot method were modified throughout the studies to increase methamphetamine yield. Using optimal parameters identified in these studies and allowing the reaction to proceed for 90 min, average percent conversions were similar for the 3 formulations: 43.3% for Zephrex-D, 46.4% for Nexafed, and 48.6% for Sunmark. The greatest conversion occurred with a 150 min reaction time and resulted in 44.8%-48.4% conversion of Zephrex-D, 54.1%-66.4% conversion of Nexafed, and 58.6%-71.8% conversion of Sunmark. This series of methodological evaluations demonstrated that clandestine chemists can readily produce similar yields of methamphetamine using pseudoephedrine products with and without claimed tamper-resistant technology.
Dynamic flip-flop with improved power (2000)

An improved design of a dynamic Flip-Flop is presented. Proposed design overcomes the problem of the glitch at the output and improves Power-Delay Product for about 10%, while preserving logic embedding property. This is accomplished by equalizing the t <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">pLH</inf> and t <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">pHL</inf> of the flip-flop and careful design of keeper elements in the circuit. New design introduces insignificant area increase.
Datatypes for Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) Properties (2005)

This specification extends the Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning Protocol (WebDAV) to support datatyping.Protocol elements are defined to let clients and servers specify the datatype, and to instruct the WebDAV method PROPFIND to return datatype information.
Succinic Semialdehyde Dehydrogenases of <i>Escherichia coli</i> (1981)

Two physically and genetically distinct forms of succinic-semialdehyde dehydrogenase have been identified in Escherichia coli B. The two enzymes could be separated by filtration on Sephadex G-150 and their apparent molecular weights were 200 000 and 97 000. The larger enzyme, which is specific for NADP, is induced by growth on gamma-aminobutyrate. Its induction is highly coordinated with that of gamma-aminobutyrate:2-oxoglutarate transaminase, the enzyme which initiates degradation of gamma-aminobutyrate. The smaller enzyme, which is induced by growth on p-hydroxyphenylacetate, has been purified to 98% homogeneity by affinity chromatography in conjunction with conventional methods. Under standard assay conditions this enzyme acts preferentially with NAD but reduces NADP at 15% of the rate observed for NAD, primarily because of a difference in Km. Apparent Km values for succinic semialdehyde and NAD are 13.3 +/- 1.3 microM and 33.7 +/- 1.4 microM, respectively. The subunit molecular weight was estimated to be 55 000, indicating that the native enzyme is dimeric. The NAD-dependent succinic-semialdehyde dehydrogenase is also induced by exposure of cells to exogenous succinic semialdehyde, a treatment which has no effect on the amount of other enzymes of p-hydroxyphenylacetate or gamma-aminobutyrate metabolism. Apparently the gene for this enzyme functions independently from the genes encoding the other enzymes of p-hydroxyphenyl-acetate degradation. As a consequence of its induction mechanism, this NAD-dependent dehydrogenase is also present in extracts of E. coli B grown with gamma-aminobutyrate as sole nitrogen source, in addition to the NADP-specific enzyme involved in gamma-aminobutyrate metabolism. Presumably the NAD-dependent enzyme is gratuitously induced by succinic semialdehyde formed by transamination of gamma-aminobutyrate.
Chemical Stability of Selenious Acid in Total Parenteral Nutrition Solutions Containing Ascorbic Acid (1989)

Reduction of selenious acid (H2SeO3) to elemental Se by ascorbic acid was investigated in regard to the stability of selenite in total parenteral nutrition (TPN) solutions. [75Se] H2SeO3 (100 micrograms Se/liter) was incubated at 25 degrees C with pure ascorbic acid (100 or 500 mg/liter) or added to complete TPN solutions containing similar levels of ascorbate. The mixtures were subjected to thin layer electrophoresis at pH 5.3 to separate HSeO3- from Se degree. In complete TPN formulas, little or no reduction of HSeO3- to Se degree occurred over a 24-hr period, whereas complete reduction occurred with pure ascorbic acid. Further experiments showed that the amino acid component of the TPN formula was preventing the reduction of selenite, and that reduction of selenite by ascorbate did not occur in buffered solutions having a pH of 5 or greater. These results show that reduction of selenite is strongly influenced by pH. At the concentrations of H2SeO3 and ascorbic acid commonly used, reduction to elemental Se is unlikely to be a practical problem in TPN solutions in the near-neutral pH range.
Route discovery optimisation for dynamic sourcerouting in mobile ad hoc networks (2000)

