gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) Measurement System: properties, applications, and interpretation. (2003)

The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) Measurement System is a collection of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) questionnaires targeted to the management of chronic illness. The measurement system, under development since 1987, began with the creation of a generic CORE questionnaire called the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G). The FACT-G (now in Version 4) is a 27-item compilation of general questions divided into four primary QOL domains: Physical Well-Being, Social/Family Well-Being, Emotional Well-Being, and Functional Well-Being. It is appropriate for use with patients with any form of cancer, and extensions of it have been used and validated in other chronic illness condition (e.g., HIV/AIDS; multiple sclerosis; Parkinson's disease; rheumatoid arthritis), and in the general population. The FACIT Measurement System now includes over 400 questions, some of which have been translated into more than 45 languages. Assessment of any one patient is tailored so that the most-relevant questions are asked and administration time for any one assessment is usually less than 15 minutes. This is accomplished both by the use of specific subscales for relevant domains of HRQOL, or computerized adaptive testing (CAT) of selected symptoms and functional areas. FACIT questionnaires can be administered by self-report (paper or computer) or interview (face-to-face or telephone). Available scoring, normative data and information on meaningful change now allow one to interpret results in the context of a growing literature base.
High quality Ge epitaxial layers in narrow channels on Si (001) substrates (2010)

We demonstrate the selective growth of high quality Ge epitaxial layers in channels as narrow as 10 nm on patterned Si (001) substrates by a combination of low temperature growth and selective recrystallization using Ge melt and regrowth during a millisecond laser anneal. Filling narrow trenches at high growth temperature as required for obtaining high quality layers was shown to be prohibited by Ge outdiffusion due to the high Ge chemical potential in such narrow channels. At low temperature, a hydride-terminated surface is maintained which counteracts the outdiffusion of the Ge adatoms and provides excellent trench filling. The resulting low crystalline quality can be restored by a selective Ge melt and epitaxial regrowth using a millisecond laser anneal.
Localization of endothelial proliferation and microvascular expansion in active plaque psoriasis (1997)

Expansion of the dermal microvasculature is a prominent feature of psoriasis. Although the pathogenetic process resulting in vascular morphological changes remains unclear, considerable evidence suggests the involvement of angiogenesis. To assess the degree and site of psoriatic microvascular expansion, immunohistochemical studies were performed on paired lesional and non-lesional specimens from 10 patients with active, untreated plaque psoriasis. Five-micron thick sections were labelled with monoclonal antibody JC/70A specific for the endothelial marker CD31, and vascular quantification was achieved using hue-saturation-intensity image analysis. Assessment of vasculature in the papillary dermis (superficial plexus) demonstrated a fourfold increase in endothelial surface area of lesional compared with non-lesional skin (P < 0.01), while there was no significant increase in vasculature of the upper reticular dermis. Subsequently, 18-micron thick sections were double-labelled with MIB-1 antibody to the nuclear proliferation marker Ki-67 and JC/70A. Endothelial cell proliferation was identified in the vertical limbs of capillary loops in eight out of 10 lesional biopsies and in no non-lesional biopsies. The endothelial MIB-1 labelling index was 3.1% of total endothelial cells of the superficial plexus. These findings confirm endothelial proliferation underlying psoriatic microvascular expansion, and indicate that this process is limited to a specific site in the dermal capillary bed.
Algorithms for grapheme-phoneme translation for English and French: applications for database searches and speech synthesis (1997)

