gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
A Microfluidic Approach to Encapsulate Living Cells in Uniform Alginate Hydrogel Microparticles (2012)

A microfluidic technique is described to encapsulate living cells in alginate hydrogel microparticles generated from monodisperse double-emulsion templates. A microcapillary device is used to fabricate double emulsion templates composed of an alginate drop surrounded by a mineral oil shell. Hydrogel formation begins when the alginate drop separates from the mineral oil shell and comes into contact with Ca(2+) ions in the continuous phase. Alginate hydrogel microparticles with diameters ranging from 60 to 230 µm are obtained. 65% of the cells encapsulated in the alginate microparticles were viable after one week. The technique provides a useful means to encapsulate the living cells in monodisperse hydrogel microparticles.
Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Bevacizumab Monotherapy in Patients with Metastatic Melanoma: Predictive Importance of Induced Early Hypertension (2012)

Background: VEGF driven angiogenesis plays a key role in cancer progression. We determined the clinical efficacy of bevacizumab monotherapy in patients with metastatic melanoma.
Prophylaxis of oral candidiasis with clotrimazole troches (1984)

• Oropharyngeal candidiasis is frequently a complication of patients with altered immune states. Clotrimazole troches are effective in the treatment of<i>Candida</i>and were evaluated in this study in a prophylaxis regimen. Patients with malignant neoplasms who were receiving chemotherapy and renal transplant recipients who were receiving immunosuppressives were randomized to receive either clotrimazole (10 mg) or placebo troches three times a day in a prospective, double-blinded study. Eighty-four patients were randomized into the study, 18 patients with leukemia, 19 patients with malignant neoplasms, and 47 patients with renal transplants. Among all patients, thrush developed in 57% while receiving placebo compared with 13% while receiving clotrimazole prophylaxis. Prophylaxis showed significant benefit for the renal transplant recipients and for patients with solid malignant neoplasms, but not for the leukemic patients. Clotrimazole troches are effective in preventing oral candidiasis in a select group of patients. (<i>Arch Intern Med</i>1984;144:290-293)
Pyrrolidino-DNA (2003)

We synthesized pyrrolidino-C-nucleosides, incorporated them into oligodeoxynucleotides and investigated their pairing properties. The thermal duplex and triplex stabilities were measured. While triplex formation is destabilized in the case of pyrrolidino-pseudo-U and -T, pyrrolidino-pseudo-iso-C leads to an increase of the Tm value for third strand dissociation. Duplexes are destabilized with all pyrrolidino-C-nucleosides.
Primary structures of bovine elastin a, b, and c deduced from the sequences of cDNA clones. (1987)

Nucleotide sequence analysis of cDNA clones for bovine elastin revealed the occurrence of three mRNAs for elastin in fetal calf nuchal ligament, encoding three forms of elastins (a, b, and c, of 747, 733, and 713 amino acid residues, respectively). These forms arise as the result of the presence, at a single position, of 102 additional nucleotides in the mRNA for elastin a and of 60 of these nucleotides in the mRNA for elastin b as compared to the mRNA for elastin c. As expected, most lysines occur in pairs, separated by two or three small amino acid residues. However, at two places, lysines occur in groups of three. The occurrence of a group of three lysines followed by a hydrophobic residue (lysine 400, 404, and 407) offers an explanation for the formation of lysinonorleucine. The alignment of amino acid sequences of porcine tropoelastin tryptic peptides with the sequence for bovine elastin a results in the ordering of these tryptic peptides. The analysis of the complete primary structures of elastin a, b, and c provides further insight into the structure-function relations of elastin.
A hybrid methodology for synthesis of Petri net models for manufacturing systems (1992)

