gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Comparison of ophthalmic beta-blocking agents. (1987)

Glaucoma is described, and the chemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, clinical efficacy, adverse effects, and dosage and administration of betaxolol and levobunolol in comparison with timolol are reviewed. Betaxolol and levobunolol are two beta-adrenergic blocking agents being marketed as ophthalmic solutions for treatment of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and ocular hypertension (OHT). Betaxolol is a relatively cardioselective beta-adrenergic blocker, while levobunolol is a nonselective beta-adrenergic blocking agent. Double-blind comparative trials have suggested that betaxolol has an equal to slightly lower efficacy and levobunolol has equal efficacy in reducing intraocular pressure (IOP) compared with timolol, the first ophthalmic beta blocker. A mean reduction in intraocular pressure of 15-35% occurs with both betaxolol and levobunolol and is reported to be maintained with prolonged use. Betaxolol is associated with a higher (25%) incidence of local ocular adverse reactions than timolol. However, betaxolol produces less systemic beta 2- and possibly beta 1-adrenergic receptor blockade than either timolol or levobunolol. Betaxolol may be relatively safer to use in patients with reactive airway disease than either timolol or levobunolol. Levobunolol causes a similar to greater incidence of local ocular adverse reactions and similar systemic beta blockade compared with timolol. Levobunolol may possibly be longer acting than timolol, allowing more patients to be controlled by once-daily dosing. Betaxolol and levobunolol appear to be similar to timolol in controlling IOP in patients with POAG and OHT; additional experience with these agents is needed to assess the advantages and disadvantages of each agent.
Proton MR Chemical Shift Imaging using Double and Triple Phase Contrast Acquisition Methods (1989)

Conventional chemical shift magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with the phase contrast technique has a number of limitations with respect to quantitative accuracy. The hypothesis of this study is that the accuracy of phase contrast chemical shift MR may be improved by increasing the number of basis images from two to three. Water and fat images were obtained from phantoms and volunteers with a 1.5 T MR system using double and triple acquisition phase contrast chemical shift methods. Longitudinal relaxation time and relative water and fat content were calculated from these basis images. The T1 relaxation times of the aqueous component of composite phantoms were determined more accurately using the triple acquisition method than with the double acquisition method. In vivo studies demonstrate that the triple acquisition method separated fat and water signals more accurately and showed less field inhomogeneity dependence than the modified double acquisition method. The new method also provided a map of static field magnetic inhomogeneity and tissue magnetic susceptibility. The triple acquisition phase contrast chemical shift imaging technique should improve the prospect for quantitative tissue characterization in clinical MR.
Adjusting the attB Site in Donor Plasmid Improves the Efficiency of ΦC31 Integrase System (2012)

ΦC31 integrase, a site-specific recombinase, can catalyze integration of circular DNA bearing attB site into pseudo attP sites in mammalian genomes. However, the integration efficiency mediated by integrase is relatively low. Our study centered on the investigation of the impact of the position, orientation, and number of attBs in the donor plasmid on the efficiency of ΦC31 integrase system. Donor plasmids bearing various types of attBs (including forward and reverse directions, tandem, and intersperse) and reporter enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) were constructed. The plasmids plus helper plasmid encoding integrase were co-transfected into HeLa cells. After G418 selection, the resistant cell colonies were counted for calculating chromosomal integration frequency. EGFP expression was detected by fluorescence-activated cell sorter and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay analysis. The results showed that efficiency of integration mediated by integrase accounted for 70% ± 7.1% of total integration events in the transfected HeLa cells. Compared with a forward orientation of attB in donor plasmid, a reverse direction of attB or interspersed attBs showed 1.5- or 2.8-fold increase in integration efficiency, respectively, while tandem attBs in donor plasmids caused a decreased efficiency of integration. We conclude that the adjustment of attB sites in donor plasmids may be of value for gene therapy and routine genetic engineering by using ΦC31 integrase system.
Role of Heparan Sulfate in Attachment to and Infection of the Murine Female Genital Tract by Human Papillomavirus (2008)