Letter-to-sound rules, also known as grapheme-to-phoneme rules, are important computational tools and have been used for a variety of purposes including word or name lookups for database searches and speech synthesis.These rules are especially useful when integrated into database searches on names and addresses, since they can complement orthographic search algorithms that make use of permutation, deletion, and insertion by allowing for a comparison with the phonetic equivalent. In databases, phonetics can help retrieve a word or a proper name without the user needing to know the correct spelling. A phonetic index is built with the vocabulary of the application. This could be an entire dictionary, or a list of proper names. The searched word is then converted into phonetics and retrieved with its information, if the word is in the phonetic index. This phonetic lookup can be used to retrieve a misspelled word in a dictionary or a database, or in a text editor to suggest corrections.Such rules are also necessary to formalize grapheme-phoneme correspondences in speech synthesis architecture. In text-to-speech systems, these rules are typically used to create phonemes from computer text. These phonemic symbols, in turn, are used to feed lower-level phonetic modules (such as timing, intonation, vowel formant trajectories, etc.) which, in turn, feed a vocal tract model and finally output a waveform and, via a digital-analogue converter, synthesized speech. Such rules are a necessary and integral part of a text-to-speech system since a database lookup (dictionary search) is not sufficient to handle derived forms, new words, nonce forms, proper nouns, low-frequency technical jargon, and the like; such forms typically are not included in the database. And while the use of a dictionary is more important now that denser and faster memory is available to smaller systems, letter-to-sound still plays a crucial and central role in speech synthesis technology.Grapheme-to-phoneme technology is also useful in speech recognition, as a way of generating pronunciations for new words that may be available in grapheme form, or for naive users to add new words more easily. In that case, the system must generate the multiple variations of the word.While there are different problems in languages that use non-alphabetic writing systems (syllabaries, as in Japanese, or logographic systems, as in Chinese) (DeFrancis 1984), all alphabetic systems have a structured set of correspondences. These range from the trivial in languages like Spanish or Swahili, to extremely complex in languages such as English and French. This paper will outline some of the previous attempts to construct such rule sets and will describe new and successful approaches to the construction of letter-to-sound rules for English and French.
Effect of fiber treatments on mechanical properties of coir or oil palm fiber reinforced polyester composites (2000)

The use of plant fibers as a reinforcement in polyester matrices requires the issue of compatibility between the two phases to be addressed. Because plant fibers present hydrophilic surfaces and polyesters are generally hydrophobic, poor fiber–matrix dispersion and wetting of the fibers by the matrix may result. As a consequence, the mechanical properties of the composite are severely reduced. This study considers the effect of fiber treatment by chemical modification of the fibers (acetylation) or the use of silane or titanate coupling agents on the mechanical properties of coir or oil palm reinforced polyester composites. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 78: 1685–1697, 2000
PROCLAIM-001: A first-in-human trial to assess tolerability of the protease-activatable anti-PD-L1 Probody CX-072 in solid tumors and lymphomas. (2017)

TPS3107 Background: CX-072 is a novel Probody therapeutic (PbTx) targeting PD-L1. PbTxs are fully recombinant antibody prodrugs designed to be converted to active antibodies by tumor-associated proteases that are highly expressed malignant tissue; the PbTx remains largely inactive in normal tissues. In pre-clinical tumor models, a PD-L1-directed PbTx provided comparable anti-tumor efficacy to its parental anti-PD-L1 antibody, but displayed reduced auto-immunity in a model of Type 1 diabetes. Based on these pre-clinical data, CX-072 has the potential to enable combination therapies that are otherwise poorly tolerated. This Phase 1/2 study (PROCLAIM-001 (PRObody CLinical Assessment In Man) assesses the tolerability and antitumor activity of CX-072 in humans with an emphasis on immune-related adverse events, particularly in combinations. CX-072 will be administered as monotherapy (Part A), in combination with 2 schedules of ipilimumab (Parts B1 and B2) and in combination with vemurafenib (Part C). The expansion cohort (Part D) will include CX-072 monotherapy in PD-L1 responsive tumor types. Methods: Key eligibility criteria are as follows: Parts A and B1: checkpoint inhibitor-naive patients with advanced, refractory solid tumor or lymphoma (unmeasurable disease allowed) for whom approved PD agents are not available. Part B2: advanced, refractory solid tumors or lymphomas with measurable disease who have progressed on a previous treatment with a PD-(L)1 inhibitor, but did not discontinue due to toxicity. Part C: checkpoint inhibitor, BRAF-inhibitor and MEK-inhibitor-naïve metastatic V600E BRAF-mutated melanoma. Patients without an active autoimmune disease, ongoing infection, and ECOG PS 0-1 may be eligible to participate in the study. Dose escalation follows the 3+3 design in all arms. Ipilimumab (Parts B1 and B2) is dosed at the approved 3 mg/kg every 3 weeks x 4. The dose of vemurafenib (Part C) is 960 mg/kg twice daily. Exploratory biomarkers are used to characterize tumor protease activity, inflammatory changes within the tumor, and CX-072 activation in tumor versus peripheral blood. Clinical trial information: NCT03013491.
Clinical tumour markers in lung cancer (1995)