A new route discovery optimisation scheme based on unicast queries is proposed that results in as much as a 30% reduction in the number of query packets propagated whenever a new route needs to be discovered. It achieves this by unicasting the query packets along an existing route towards a target neighbour. Simulation results show that a network with a high degree of nodal mobility benefits most from this optimisation scheme.
Web Services Navigator: Visualizing the execution of Web Services (2005)

The Web Services standard is becoming the lingua franca for loosely coupled distributed applications. As the number of nodes and the complexity of these applications grow over the coming years, it will become more challenging for developers to understand, debug, and optimize them. In this paper, we describe Web Services Navigator, a visualization tool that fosters better understanding of service-oriented architecture (SOA) applications. We draw on our experience with real SOA applications to show how this tool has been applied to practical problems ranging from business logic misunderstandings to performance bottlenecks to syntax and semantic errors. Web Services Navigator helps to solve these problems by visualizing how applications really execute, enabling business owners, application designers, project managers, programmers, and operations staff to understand how their applications actually behave. We sketch the architecture of Web Services Navigator, outline how it reconstructs application execution from event logs, and describe how users interactively explore their applications using its five linked views.
Evaluation of femtosecond pulse shaping with low-loss phase-only masks (1998)

We numerically and experimentally evaluate the performance of programmable femtosecond pulse shaping with specified time-dependent amplitude and phase profiles using phase-only masks. With the masks that have discrete phase levels of /spl ges/4 designed by simulated annealing optimization algorithm, various pulses with arbitrarily specified amplitudes, pulsewidths, and pulse intervals are obtained with high accuracy. However, when specifying temporal phase profiles together with the amplitude, the range of shaped output pulses that can be produced with phase-only masks is somewhat limited even with a phase level of 64. The efficiency of transmitted optical power in the experiments is /spl sim/60%, mainly due to the diffraction loss at a grating pair, which is much higher than that using an amplitude-and-phase mask.
Interactions of the quorum sensing regulator QscR: interaction with itself and the other regulators of <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> LasR and RhlR (2003)

Pseudomonas aeruginosa controls the production of many exoproteins and secondary metabolites via a hierarchical quorum sensing (QS) regulatory cascade involving the LuxR-like proteins LasR, RhlR and their cognate signal molecules N-(3-oxododecanoyl)-l-homoserine lactone (3O-C12-HSL) and N-(butanoyl)-l-homoserine lactone (C4-HSL). The finding of a third LuxR-type protein in P. aeruginosa, QscR, adds further complexity to this regulatory network. It has been shown previously that QscR represses transcription of three QS-controlled gene clusters, phz (phenazine), hcn (hydrogen cyanide) and qsc105 (Chugani, Whiteley, Lee, D'Argenio, Manoil, and Greenberg, 2001, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98: 2752-2757). In this study, we identify two novel QscR targets these are lasB, encoding the extracellular elastase, and the second phenazine gene cluster, both of which are downregulated by QscR. In addition, we show that QscR synthesis is regulated by the two-component response regulator GacA. Taking advantage of the in vivo fluorescence anisotropy technology that we have developed, we show that QscR can be found in several different types of association. Indeed, we identify QscR multimers in the absence of any acyl-HSL, lower order QscR oligomers associated either with C4-HSL or 3O-C12-HSL and QscR-containing heterodimers with LasR or RhlR. The formation of heterodimers between QscR and LasR or RhlR, in the absence of acyl-HSLs, is a very exciting, new result that should improve our understanding of the QscR network and its relationship to the production of P. aeruginosa virulence factors.
To what degree is digital imaging reliable? Validation of femoral neck shaft angle measurement in the era of picture archiving and communication systems (2011)

PACS software has many advantages, but when using systems that can display angle measurements to one-tenth of a degree caution must be exercised to ensure that reliability of these measurements is not overestimated. We found that in the context of measuring the NSA of the proximal femur the reliability of the measurement, even under the best conditions, is only ±6° for different observers.
A phase II study of docetaxel (Taxotere), estramustine, and low-dose hydrocortisone in men with hormone-refractory prostate cancer: preliminary results of cancer and leukemia group B Trial 9780. (1999)