The host factors required for in vivo infection have not been investigated for any papillomavirus. Using a recently developed murine cervicovaginal challenge model, we evaluated the importance of heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) in human papillomavirus (HPV) infection of the murine female genital tract. We examined HPV type 16 (HPV16) as well as HPV31 and HPV5, for which some evidence suggests that they may differ from HPV16 in their utilization of HSPGs as their primary attachment factor in vitro. Luciferase-expressing pseudovirus of all three types infected the mouse genital tract, although HPV5, which normally infects nongenital epidermis, was less efficient. Heparinase III treatment of the genital tract significantly inhibited infection of all three types by greater than 90% and clearly inhibited virion attachment to the basement membrane and cell surfaces, establishing that HSPGs are the primary attachment factors for these three viruses in vivo. However, the pseudoviruses differed in their responses to treatment with various forms of heparin, a soluble analog of heparan sulfate. HPV16 and HPV31 infections were effectively inhibited by a highly sulfated form of heparin, but HPV5 was not, although it bound the compound. In contrast, a N-desulfated and N-acylated variant preferentially inhibited HPV5. Inhibition of infection paralleled the relative ability of the variants to inhibit basement membrane and cell surface binding. We speculate that cutaneous HPVs, such as HPV5, and genital mucosal HPVs, such as HPV16 and -31, may have evolved to recognize different forms of HSPGs to enable them to preferentially infect keratinocytes at different anatomical sites.
Wnt Signaling Regulates the Invasion Capacity of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells (2006)

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) exhibit the potential to contribute to a wide variety of endogenous organ tissue repair. However, the signals governing hMSC mobilization out of the bone marrow, release into the bloodstream, and migration/invasion into the target tissue are largely unknown. Since canonical Wnt signaling regulates not only tumor but also various stem cell attributes, we hypothesized that this signal transduction pathway might also be involved in governing the transmigration of hMSCs through human extracellular matrix (ECM). Stimulation of hMSCs with recombinant Wnt3a or LiCl resulted in the accumulation of the transcriptional activator beta-catenin, its translocation into the nucleus, and the upregulation of typical Wnt target genes such as cyclin D1 and membrane-type matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MT1-MMP). Moreover, both stimuli significantly enhanced hMSC proliferation up to 40%. In addition, an increase of more than twofold in the ability of hMSCs to transmigrate through Transwell filters coated with human ECM was observed. In a reverse approach, Wnt signaling in hMSCs was inhibited by knocking down the expression of either beta-catenin or low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5 using RNA interference technology. These inhibition strategies resulted in downregulation of the Wnt target genes cyclin D1 and MT1-MMP, in a reduced proliferation rate, and in a strikingly diminished invasion capacity (64% and 52%). Taken together, this study provides for the first time decisive evidence that canonical Wnt signaling is critically involved in the regulation of the proliferation, as well as of the migration/invasion capacity of hMSCs, representing essential stem cell features indispensable during tissue regeneration processes.
Temporal Effects of Mechanical Loading on Deformation-Induced Damage in Skeletal Muscle Tissue (2010)

Mechanical loading of soft tissues covering bony prominences can cause skeletal muscle damage, ultimately resulting in a severe pressure ulcer termed deep tissue injury. Recently, by means of an experimental-numerical approach, it was shown that local tissue deformations cause tissue damage once a deformation threshold is exceeded. In the present study, the effects of load exposure time and intermittent load relief on the development of deformation-induced muscle damage were investigated. The data showed that a 2 h loading period caused more damage than 10 min loading. Intermittent load reliefs of 2 min during a 2 h loading period had minimal effect on the evolution of skeletal muscle damage. In addition, a local deformation threshold for damage was found, which was similar for each of the loading regimes applied in this study. For short loading periods, these results imply that local tissue deformations determine whether muscle damage will develop and the exposure time influences the amount of tissue damage. Temporary load reliefs were inefficient in reducing deformation-induced damage, but may still influence the development of ischemia-induced damage during longer loading periods.
Design considerations for Rowland circle gratings used in photonic integrated devices for WDM applications (1994)

