gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Biosynthesis and Degradation of H 2 O 2 by Vaginal Lactobacilli (2009)

Hydrogen peroxide production by vaginal lactobacilli represents one of the most important defense mechanisms against vaginal colonization by undesirable microorganisms. To quantify the ability of a collection of 45 vaginal Lactobacillus strains to generate H(2)O(2), we first compared three published colorimetric methods. It was found that the use of DA-64 as a substrate rendered the highest sensitivity, while tetramethyl-benzidine (TMB) maintained its linearity from nanomolar to millimolar H(2)O(2) concentrations. Generation of H(2)O(2) was found to be especially common and strong for L. jensenii strains, while it was variable among L. crispatus and L. gasseri strains. Biosynthesis of H(2)O(2) only occurred upon agitation of the cultures, but the H(2)O(2)-producing machinery was already present in them before aeration started. Calcium, magnesium, manganese, and zinc ions did not affect H(2)O(2) production, while Cu(2+) inhibited the growth of Lactobacillus jensenii CECT 4306, which was chosen as a model strain. Cultures with Fe(3+), hemin, and hemoglobin did not accumulate H(2)O(2). Fe(3+) activated an extracellular peroxidase that destroyed the H(2)O(2) being produced by the cultures. This protected the lactobacilli against its antimicrobial effect. The production of the enzyme appears to be constitutive, the Fe(3+) ions being a necessary cofactor of the reaction.
QCM Technology in Biosensors (2011)

In the fields of analytical and physical chemistry, medical diagnostics and biotechnology there is an increasing demand of highly selective and sensitive analytical techniques which, optimally, allow an in real-time direct monitoring with easy to use, reliable and miniaturized devices. Biomolecular interactions such as: antigen-antibody, pathogen detection, cell adhesion, adsorption and hybridization of oligonucleotides, characterization of adsorbed proteins, DNA & RNA interactions with complementary strands and detection of bacteria and viruses, among others, are typical applications in these areas. Conventionally, analytical methods include different techniques depending on the application. For instance, for low molecular weight pollutants detection, gas and liquid chromatography are classical techniques. These techniques precise of sophisticated sample pre-treatment: extraction of crude sample with large amounts of organic solvent, which is expensive and needs to be discarded; precolumn filtration and extensive purification Due to these shortcomings the analysis of a large number of samples may be both cost and time prohibitive Immunoassays for low molecular weight compounds (pesticides, industrial chemical pollutants, etc.) have already gained a place in the analytical benchtop as alternative or complementary methods for routine classical analysis as they are simple, fast, inexpensive, and selective as well as highly sensitive although, in general, not as much as chromatographic techniques. Immunoassays are able to detect specifically one target analyte in a complex sample. Moreover, immunoassays can be performed on portable devices, irrespective of centralized laboratories, which turn them into a suitable tool for quantification analysis in on-line applications. These techniques are based on the interaction of one antigen (analyte) with an antibody which recognizes it in a specific way. Currently, Enzyme Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA) and Immunosensors are the most popular immunoassays. In ELISAs the detection of the analyte is always indirect because one of the immunoreagents is labeled. In immunosensors, or immunological biosensors, the detection is direct, one of the immunoreagents is immobilized on the surface of the transducer, and a direct physical signal is produced when interaction occurs In those techniques where labels are necessary, the actual www.intechopen.com
Airborne signals prime plants against insect herbivore attack (2004)