Beginning with a bounded (safe), live, or reversible Petri net as a first-level net model for a system, Petri nets are synthesized by first refining operation places through basic design modules in top-down modular ways, then adding nonshared resource places stepwise, and finally adding shared resource places step by step in a bottom-up manner. Refinement theory is extended to include reversibility of Petri nets. Parallel and sequential mutual exclusions are used to model shared resources. Design of the first-level Petri nets is discussed, and two basic kinds of Petri nets, choice-free and choice-synchronization, are given to cope with different types of manufacturing systems. The major advantages of the method are that the modeling details can be introduced in incremental ways such that complexity can be handled, and the important properties of the resulting Petri net are guaranteed so that costly mathematical analysis for boundedness, liveness, and reversibility can be avoided. A manufacturing system consisting of four machines, one assembly cell, two shared robots, and two buffers is used to illustrate the design methodology.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>
Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition therapy following myocardial infarction. Rationale for clinical trials. (1991)

Progressive enlargement following myocardial infarction can be anticipated to adversely effect outcome since prognosis is intimately related to the degree of left ventricular dysfunction and resultant ventricular cavity size. Recent experimental and clinical data have indicated that chronic angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor therapy can be effective in attenuating the ventricular enlargement which occurs following infarction. These observations have provided a rationale for ongoing large multicenter clinical trials designed to determine whether angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition will be of clinical benefit following infarction. This article reviews the rationale for studies of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition in post-infarct patients and summarizes the ongoing international research effort to fully define the role of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition following infarction.
Constitutive Activation of Opsin by Mutation of Methionine 257 on Transmembrane Helix 6 (1998)

Rhodopsin is a member of the large family of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR's). Constitutive activity of GPCR's, defined as ligand-independent signaling, has been recognized as an important feature of receptor function and has also been implicated in the molecular pathophysiology of a number of human diseases. Rhodopsin has evolved a unique mechanism to minimize receptor basal activity. The chromophore 11-cis-retinal, which acts as an inverse agonist in rhodopsin, is covalently bound to the receptor to ensure extremely low receptor signaling in the dark. In this study, we replaced Met257 in TM helix 6 of opsin with each of the remaining 19 amino acids. Only mutant opsin M257R failed to be expressed in COS-cell membranes. Each of the remaining 18 mutant opsins, with the exception of M257L, was significantly constitutively active. Two mutants in particular, M257Y and M257N, displayed very high levels of constitutive activity. In addition, the double-site mutants with substitutions of both Met257 and Glu113 in TM helix 3 tended to be much more constitutively active than the sums of the activities of the individual single-site mutants. Based on existing structural models of rhodopsin, we conclude that Met257 may form an important and specific interhelical interaction with a highly conserved NPXXY motif in TM helix 7, which stabilizes the inactive receptor conformation by preventing TM helix 6 movement in the absence of all-trans-retinal. Furthermore, we are able to show that the pharmacological properties of the large number (approximately 50) of mutant opsins that we have characterized to date support the two-state model of GPCR function. These results suggest that rhodopsin and other GPCR's share a common mechanism of receptor activation that involves specific changes in helix-helix interactions.
A theory crack healing in polymers (1981)

A theory of crack healing in polymers is presented in terms of the stages of crack healing, namely, (a) surface rearrangement, (b) surface approach, (c) wetting, (d) diffusion, and (e) randomization. The recovery ratio R of mechanical properties with time was determined as a convolution product, R = Rh (t)*φ(t), where Rh (t) is an intrinsic healing function, and φ(t) is a wetting distribution function for the crack interface or plane in the material. The reptation model of a chain in a tube was used to describe self-diffusion of interpenetrating random coil chains which formed a basis for Rh (t). Applications of the theory are described, including crack healing in amorphous polymers and melt processing of polymer resins by injection or compression molding. Relations are developed for fracture stress σ, strain ε, and energy E as a function of time t, temperature T, pressure P, and molecular weight M. Results include (i) during healing or processing at t&amp;lt;t∞, σ,ε∼t1/4, E∼t1/2; (ii) at constant t&amp;lt;t∞, σ,ε∼M−1/4, E∼M−1/2; (iii) in the fully interpenetrated healed state at t = t∞, σ,ε∼M1/2, E∼M; (iv) the time to achieve complete healing, t∞ ∼M3, ∼exp P, ∼exp 1/T. Chain fracture, creep, and stress relaxation are also discussed. New concepts for strength predictions are introduced.
Concatenated Coded Modulation for Optical Communications Systems (2010)