Within the past few years, the measurement of serum and tissue markers has had an increasing influence on clinical decisions about initial treatment and follow-up. Lung cancer illustrates the types and importance of these various markers. This review presents data concerning the most studied and interesting markers in non-small cell (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). CEA, TPA, SCC-Ag, CYFRA 21-1, ferritin, CA19-9, CA50, CA242, H-K-N-ras mutations and p53 mutation seem to be the most prolific in NSCLC, while NSE, BN/GRP, CK-BB, NCAM, IL-2R, IGF-I, transferrin, ANP, mAb (cluster 5), Le-y and c-N-L-myc mutation are markers in SCLC patients. Some of these serum markers might be useful adjuncts for monitoring response to therapy, including early detection of tumour reactivation to allow curative therapy and rapid detection of treatment failure to allow change of the regimen. The study of these markers also may lead to a better understanding of the biological characteristics of lung cancer. The information derived from these biological studies represents the most promising avenue towards new treatment strategies, as well as attempts at secondary prevention.
Graded or stepped energy band-gap-insulator MIS structures (GI-MIS or SI-MIS) (1979)

A new concept in nonvolatile semiconductor memory using graded or stepped energy band-gap insulators under the gate electrode of a metal-insulator-semiconductor type structure is described. With the graded or stepped insulator, electrons or holes can be injected from the gate electrode at low to moderate applied fields. These carriers then flow under the applied voltage bias into a wide energy band-gap insulator (such as SiO2) with a purposely introduced charge trapping layer (such as ion-implanted As, deposited W, or deposited polycrystalline Si). This trapping layer captures and stores electrons (’’write’’ operation) or holes (’’erase’’ operation) with as close to 100% efficiency as possible. Because of the larger energy barriers at the semiconductor (such as Si) interface with the wide energy band-gap insulator (such as SiO2), few carriers of the opposite sign are injected. Therefore, the substrate Si-SiO2 interface, for instance, can be used strictly for charge sensing (’’read’’ operation) such as in a field-effect transistor. Several experimental examples are mentioned. A detailed description of stepped insulator structures using thin Si3N4SiO2 (≈5.2 eV band gap) layers on (≈9 eV band gap) with an ion-implanted As region is given. Some advantages of these structures over other nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices are discussed.
Motion Estimation from Image and Inertial Measurements (2004)

Cameras and inertial sensors are each good candidates for autonomous vehicle navigation, modeling from video, and other applications that require six-degrees-of-freedom motion estimation. However, these sensors are also good candidates to be deployed together, since each can be used to resolve the ambiguities in estimated motion that result from using the other modality alone. In this paper, we consider the specific problem of estimating sensor motion and other unknowns from image, gyro, and accelerometer measurements, in environments without known fiducials. This paper targets applications where external positions references such as global positioning are not available, and focuses on the use of small and inexpensive inertial sensors, for applications where weight and cost requirements preclude the use of precision inertial navigation systems. We present two algorithms for estimating sensor motion from image and inertial measurements. The first algorithm is a batch method, which produces estimates of the sensor motion, scene structure, and other unknowns using measurements from the entire observation sequence simultaneously. The second algorithm recovers sensor motion, scene structure, and other parameters recursively, and is suitable for use with long or “infinite” sequences, in which no feature is always visible. We evaluate the accuracy of the algorithms and their sensitivity to their estimation parameters using a sequence of four experiments. These experiments focus on cases where estimates from image or inertial measurements alone are poor, on the relative advantage of using inertial measurements and omni directional images, and on long sequences in which the percentage of the image sequence in which individual features are visible is low.
Synthesis of 2‘-O-[2-[(N,N-Dimethylamino)oxy]ethyl] Modified Nucleosides and Oligonucleotides (2001)