Green leafy volatiles (GLV), six-carbon aldehydes, alcohols, and esters commonly emitted by plants in response to mechanical damage or herbivory, induced intact undamaged corn seedlings to rapidly produce jasmonic acid (JA) and emit sesquiterpenes. More importantly, corn seedlings previously exposed to GLV from neighboring plants produced significantly more JA and volatile sesquiterpenes when mechanically damaged and induced with caterpillar regurgitant than seedlings not exposed to GLV. The use of pure synthetic chemicals revealed that (Z)-3-hexenal, (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol, and (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate have nearly identical priming activity. Caterpillar-induced nocturnal volatiles, which are enriched in GLV, also exhibited a strong priming effect, inducing production of larger amounts of JA and release of greater quantities of volatile organic compounds after caterpillar regurgitant application. In contrast, GLV priming did not affect JA production induced by mechanical wounding alone. Thus, GLV specifically prime neighboring plants against impending herbivory by enhancing inducible chemical defense responses triggered during attack and may play a key role in plant-plant signaling and plant-insect interactions.
Anti‐tissue factor pathway inhibitor activity in patients with primary antiphospholipid syndrome (2001)

The association between antiphospholipid antibodies and an increased risk of thrombosis in antiphospholipid syndrome (aPS) patients is probably caused by numerous mechanisms, including the effects of antibodies to phospholipid-binding proteins such as beta(2)-glycoprotein I and prothrombin. In this study, we investigated the inhibition of tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) in 33 patients with primary antiphospholipid syndrome (PAPS). TFPI was measured in PAPS patients using an amidolytic assay, dependent on the generation of activated factor X (Fxa), and this was compared with 55 healthy subjects. Functional levels of TFPI (mean +/- SD) were significantly lower in PAPS patients (0.89 +/- 0.37 U/ml) than the control group (1.05 +/- 0.15 U/ml) (P = 0.02). The difference was caused by a subset of five patients who had TFPI levels below the lower 99% confidence interval of the normal reference range, representing increased FXa generation in the assay system. IgG fractions were isolated from these five patients and five control subjects, then incorporated into normal plasma to measure FXa generation in the TFPI assay system. FXa generation was increased when polyclonal rabbit anti-human TFPI IgG (P < 0.0001) or PAPS IgG (P = 0.0001) were added to normal plasma, demonstrating inhibition of TFPI. The apparent anti-TFPI activity demonstrated in the five subjects with PAPS in this study may represent a significant new mechanism for thrombosis in patients with aPS, as it implies that increased tissue factor FVIIa-mediated thrombin generation might occur.
Progress and Challenges in Metabolic Syndrome in Children and Adolescents (2009)

Cardiovascular Risk in Children from the Atherosclerosis, Hypertension, and Obesity in the Young Committee (Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young) and the Diabetes Committee (Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism). A constellation of these interrelated cardiovascular risk factors in adults has come to be known as the metabolic syndrome (MetS), a construct useful both in clinical and research areas. Most recently, the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute produced a consensus statement intended to provide up-to-date guidance on the diagnosis and management of the MetS in adults. It calls attention to the fact that the stability of the MetS, especially for adolescents, is low, which raises questions about the utility of the MetS in a clinical context. For these reasons, we have focused on cardiometabolic risk factors and have called for the types of research that would hopefully provide much needed answers in this area. This statement aims to represent a balanced and critical appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the MetS concept in pediatric patients. It focuses on the pediatric issues related to cardiometabolic risk factors, primarily on the progress that has been made in recognizing the components of the MetS in children, their interrelations, and their importance as predictors of longitudinal risk for ASCVD and T2DM, based on evidence accumulated over recent years and on the consensus of experts in the field. It also addresses the need for early detection and preventive measures regarding cardiometabolic risk factors in children and adolescents, with a strong focus on obesity, inflammation, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and hypertension, which emerge as core elements of morbidity. Because of the limited data that track individuals from childhood to adulthood, little is known about how well pediatric MetS predicts adult disease. This statement also defines the limits of our current knowledge and provides suggestions for needed future research. To provide more insightful and concrete recommendations for clinicians and families as we face the increasing burden of childhood obesity, lipid abnormalities, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, and other associated morbidities, the urgent need for vigorous research at the national and international level is obvious, so that lifestyle modification and at times medication may be used to reduce ASCVD risk to follow.
Origin of osteoclasts: mature monocytes and macrophages are capable of differentiating into osteoclasts under a suitable microenvironment prepared by bone marrow-derived stromal cells. (1990)