The use of trellis-coded modulation (TCM) in combination with an outer block code is considered for next-generation 100-Gb/s optical transmission systems. Two block codes are employed as an outer code: a 16 times interleaved byte-oriented (255,239) Reed Solomon (RS) code and a code consisting of two interleaved extended three-error correcting Bose Chaudhuri Hocquenghem (BCH) (1020,988) codes. Simulations show that soft-decision decoding of a selected TCM inner code in combination with hard-decision decoding of the outer RS code achieves a net coding gain (NCG) of 8.42 dB at a bit-error rate of 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-13</sup> . When the concatenated code based on the two interleaved BCH codes is used as the outer code, the NCG is 9.7 dB. The impact of quantization on the performance of the concatenated TCM scheme with the two interleaved BCH outer codes is evaluated, and it is shown that 4-bit quantization is sufficient to approach the "infinite precision" performance to within 0.15 dB.
Cholecystokinin Receptor Family (1994)

A review of the literature encompassing numerous pharmacological, physiological, and biochemical studies indicates the presence of at least four CCK receptor types, CCKA, CCKB, gastrin, and CG-4 receptors. Multiple subtypes of the CCKAR have been postulated to account for the differences in pharmacology or affinity cross-linking of CCKARs between pancreas and gallbladder and the presence of high and low affinity CCKARs on pancreatic acini. Multiple subtypes of the CCKBR have been postulated to explain the differences in pharmacology and physiology between gastric and gallbladder smooth muscle CCKBRs. We recently cloned and functionally expressed both the CCKAR and the CCKBR from rat, guinea pig, and human. The CCKAR and CCKBR are 48% homologous and constitute a family of receptors within the guanine nucleotide-binding regulatory protein-coupled superfamily of receptors. Each receptor is highly conserved between species. A single cDNA encoding a single protein is present in both pancreas and gallbladder and can account for both high and low affinity CCKARs found on pancreatic acini when transfected into COS-7 cells. A single cDNA encoding a single CCKBR protein is present in both the central nervous system and the periphery including the gastrointestinal system. Therefore, the gastrin receptor is actually a CCKBR present on parietal cells. Genomic and cDNA library hybridization as well as Northern and Southern hybridization studies among rat, guinea pig, and human species identifies only two members of the CCK receptor family, CCKAR and CCKBR. Although these studies do not identify other closely related members of the CCK receptor family, they do not rule out the existence of other less closely related members. Furthermore, differences in tissue and species-specific posttranslational processing, receptor coupling, and associated membrane protein and lipid heterogeneity may be among some of the other factors that may account for the phenotypic expression of more receptor subtypes than molecular studies would predict.
Distributed query processing (1984)

In this paper, various techniques for optimizing queries in distributed databases are presented. Although no attempt is made to cover all proposed algorithms on this topic, quite a few ideas extracted from existing algorithms are outlined. It is hoped that largescale experiments will be conducted to verify the usefulness of these ideas and that they will be integrated to construct a powerful algorithm for distributed query processing.
Human recombinant alpha- and gamma-interferons enhance the cytotoxic properties of tumor necrosis factor on human melanoma. (1988)