A versatile synthetic route has been developed for the synthesis of 2'-O-[2-[(N,N-dimethylamino)oxy]ethyl] (abbreviated as 2'-O-DMAOE) modified purine and pyrimidine nucleosides and their corresponding nucleoside phosphoramidites and solid supports. To synthesize 2'-O-DMAOE purine nucleosides, the key intermediate B (Scheme 1) was obtained from the 2'-O-allyl purine nucleosides (13a and 15) via oxidative cleavage of the carbon-carbon bond to the corresponding aldehydes followed by reduction. To synthesize pyrimidine nucleosides, opening the 2,2'-anhydro-5-methyluridine 5 with the borate ester of ethylene glycol gave the key intermediate B. The 2'-O-(2-hydroxyethyl) nucleosides were converted, in excellent yield, by a regioselective Mitsunobu reaction, to the corresponding 2'-O-[2-[(1,3-dihydro-1,3-dioxo-2H-isoindol-2-yl)oxy]ethyl] nucleosides (18, 19, and 20). These compounds were subsequently deprotected and converted into the 2'-O-[2-[(methyleneamino)oxy]ethyl] derivatives (22, 23, and 24). Reduction and a second reductive amination with formaldehyde yielded the corresponding 2'-O-[2-[(N,N-dimethylamino)oxy]ethyl] nucleosides (25, 26, and 27). These nucleosides were converted to their 3'-O-phosphoramidites and controlled-pore glass solid supports in excellent overall yield. Using these monomers, modified oligonucleotides containing pyrimidine and purine bases were synthesized with phosphodiester, phosphorothioate, and both linkages (phosphorothioate and phosphodiester) present in the same oligonucleotide as a chimera in high yields. The oligonucleotides were characterized by HPLC, capillary gel electrophoresis, and ESMS. The effect of this modification on the affinity of the oligonucleotides for complementary RNA and on nuclease stability was evaluated. The 2'-O-DMAOE modification enhanced the binding affinity of the oligonucleotides for the complementary RNA (and not for DNA). The modified oligonucleotides that possessed the phosphodiester backbone demonstrated excellent resistance to nuclease with t(1/2) > 24 h.
Monoclonal antibody recognizing a carcinoembryonic antigen epitope differentially expressed in human colonic carcinoma versus normal adult colon tissues. (1989)

Murine hybridomas were generated against purified carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), and their monoclonal antibodies (MAb) were assayed for their ability to recognize specific CEA epitopes. One of the MAb, designated 7F, was found to recognize an epitope of CEA that was expressed in human colonic carcinoma tissues but not in normal colonic tissues. When extracts of 13 colonic carcinoma tissues and 9 normal colonic tissues were examined with the Western blot technique using MAb 7F, 11 colonic carcinoma tissues (85%) reacted with 7F, but none of the 9 normal colonic tissues (including many obtained from the areas adjacent to the colonic carcinomas) did. Western blot analysis indicated a Mr 180,000 band in 11 of 13 (85%) colonic carcinoma extracts. The limit of detectability of CEA was 0.5 micrograms/lane. According to immunohistochemical techniques, 16 of 18 (89%) formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sections of colonic carcinomas reacted with MAb 7F, whereas 9 of 9 (100%) frozen sections of colonic carcinomas reacted with the antibody. Of the 32 paraffin-embedded and frozen sections of normal colonic tissues examined, none showed any reactivity with MAb 7F. MAb 7F did not react with nonspecific cross-reacting antigen either. This antibody has been examined for its usefulness in detecting CEA in suspension and has been found to work both in sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and in sandwich radioimmune assays. The detection of CEA in colon tumors but not in normal colonic tissues may be attributed to two possible explanations. It is possible that the level of CEA expression in normal colonic tissue is below the sensitivity of the assays employed. Alternatively, MAb 7F may recognize a "specific" epitope of CEA which was found in colon tumors but not in CEA of normal colonic tissues. At the present time, it is not possible to discern between these two possibilities. Nevertheless, MAb 7F was capable of detecting the differential expression of CEA in colonic carcinomas and, therefore, may be useful for the immunodiagnosis, radioimaging, and immunotherapy of colon cancer.
The Knowledge Building Paradigm: A Model of Learning for Net Generation Students. (2007)