Combinations of estramustine with other antimitotic agents, such as docetaxel (Taxotere; Rhône-Poulenc Rorer, Collegeville, PA), are synergistic in vitro and show significant clinical activity in hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC). We have studied intravenous docetaxel 70 mg/m2, oral estramustine, and low-dose daily hydrocortisone in men with HRPC who demonstrated progression after initial hormone therapy. Of the 47 men who were enrolled, 40 are evaluable for response and/or toxicity. One patient (3%) has had a complete response and eight (20%) have had a partial response, yielding a total objective response rate of 23%. Of 39 patients with elevated pretreatment prostate-specific antigen levels who have had at least one posttreatment prostate-specific antigen measurement, 27 (69%) have had > or =50% decreases and 21 (54%) have had > or =75% decreases in prostate-specific antigen levels. Toxicity is modest but manageable. This therapy is efficacious and well tolerated in HRPC and should be compared in phase III trials with other drugs active in HRPC, such as mitoxantrone and hydrocortisone.
Routing architectures for hierarchical field programmable gate arrays (2002)

This paper evaluates an architecture that implements a hierarchical routing structure for FPGAs, called a hierarchical FPGA (HFPGA). A set of new tools has been used to place and route several circuits on this architecture, with the goal of comparing the cost of HFPGAs to conventional symmetrical FPGAs. The results show that HFPGAs can implement circuits with fewer routing switches, and fewer switches in total, compared to symmetrical FGPAs, although they have the potential disadvantage that they may require more logic blocks due to coarser granularity.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>
Common Pitfalls in Multidimensional High Resolution Channel Parameter Estimation (2009)

The structural properties of multi-path channels such as directions of arrival and departure are estimated from multidimensional channel sounder data by application of high-resolution parameter estimation methods. However, the influence to the accuracy and reliability of the results due to antenna calibration errors and mismatch of the data model which is used by the parameter estimator are often underestimated. We describe the antenna array calibration procedure and discuss common pitfalls in high-resolution multi-path direction estimation that are related to inaccurate and/or incomplete data models that result from using only subsets of the full solid angle polarimetric antenna response. Depending on the type of the antenna array used (linear, circular) this will inherently produce biased and artificially spread angular estimates.
A 1-V 5.2-GHz CMOS synthesizer for WLAN applications (2004)

A 1-V CMOS frequency synthesizer designed for WLAN 802.11a is presented. Novel circuit designs are demonstrated in the system for low-voltage applications including design of voltage-controlled oscillator and design of programmable divider. Implemented in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process and operated at 1-V supply voltage, the synthesizer measures phase noise of -136 dBc/Hz at a frequency offset of 20 MHz and spur performance of less than -80 dBc at an offset of 11 MHz. The synthesizer dissipates 27.5 mW from a single 1-V supply and occupies a chip area of 1.03 mm/sup 2/.
The CRISPR–Cas system for plant genome editing: advances and opportunities (2014)

Genome editing is an approach in which a specific target DNA sequence of the genome is altered by adding, removing, or replacing DNA bases. Artificially engineered hybrid enzymes, zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs), and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and the CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-Cas (CRISPR-associated protein) system are being used for genome editing in various organisms including plants. The CRISPR-Cas system has been developed most recently and seems to be more efficient and less time-consuming compared with ZFNs or TALENs. This system employs an RNA-guided nuclease, Cas9, to induce double-strand breaks. The Cas9-mediated breaks are repaired by cellular DNA repair mechanisms and mediate gene/genome modifications. Here, we provide a detailed overview of the CRISPR-Cas system and its adoption in different organisms, especially plants, for various applications. Important considerations and future opportunities for deployment of the CRISPR-Cas system in plants for numerous applications are also discussed. Recent investigations have revealed the implications of the CRISPR-Cas system as a promising tool for targeted genetic modifications in plants. This technology is likely to be more commonly adopted in plant functional genomics studies and crop improvement in the near future.
Comparative and demographic analysis of orang-utan genomes (2011)

'Orang-utan' is derived from a Malay term meaning 'man of the forest' and aptly describes the southeast Asian great apes native to Sumatra and Borneo. The orang-utan species, Pongo abelii (Sumatran) and Pongo pygmaeus (Bornean), are the most phylogenetically distant great apes from humans, thereby providing an informative perspective on hominid evolution. Here we present a Sumatran orang-utan draft genome assembly and short read sequence data from five Sumatran and five Bornean orang-utan genomes. Our analyses reveal that, compared to other primates, the orang-utan genome has many unique features. Structural evolution of the orang-utan genome has proceeded much more slowly than other great apes, evidenced by fewer rearrangements, less segmental duplication, a lower rate of gene family turnover and surprisingly quiescent Alu repeats, which have played a major role in restructuring other primate genomes. We also describe a primate polymorphic neocentromere, found in both Pongo species, emphasizing the gradual evolution of orang-utan genome structure. Orang-utans have extremely low energy usage for a eutherian mammal, far lower than their hominid relatives. Adding their genome to the repertoire of sequenced primates illuminates new signals of positive selection in several pathways including glycolipid metabolism. From the population perspective, both Pongo species are deeply diverse; however, Sumatran individuals possess greater diversity than their Bornean counterparts, and more species-specific variation. Our estimate of Bornean/Sumatran speciation time, 400,000 years ago, is more recent than most previous studies and underscores the complexity of the orang-utan speciation process. Despite a smaller modern census population size, the Sumatran effective population size (N(e)) expanded exponentially relative to the ancestral N(e) after the split, while Bornean N(e) declined over the same period. Overall, the resources and analyses presented here offer new opportunities in evolutionary genomics, insights into hominid biology, and an extensive database of variation for conservation efforts.
Digital watermarking applied to MPEG-2 coded video sequences exploiting space and frequency masking (2002)