Three short-term human melanoma cell lines were tested for sensitivity to human recombinant alpha-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in a semisolid agar colony formation assay. Cells from three pigmented and one amelanotic strain displayed low sensitivity to TNF. The ID50 for the inhibition of melanoma colony formation ranged from 2,500 to 20,000 U/ml. We then tested the ability of human recombinant alpha-interferon (IFN-alpha) and gamma-interferon (IFN-gamma) to interact with TNF to inhibit melanoma colony formation. Analysis of the TNF-IFN mixtures using the median effect method demonstrated that both IFNs interacted synergistically with TNF to inhibit melanoma colony formation. On a unit basis, IFN-gamma was more active with TNF than IFN-alpha. The addition of the second interferon to the mixture enhanced the ability of TNF to promote the cytolysis of human melanoma cells. The enhanced killing effect seen with the combination of IFN-alpha, IFN-gamma, and TNF suggests an interesting strategy for the treatment of human melanoma.
Esculetin Ameliorates Carbon Tetrachloride-Mediated Hepatic Apoptosis in Rats (2011)

Esculetin (ESC) is a coumarin that is present in several plants such as Fraxinus rhynchophylla and Artemisia capillaris. Our previous study found that FR ethanol extract (FR(EtOH)) significantly ameliorated rats' liver function. This study was intended to investigate the protective mechanism of ESC in hepatic apoptosis in rats induced by carbon tetrachloride. Rat hepatic apoptosis was induced by oral administration of CCl(4). All rats were administered orally with CCl(4) (20%, 0.5 mL/rat) twice a week for 8 weeks. Rats in the ESC groups were treated daily with ESC, and silymarin group were treated daily with silymarin. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) as well as the activities of the anti-oxidative enzymes glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase in the liver were measured. In addition, expression of liver apoptosis proteins and anti-apoptotic proteins were detected. ESC (100, 500 mg/kg) significantly reduced the elevated activities of serum ALT and AST caused by CCl(4) and significantly increased the activities of catalase, GPx and SOD. Furthermore, ESC (100, 500 mg/kg) significantly decreased the levels of the proapoptotic proteins (t-Bid, Bak and Bad) and significantly increased the levels of the anti-apoptotic proteins (Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL). ESC inhibited the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria. In addition, the levels of activated caspase-9 and activated caspase-3 were significantly decreased in rats treated with ESC than those in rats treated with CCl(4) alone. ESC significantly reduced CCl(4)-induced hepatic apoptosis in rats.
Animal Models for Inducing Muscle Hypertrophy: Are They Relevant for Clinical Applications in Humans? (2002)

Muscle hypertrophy is an adaptive response to overload. Progressive resistance exercise (PRE) is thought to be among the best means to achieve hypertrophy in humans. While functional adaptations to PRE in muscles of humans are made in the clinic, it is difficult to evaluate hypertrophic responses and underlying mechanisms because the adaptations require many weeks or months before they become evident and there is a large variability in response to PRE among humans. In contrast, various animal models have been shown to induce rapid and extensive muscle hypertrophy and some models allow precise control of the exercise parameters. By examining the animal models of muscle hypertrophy and understanding the advantages and disadvantages of each, clinicians may be able to evaluate and use relevant data from these models to design new strategies for modification of PRE in humans. The purpose of this article is to review animal models that are currently used in basic research laboratories, discuss the hypertrophic and functional outcomes, and relate these to PRE used in the clinic.
Induction of FOXP3 expression in naive human CD4+FOXP3− T cells by T-cell receptor stimulation is transforming growth factor-β–dependent but does not confer a regulatory phenotype (2007)

Thymic-derived natural T-regulatory cells (nTregs) are important for the induction of self-tolerance and the control of autoimmunity. Murine CD4+CD25(-)Foxp3(-) cells can be induced to express Foxp3 after T-cell receptor (TCR) activation in the presence of transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) and are phenotypically similar to nTregs. Some studies have suggested that TCR stimulation of human CD4+CD25(-) cells results in the induction of transient expression of FOXP3, but that the induced cells lack a regulatory phenotype. We demonstrate here that TCR stimulation alone was insufficient to induce FOXP3 expression in the absence of TGFbeta, whereas high levels of FOXP3 expression could be induced in the presence of TGFbeta. Although FOXP3 expression was stable, the TGFbeta-induced FOXP3+ T cells were neither anergic nor suppressive and produced high levels of effector cytokines. These results suggest that even high levels of FOXP3 expression are insufficient to define a human CD4+ T cell as a T-regulatory cell.
Distributed-feedback grating used as an array-mode selector in resonant antiguided diode laser arrays: effects of the mirror facet position with respect to the grating (1998)