We previously reported that osteoclast-like cells were formed in cocultures of a mouse marrow-derived stromal cell line (ST2) with mouse spleen cells in the presence of 1 alpha, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and dexamethasone. In this study, we developed a new coculture system to determine the origin of osteoclasts. When relatively small numbers of mononuclear cells (10(3)-10(5) cells per well) obtained from mouse bone marrow, spleen, thymus, or peripheral blood were cultured for 12 days on the ST2 cell layers, they formed colonies with a linear relationship between the number of colonies formed and the number of hemopoietic cells inoculated. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAPase)-positive mononuclear and multinucleated cells appeared in the colonies (TRAPase-positive colonies) in response to 1 alpha, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and dexamethasone. When hemopoietic cells suspended in a collagen-gel solution were cultured on the ST2 cell layers to prevent their movement, TRAPase-positive colonies were similarly formed, indicating that each colony originated from a single cell. All of the colonies consisted of nonspecific esterase-positive cells. The monocyte-depleted population prepared from peripheral blood failed to form colonies, whereas the monocyte-enriched population produced a large number of TRAPase-positive colonies. In addition, alveolar macrophages formed TRAPase-positive colonies most efficiently on the ST2 cell layers in the presence of the two hormones. Salmon 125I-labeled calcitonin specifically bound to the TRAPase-positive cells. Resorption lacunae were formed on dentine slices on which cocultures were performed. When direct contact between the peripheral blood cells and the ST2 cells was inhibited by a collagen-gel sheet, no TRAPase-positive cells were formed. These results indicate that osteoclasts are also derived from the mature monocytes and macrophages when a suitable microenvironment is provided by bone marrow-derived stromal cells.
El estatus político de la lengua romaní en Europa (2001)

Este articulo tiene como objetivo hacer una presentacion general del estatus politico de la lengua romani, la lengua de los gitanos, en la Union Europea. Si bien es cierto que el estatus de la lengua mas dispersa de Europa es un aspecto menor en comparacion con los otros problemas a los que se tienen que enfrentar los gitanos en Europa (discriminacion, opresion, violencia, racismo, pobreza), los autores creen que es de utilidad hacer una presentacion global del marco de proteccion linguistica, principalmente porque las posibilidades de dar apoyo a esta lengua aun no han sido suficientemente explotadas.
 Igualmente, Peter Bakker y Marcia Rooker nos ofrecen un detallado estudio de la situacion de la lengua gitana en cada uno de los estados miembros de la Union Europea, que permite observar las diferencias existentes en el estatus politico de la lengua entre los paises.
IR spectral imaging of secreted mucus: a promising new tool for the histopathological recognition of human colonic adenocarcinomas (2010)

IR-MSP imaging provides a new type of histology, independent of visual morphology, presenting tremendous possibilities for discovery and clinical monitoring of cancer markers.
SH2 Domains Mediate the Sequential Phosphorylation of HS1 Protein by p72syk and Src-Related Protein Tyrosine Kinases (1996)