This paper presents a watermarking technique for MPEG-2 coded video sequences. We have chosen to work in the bit stream domain in order to simplify the data embedding process in the case in which the original data are already in a compressed form. Thanks to the exploitation of an interleaved encoding technique and of some space and frequency masking considerations, we have been able to reduce the BER of the original algorithm. Some results underlining the improvements we have been able to obtain thanks to our technique are shown.
Intravenous nitroglycerin as an experimental model of vascular headache. Basic characteristics (1989)

To develop a reliable experimental model of vascular headache, we studied the dose-response relationship between headache and i.v. nitroglycerin (NTG) in 10 healthy subjects. NTG was infused intravenously over periods of 10 min separated by wash-out periods. Doses of 0.25, 0.50, 1.00 and 2.00 micrograms/kg/min were applied successively with one placebo infusion and wash-out period inserted randomly and double blindly. The subjects scored their headache intensity on a scale 0-10. After 1-8 weeks a retest was performed. Nine subjects developed headache already at 0.25 microgram/kg/min, whereas one had no headache at any dose. Headache severity did not increase with doses above 0.5 microgram/kg/min. This ceiling effect was reproducible. The headache was moderate, usually throbbing, bifrontal and not associated with other migrainous features. It reached maximum within 2.5-5.5 min (medians) at various doses and declined rapidly after NTG discontinuation. Wash-out periods of 10-20 min were sufficient. The reproducibility of headache intensity and character was satisfactory in the retest experiment. There were no unpleasant side effects and no visible flushing. Thus blindness was maintained. I.v. NTG is suitable as an experimental headache model. A constant infusion of 0.5 microgram/kg/min will be suitable for studies of arterial diameter, pulsations, blood flow, etc. Comparative studies of sensitivity should use the present infusion schedule but with the two highest doses substituted by 0.06 and 0.125 microgram/kg/min.
Effect of Cholesterol on the Release of Amphotericin B from PEG-Phospholipid Micelles (2007)

Micelles formed from PEG-DSPE solubilize high levels of the poorly water-soluble antifungal amphotericin B (AmB). AmB release from PEG-DSPE micelles is slow in buffer but remarkably rapid in the presence of bovine serum albumin (BSA). Sequential changes in the absorbance spectrum of AmB in PEG-DSPE micelles point to a rapid dissociation of incorporated drug in the presence of BSA. In this context, we have studied micelles formed from PEG-DSPE which coincorporate cholesterol (PEG-DSPE|cholesterol). (1)H NMR measurements point to a lower mobility of lipid in PEG-DSPE|cholesterol micelles compared to PEG-DSPE micelles. The absorbance spectrum of AmB incorporated in PEG-DSPE|cholesterol micelles is distinct from that in PEG-DSPE micelles, which may point to differences in the drug-micelle interaction. AmB release from PEG-DSPE|cholesterol micelles is slow in buffer and in the presence of BSA. The absorption spectrum of AmB in PEG-DSPE|cholesterol micelles remained unchanged in BSA, further supporting stable incorporation and the slow release from the carrier.
Start-up Procedure and Switching Loss Reduction for a Single-Phase Flying Capacitor Active Rectifier (2012)

This paper describes a research conducted on a single-phase flying capacitor active rectifier. An online process that reduces the total number of switching events, which leads to a reduction of switching losses in the converter, is introduced. This method is based on redundant state selection, which is used to regulate the voltage of flying capacitors. The proposed approach is general and can be applied to flying capacitor converters with any number of levels. Furthermore, in order to control the inrush current at the start of operation and avoid extra voltage and current stress for active switches and capacitors, a start-up procedure that precharges the flying capacitors is proposed. With this precharge procedure, no additional hardware is needed. Simulation and laboratory results demonstrate these new concepts.