Design issues of photonic integrated devices for WDM applications based on Rowland circle gratings have been studied. Effects of grating period, diffraction order, grating aperture (size), and Rowland circle size on device performance are discussed. The point spread function of a typical Rowland circle grating is evaluated numerically which yields an optical image (spot) size of several microns in diameter. Our study shows that there is a tradeoff between channel dispersion and feedback efficiency in choosing the grating period when a Rowland circle grating is used as the wavelength-selective element for a parallel-waveguide-type wavelength division multiplexing device.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>
Enhancing and Combining Sequential and Tree LSTM for Natural Language Inference. (2016)

Reasoning and inference are central to human and artificial intelligence. Modeling inference in human language is notoriously challenging but is fundamental to natural language understanding and many applications. With the availability of large annotated data, neural network models have recently advanced the field significantly. In this paper, we present a new state-of-the-art result, achieving the accuracy of 88.3% on the standard benchmark, the Stanford Natural Language Inference dataset. This result is achieved first through our enhanced sequential encoding model, which outperforms the previous best model that employs more complicated network architectures, suggesting that the potential of sequential LSTM-based models have not been fully explored yet in previous work. We further show that by explicitly considering recursive architectures, we achieve additional improvement. Particularly, incorporating syntactic parse information contributes to our best result; it improves the performance even when the parse information is added to an already very strong system.
Focal Adhesion Proteins α- and β-Parvin are Overexpressed in Human Colorectal Cancer and Correlate with Tumor Progression (2015)

This study aims to address the role of focal adhesion proteins α- and β-parvin in human colorectal carcinoma (CRC). Expression of α- and β-parvin was examined by immunohistochemistry and real-time RT-PCR in a series of human CRC. Parvins were overexpressed in CRC and their expression correlated significantly with tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, and disease stage. A significant positive correlation of parvins protein expression with overexpression of integrin-linked kinase, p-AKT, and nuclear β-catenin, as well as with downregulation of E-cadherin was also observed. In conclusion, overexpression of α- and β-parvin seems to be implicated in human colorectal cancer progression.
Comparison of the Release of Adipokines by Adipose Tissue, Adipose Tissue Matrix, and Adipocytes from Visceral and Subcutaneous Abdominal Adipose Tissues of Obese Humans (2004)

The purpose of this study was to examine the source of adipokines released by the visceral and sc adipose tissues of obese humans. Human adipose tissue incubated in primary culture for 48 h released more prostaglandin E(2), IL-8, and IL-6 than adiponectin, whereas the release of plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 and hepatocyte growth factor was less than that of adiponectin but greater than that of leptin. IL-10 and TNFalpha were released in amounts less than those of leptin, whereas vascular endothelial growth factor and IL1-beta were released in much lower amounts. The accumulation of adipokines was also examined in the three fractions (adipose tissue matrix, isolated stromovascular cells, and adipocytes) obtained by collagenase digestion of adipose tissue. Over 90% of the adipokine release by adipose tissue, except for adiponectin and leptin, could be attributed to nonfat cells. Visceral adipose tissue released greater amounts of vascular endothelial growth factor, IL-6, and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 compared with abdominal sc tissue. The greatly enhanced total release of TNFalpha, IL-8, and IL-10 by adipose tissue from individuals with a body mass index of 45 compared with 32 was due to nonfat cells. Furthermore, most of the adipokine release by the nonfat cells of adipose tissue was due to cells retained in the tissue matrix after collagenase digestion.
The sodium/substrate symporter family: structural and functional features (2002)

Members of the sodium/substrate symporter family (SSSF, TC 2.A.21) catalyze the uptake of a wide variety of solutes including sugars, proline, pantothenate, and iodide into cells of pro- and eukaryotic origin. Extensive analyses of the topology of different SSSF proteins suggest an arrangement of 13 transmembrane domains as a common topological motif. Regions involved in sodium and/or substrate binding were identified. Furthermore, protein chemical and spectroscopic studies reveal ligand-induced structural alterations which are consistent with close interactions between the sites of sodium and substrate binding, thereby supporting an ordered binding mechanism for transport.
Structure of .beta.-Isotactic Polypropylene: A Long-Standing Structural Puzzle (1994)