In resonant and nearly resonant antiguided arrays (ROW arrays), if the grating is located below the active region, a distributed-feedback (DFB) grating can function as a selector for the in-phase array mode in addition to its role as a frequency discriminator. Threshold current densities are calculated for competing (lateral) spatial modes in AR/HR coated 10- and 20-element arrays incorporating lower gratings (ROW-LDFB arrays). Calculations include the effects of random facet locations relative to the grating phase. The threshold current density, J/sub th/, of the in-phase mode and its discrimination, /spl Delta/J/sub th/, against other (array) spatial modes vary with facet location. For 20 (10) elements, J/sub th//spl ap/350-525 (400-550) A/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> and /spl Delta/J/sub th/ reaches a maximum of 55 (58) A/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> for 0.01/0.95 AR/HR-coated 350 μm-long devices. For 10-element arrays, the probability of in-phase operation is approximately 50%; for 20-element arrays, the probability is 100%. Preliminary experimental results from 20-element nonresonant devices with uncoated facets are near diffraction-limited beams and nearly single-frequency operation to 250 mW.
Synthetic Glucocorticoids That Dissociate Transactivation and AP-1 Transrepression Exhibit Antiinflammatory Activityin Vivo (1997)

Some of the most potent antiinflammatory and immunosuppressive agents are synthetic glucocorticoids. However, major side effects severely limit their therapeutic use. The development of improved glucocorticoid-based drugs will require the separation of beneficial from deleterious effects. One possibility toward this goal is to try to dissociate two main activities of glucocorticoids, i.e. transactivation and transrepression. Screening of a library of compounds using transactivation and AP-1 transrepression models in transiently transfected cells identified dissociated glucocorticoids, which exert strong AP-1 inhibition but little or no transactivation. Importantly, despite high ligand binding affinity, the prototypic dissociated compound, RU24858, acted as a weak agonist and did not efficiently antagonize dexamethasone-induced transcription in transfected cells. Similar results were obtained in hepatic HTC cells for the transactivation of the endogenous tyrosine amino transferase gene (TAT), which encodes one of the enzymes involved in the glucocorticoid-dependent stimulation of neoglucogenesis. To investigate whether dissociated glucocorticoids retained the antiinflammatory and immunosuppressive potential of classic glucocorticoids, several in vitro and in vivo models were used. Indeed, secretion of the proinflammatory lymphokine interleukin-1beta was severely inhibited by dissociated glucocorticoids in human monocytic THP 1 cells. Moreover, in two in vivo models, these compounds exerted an antiinflammatory and immunosuppressive activity as potent as that of the classic glucocorticoid prednisolone. These results may lead to an improvement of antiinflammatory and immunosuppressive therapies and provide a novel concept for drug discovery.
Dextrous Telerobotics with Force Feedback – An Overview. Part 1: Human Factors (1991)

SUMMARY Complex tasks that need to be performed through teleoperation led to the development of multifinger robot hands. A dextrous master is a multi-DOF controller which is worn by the operator in order to teleoperate these anthropomorphic hands. Force feedback is very useful when there is interaction with the environment. Providing force feedback to dextrous masters is an area of active research. We outline some of the human factors that influence the design of such masters. Of obvious importance is the hand geometry and the desired number of degrees of freedom. Additional criteria relate to the force perception of the hand. Finally, the man-machine impedance is of importance, since at the man/machine interface there are two impedances acting in series. One is the effective impedance of the human operator holding the master controller, the second is the impedance of the master controller being manipulated.