As noted by a number of contributors to the previous issue of this publication (e.g., Barnes, Marateo, and
Feasibility Assessment in Topical and Transdermal Delivery: Mathematical Models and in Vitro Studies (2002)

This chapter aims to examine the limitations of mathematical modeling and to consider appropriate in vitro models prior to full clinical testing. For transdermal delivery, sufficient drug must permeate the various strata of the skin so as to build up a plasma concentration, which elicits a systemic effect. Mathematical modeling, whether used simply to estimate the permeability coefficient or to develop a more complex compartmental model, should indicate the feasibility of delivering enough drug through the skin. Non-steady-state solutions of Fick’s laws of diffusion have been used to give insight into the mechanisms of skin penetration and its modulation. Compounds such as oleic acid are known to intercalate into the structured lipids of the skin. Mathematical predictions provide a useful indication of drug uptake and permeation across the skin, but refinement is necessary before there can be total confidence in the models.
ALS-associated mutations in TDP-43 increase its stability and promote TDP-43 complexes with FUS/TLS (2010)

Dominant mutations in two functionally related DNA/RNA-binding proteins, trans-activating response region (TAR) DNA-binding protein with a molecular mass of 43 KDa (TDP-43) and fused in sarcoma/translocation in liposarcoma (FUS/TLS), cause an inherited form of ALS that is accompanied by nuclear and cytoplasmic aggregates containing TDP-43 or FUS/TLS. Using isogenic cell lines expressing wild-type or ALS-linked TDP-43 mutants and fibroblasts from a human patient, pulse-chase radiolabeling of newly synthesized proteins is used to determine, surprisingly, that ALS-linked TDP-43 mutant polypeptides are more stable than wild-type TDP-43. Tandem-affinity purification and quantitative mass spectrometry are used to identify TDP-43 complexes not only with heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins family proteins, as expected, but also with components of Drosha microprocessor complexes, consistent with roles for TDP-43 in both mRNA processing and microRNA biogenesis. A fraction of TDP-43 is shown to be complexed with FUS/TLS, an interaction substantially enhanced by TDP-43 mutants. Taken together, abnormal stability of mutant TDP-43 and its enhanced binding to normal FUS/TLS imply a convergence of pathogenic pathways from mutant TDP-43 and FUS/TLS in ALS.
Antisense Targets to Enhance Hormone and Cytotoxic Therapies in Advanced Prostate Cancer (2003)

The main obstacle to improved survival of advanced prostate cancer is our failure to prevent or treat its progression to its lethal and untreatable stage of androgen independence. New therapeutic agents designed to prevent androgen-independent progression are required. Accelerated identification and characterization of cancer-relevant molecular targets has sparked considerable interest in the development of new generations of anti-cancer agents that specifically inhibit a progression-relevant target. Antisense oligonucleotides, short synthetic stretches of chemically modified DNA capable of specifically hybridizing to the mRNA of a chosen cancer-relevant target gene. promise to show enhanced specificity for malignant cells with a more favorable side-effect profile due to well-defined and tailored modes of action. Although not all of the challenges have been met to date, emerging clinical evidence supports the premise that antisense oligonucleotides stand a realistic chance of emerging as major partners of rationally designed anti-cancer regimens. The status of antisense targeting of several genes, including bcl-2, bcl-xL, clusterin, androgen receptor and IGFBPs, relevant to prostate and other cancers, are reviewed.