The structure of beta-isotactipc olypropylene (beta-iPP) as been investigated taking into consideration X-ray and electron-diffraction data supplemented by packing energy calculations. The structure is&#13;\ncharacterized by extensive disorder, and two structural models can be envisaged both are based on domains of helices all of the same chirality, arranged on a pseudohexagonal lattice. The simplest satisfactory model is trigonal (P3121 and the enantiomorphic P3221) with a = b = 11.03 A and c = 6.49 A. Three monomers&#13;\nform the asymmetric unit, and six chains, each with a 0.5 occupancy factor, coexist in the unit cell. This is a consequence of statistical directional disorder, just like in the and ycrystalline modifications of isotactic polypropylene. Coupling of the chiral domains across (200) or (220) glide planes of the trigonal cell can result either in enantiomorphic twins or, if the domains are coherent, in a new achiral orthorhombic lattice with a = 11.03 A, b = 19-10 A, and c = 6.49 A. The two models, which reasonably account for all the available experimental evidence concerning beta-iPP are only marginally different and can probably coexist. Preliminary packing-energy calculations confirm that both arrangements are acceptable. It is further suggested that&#13;\nsimilar structures based on incoherently or coherently coupled enantiomorphic domains of modest size are very likely in chiral crystalline polymorphs of achiral macromolecules
[What is the etiology of diabetic retinopathy?]. (1993)

Recent experimental and clinical investigations suggest several pathogenetic mechanisms for diabetic retinopathy. The pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy can best be understood by a concerted action of biochemical, hemodynamic and endocrine or cytokinetic factors. Biochemical factors such as nonenzymatic glycosylation and induction of the aldose reductase pathway seem to be of importance for the genesis of nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy, characterized by pericyte loss, basal membrane thickening and formation of microaneurysms. The development of the proliferative form, characterized by ocular neovascularization, is the response to chronic hypoxia and is probably due to the angiogenetic influence of hormones and growth factors. The most important therapeutic approach is strict control of hyperglycemia.
The compression of simplified dynamic light fields (2003)

This paper studies the compression of a dynamic image-based rendering (IBR) representation called simplified dynamic light fields (SDLF). It is obtained by constraining the viewpoints in a dynamic environment along a line instead of a 2D plane. The SDLFs have a dimensionality of four, which considerably simplifies their capture and data compression. A new coding algorithm for SDLFs using a modified MPEG-2 algorithm is proposed. It employs both temporal and spatial predictions from the reference video streams to explore better the redundancy among the light field images. Experimental results, using a synthetic SDLF, show that the proposed compression scheme offers a 2 dB improvement in PSNR over a similar coding scheme using only temporal prediction.
HEMOGLOBIN METABOLISM IN THE MALARIA PARASITEPLASMODIUM FALCIPARUM (1997)

Hemoglobin degradation in intraerythrocytic malaria parasites is a vast process that occurs in an acidic digestive vacuole. Proteases that participate in this catabolic pathway have been defined. Studies of protease biosynthesis have revealed unusual targeting and activation mechanisms. Oxygen radicals and heme are released during proteolysis and must be detoxified by dismutation and polymerization, respectively. The quinoline antimalarials appear to act by preventing sequestration of this toxic heme. Understanding the disposition of hemoglobin has allowed identification of essential processes and metabolic weakpoints that can be exploited to combat this scourge of mankind.
JAK/STAT signaling pathways and cancer. Janus kinases/signal transducers and activators of transcription. (2002)