The protein tyrosine kinase p72syk readily phosphorylates hematopoietic linkage cell-specific protein p50/HS1 with high stoichiometry (up to 4 mol of Pi/mol of protein) and favorable kinetic constants (Km 77 nM, kcat 0.37 s-1), at sites that display the motif that is specifically recognized by the HS2 domains of Src tyrosine kinases. Such a phosphorylation converts p50/HS1 into a good substrate for c-Fgr, which in contrast is nearly inactive on nonphosphorylated p50/HS1. A phosphopeptide reproducing one of the main p50/HS1 site affected by p72syk, but neither its dephosphorylated derivative nor other phosphopeptides with different structure, blocks the secondary phosphorylation of phospho(p50/HS1) by c-Fgr but not its primary phosphorylation by p72syk. It also prevents the coimmunoprecipitation of phospho(HS1) with c-Fgr by anti-(c-Fgr) antibodies. In contrast the HS1[393-402] phosphopeptide is ineffective on the kinase activity of c-Fgr when tested with peptide substrates, showing that inhibition of p50/HS1 phosphorylation is not exerted at the catalytic site of c-Fgr. The sequential phosphorylation of p50/HS1 as well as its specific blockage by the HS1 phosphopeptide is also observable if c-Fgr is replaced by two other Src-related kinases, namely, Lyn and Fyn, as secondary phosphorylating agents. None of these Src-related kinases, however, can carry out the phosphorylation of p50/HS1 at the sites affected by p72syk, even after prolonged incubation. Our data suggest that sequential phosphorylation might represent a general mechanism by which p72syk and other Syk-related kinases generate substrates for Src-related protein tyrosine kinases. They also show that sequential phosphorylation (requiring the concerted action of a primary and a secondary kinases) cannot be surrogated by "processive" phosphorylation where a single kinase catalyzes both the primary and secondary phosphorylation, although both these modes of multiple phosphorylation are based on interactions between SH2 domains of the kinases and phosphotyrosyl sites of the substrate.
Distributed k-Means and k-Median Clustering on General Topologies (2013)

This paper provides new algorithms for distributed clustering for two popular center-based objectives, k-median and k-means. These algorithms have provable guarantees and improve communication complexity over existing approaches. Following a classic approach in clustering by \cite{har2004coresets}, we reduce the problem of finding a clustering with low cost to the problem of finding a coreset of small size. We provide a distributed method for constructing a global coreset which improves over the previous methods by reducing the communication complexity, and which works over general communication topologies. Experimental results on large scale data sets show that this approach outperforms other coreset-based distributed clustering algorithms.
Rapid identification of high affinity peptide ligands using positional scanning synthetic peptide combinatorial libraries. (1992)

We describe here a conceptually unique set of individual synthetic peptide combinatorial libraries (SPCLs), termed a positional scanning SPCL (PS-SPCL), that can be used for the rapid (i.e., a single day) identification of peptide sequences that bind with high affinity to antibodies, receptors or other acceptor molecules. The PS-SPCL described here is made up of six individual positional peptide libraries, each one consisting of hexamers with a single position defined and five positions as mixtures. As an example of the utility of such PS-SPCLs, the antigenic determinants recognized by two different monoclonal antibodies were correctly identified upon a single screening.
Observation of resonant tunneling phenomenon in metal-insulator-insulator-insulator-metal electron tunnel devices (2012)

We report on the observation of electron resonant tunneling phenomenon through multi-stepped potential barriers of metal-insulator-insulator-insulator-metal (MIIIM) diodes. Through selection of oxide materials and atomically multilayering the potential barrier profile design, MIIIM devices consisting of Cr/Cr2O3-HfO2-Al2O3/Cr, and Cr/Cr2O3-Al2O3-HfO2/Cr, were fabricated and characterized. Due to electron resonat tunnling, via multiple quantum wells formation at the oxides interfaces, we show that such electron tunneling diodes exhibit extreme asymmetry and high non-linearity. These findings are significant in the development of future electron tunneling devices in many disciplines for either high or low voltage operations.
The II-nd International Seminar on Inductive Modeling IWIM-2007 (2008)

In the range of September 23−26, 2007 Prague held the II-nd International seminar on inductive modeling (ISIM-2007). The first seminar was held in Kiev in July, 2005 as the extension of Lvov International conference on inductive modeling (ICIM’2002) in May, 2002. The series of such conferences and seminars represent International scientific forums dedicated to the theory, algorithms, applications, implementation and new technologies of data analysis and knowledge mining based on GMDH methodology as the typical inductive method of modeling whose author is A.G. Ivahnenko.
Retrieval effectiveness of table of contents and subject headings (2007)

The effectiveness of two modes of subject representation - table of contents (TOC) and subject headings - in subject searching in an online public access catalog (OPAC) system was investigated. The retrieval difference between TOC and the Library of Congress subject headings (LCSH) was statistically significant; the effect of subject domain was not statistically significant; users had better success matching their keywords to TOC than to LCSH; but their keywords often failed to retrieve items similar to the target items. These findings underscore the need to bridge user keywords to both TOC and LCSH.
Local Refractive Index Dependence of Plasmon Resonance Spectra from Individual Nanoparticles (2003)

We present an experimental optical darkfield microscope study of the dependence of the plasmon resonance spectrum of individual silver nanoparticles on the local index of refraction. We systematically characterize the position of the resonance peaks associated with the same set of individual silver nanoparticles embedded sequentially in index oils with increasing refractive index. This technique effectively allows the local refractive index to be stepped in increments of 0.04. As the local index is increased, the spectrum from each of the nanoparticles generally undergoes a very regular and reproducible red shift; however, we find that the amount of red shift per index increase varies depending on the shape of the nanoparticle and the mode of excitation. In particular, we find that the spectral peak that occurs in triangular nanoparticles exhibits a noticeably larger red shift than that associated with the dipole mode corresponding to spherical nanoparticles. Our results are consistent with experiments performed on ensembles of similar nanoparticles and suggest that individual nanoparticles may be utilized in biosensing applications where currently ensembles are being investigated.
Synthesis and antitumor activity of boronated dipeptides containing aromatic amino acids. (1998)

N-[(Trimethylamine-boryl-carbonyl]-L-tryptophan methyl ester and N[(trimethylamine-boryl)-carbonyl]-L-histidine methyl ester were obtained by synthesis using triphenyl-phosphine/carbon tetrachloride or dicyclohexyl-carbodiimide as coupling agents, respectively. Both agents reduced L1210 lymphoid leukemia DNA, RNA, and protein syntheses with the largest reductions occurring in DNA synthesis. Reductions in DNA synthesis appear to be mediated by inhibition of key enzyme activities (i.e., DNA polymerase a, IMP dehydrogenase, and PRPP amido transferase). These agents had little effect on in vitro L1210 DNA topoisomerase II activity at 100 microM but were able to cause synergistic increases in protein-linked DNA breaks when combined with etoposide (VP16). It was shown that these agents significantly reduced protein kinase C mediated phosphorylation of human topoisomerase II in vitro. Thus, inhibition of topoisomerase II phosphorylation may be a mechanism by which these agents and VP-16 are synergistic in causing protein-linked DNA breaks.
Cytokine Gene Expression after Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation (1995)

Cytokines produced by T lymphocytes, monocytes/macrophages, and fibroblasts play a central role in the immune response and in the development of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Also, it has been reported that dysregulated production of cytokines maybe the primary mediator of clinical manifestation of acute GVHD. Regarding cytokine gene expression after human allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo BMT), we have demonstrated increased IL-1 beta, IL-6, and TNF-alpha mRNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells during the development of acute and chronic GVHD and that the degree of the increase was dependent on the severity of the disease. Furthermore, overexpression of these cytokine mRNAs could be detected before the clinical manifestations of GVHD developed. In contrast, IL-2 mRNA expression was not detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in GVHD patients. On the other hand, we have reported that increased mRNA expression and protein product of IL-2 and IFN-gamma were evident in the mixed lymphocyte culture of the cases who developed severe lethal transplantation-related complications. Therefore, the detection of increased IL-2 and IFN-gamma gene expression in MLC appeared to be useful for predicting transplantation-related complications in BMT patients. Furthermore, we found increased IL-2 receptor alpha subunit mRNA expression in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells during GVHD. These findings may indicate the important role of inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1 beta, IL-6 and TNF-alpha in the development of the clinical manifestation of GVHD and also may be indicative of the important role of IL-2 and the IL-2 receptor in allo response perhaps mainly as an autocrine effect.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)