Recent highlights in understanding molecular nature of signaling pathways that mediate biological effects of various external stimuli and control number of normal physiological processes of cells such as growth, differentiation, senescence and apoptosis, defined three major groups of proteins which apparently play an essential role in transmitting external signals from surface membrane to target genes in the nucleus. These include Janus kinases (JAKs), signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) and their endogenous inhibitors of SOCS family. Their inappropriate functioning and defective cross-talking associate with several human disorders including cancer. There is an increasing evidence that perturbances in STAT proteins are involved in the pathogenesis of some human malignancies. Moreover, cancer-related defective JAK/STAT/SOCS pathways may negatively affect tumor response to the cytokine-based immunotherapy. This article provides an overview of the current knowledge about JAK/STAT/SOCS intracellular signaling cascades with special emphasis on their abnormalities in cancer.
The dihydrosphingosine-1-phosphate phosphatases of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are important regulators of cell proliferation and heat stress responses (1999)

We have identified YSR2 and YSR3 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as genes encoding dihydrosphingosine-1-phosphate phophatases which are involved in regulation of sphingolipid metabolism [Mao, Wadleigh, Jenkins, Hannun and Obeid (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 28690-28694]. In this study, we explored the physiological roles that these enzymes may have in S. cerevisiae. Deletion of either YSR2, YSR3 or both did not affect viability or growth rate of yeast cells. However, overexpression of YSR2 significantly prolonged the doubling time of cell growth, whereas overexpression of YSR3 affected cell growth only slightly. Cell cycle analysis suggested that overexpression of either YSR2 or, to a lesser extent, YSR3 caused cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase. Disruption of YSR2, but not YSR3, conferred increased thermotolerance. On the other hand, overexpression of either YSR2 or YSR3 diminished thermotolerance. Using labelled dihydrosphingosine and dihydrosphingosine-1-P (DHS-1-P), we found that overexpression of YSR2 significantly increased ceramide formation, whereas deletion of YSR2, YSR3, or both, accumulated DHS-1-P, and deletion of YSR2 decreased ceramide formation. Together, these results show that the phenotypes of YSR2 are associated with changes in endogenous levels of the different sphingolipids. Green fluorescent protein tagging showed that in the exponentially growing cells, YSR2 and YSR3 had the same cellular localization to endoplasmic reticulum. However, YSR2 and YSR3 differ in mRNA levels: YSR2 had significantly higher mRNA levels than YSR3. This discrepancy might result in the functional differences that these proteins exhibited. In addition, this study implicates sphingolipids and their metabolism in the regulation of growth and heat stress responses of the yeast S. cerevisiae.
High-Yield Hydrogen Production from Starch and Water by a Synthetic Enzymatic Pathway (2007)

The unique features, such as mild reaction conditions (30 degrees C and atmospheric pressure), high hydrogen yields, likely low production costs ($ approximately 2/kg H(2)), and a high energy-density carrier starch (14.8 H(2)-based mass%), provide great potential for mobile applications. With technology improvements and integration with fuel cells, this technology also solves the challenges associated with hydrogen storage, distribution, and infrastructure in the hydrogen economy.
Characterization of a novel eukaryotic ATP/ADP translocator located in the plastid envelope of Arabidopsis thaliana L. (1997)

Recently, we have sequenced a cDNA clone from Arabidopsis thaliana L. encoding a novel putative ATP/ADP translocator (AATP1). Here, we demonstrate that the radioactively labeled AATP1 precursor protein, synthesized in vitro, is targeted to envelope membranes of isolated spinach chloroplasts. Antibodies raised against a synthetic peptide of AATP1 recognized a single polypeptide of about 62 kDa in chloroplast inner envelope preparations. The cDNA coding for the AATP1 protein was functionally expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli. In both expression systems, increased rates of ATP transport were observed after reconstitution of the extracted protein into proteoliposomes. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the functional expression of an intrinsic plant membrane protein in E. coli. To yield high rates of ATP transport, proteoliposomes had to be preloaded with ADP, indicating a counter-exchange mode of transport. Carboxyatractyloside did not substantially interfere with ATP transport into proteoliposomes containing the plastidic ATP/ADP translocator. An apparent KM for ATP of 28 microM was determined which is similar to values reported for isolated plastids. The data presented here strongly support the conclusion that AATP1 represents a novel eukaryotic adenylate carrier and that it is identical with the so far unknown plastidic ATP/ADP translocator.