gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Vitamin E and immune response. I. Enhancement of helper T cell activity by dietary supplementation of vitamin E in mice. (1979)

The effects of vitamin E on the humoral immune response to hamster erythrocytes (HRBC) and 2,4,6-trinitrophenyl (TNP) were studied in mice. Inbred SL mice were fed on a diet supplemented with 0, 20 or 200 mg of vitamin E per kg of food throughout the course of experiments. These mice were immunized primarily with HRBC 50 days after the beginning of treatment with vitamin E supplementation. Secondary immunization with TNP—HRBC, a hapten-carrier conjugate, was given 28 days after primary immunization with HRBC. Anti-HRBC and anti-TNP haemagglutinin titres were increased by supplementing mice with vitamin E. Moreover, the effect of previous priming of mice with HRBC on the hapten-specific antibody response to immunization with TNP-HRBC was also enhanced by vitamin E supplementation. These effects of vitamin E were dose-dependent, and vitamin E as tocopheryl acetate exerted more effect than vitamin E as tocopheryl nicotinate. In experiments with the mouse inbred strain DDD, vitamin E seemed to facilitate the shift of antibody production from IgM to IgG. Initial IgM response and late IgG response were not augmented by treating mice with vitamin E supplementation. These findings suggested that vitamin E stimulated the helper activity of T lymphocytes. This was confirmed using an adoptive transfer system involving stimulation of hapten-primed cells by a hapten-carrier conjugate in the presence of carrier-primed helper cells.
Beneficial synergistic interactions of TNF-α and IL-6 in C2 skeletal myoblasts—Potential cross-talk with IGF system (2008)

The interaction effects of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interlukin-6 (IL-6) on skeletal muscle proliferation and differentiation remains controversial. We therefore investigated the potential interactive effects of TNF-alpha and IL-6 on murine C2 skeletal myoblast survival, differentiation and proliferation. A novel and unexpected positive temporal interaction between TNF-alpha and IL-6 on cell growth was identified (90%), with maximal beneficial effects obtained in myoblasts treated with TNF-alpha (10 ng/ml) for 24 h prior to being dosed with IL-6 (2.5 ng/ml) for a further 24 h. This combined treatment significantly (p < 0.05) increased the level of total cellular protein (330%), extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation (55%), and S-phase of cell cycle (2.5-fold), confirming cell growth. The expression of mRNAs of key regulators of muscle mass: insulin-like growth factor binding protein-5, insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II), IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) and IGF-II receptor (IGF-IIR) were also significantly (p < 0.05) increased by 1600-, 1.6-, 27- and 6-fold, respectively, giving an indication of the regulatory mechanisms of this interaction. Moreover, in response to this treatment, the expression level of signal-transducing glycoprotein 130 (gp130) was induced up to 3.5-fold but not after either treatments alone. This may not only explain the beneficial effects of this treatment on skeletal myoblast numbers but also define a functional role of gp130 in skeletal muscle cells. Our data suggest that in the presence of TNF-alpha/IL-6 functions positively and potentially also cooperatively with the IGF system to achieve the maximal beneficial effect on skeletal myoblast numbers.
<title>Fast micromachining using picosecond lasers</title> (2005)

Laser micromachining is mostly based, so far, on Q-switched laser sources. Their nanosecond pulse width often limits the accuracy and quality of laser processes by thermally initiated effects. Precision micromachining benefits from ultra short laser pulses. Up to now mostly amplified fs lasers with low repetition rates were used, with the result of low processing speed. New diode pumped solid-state picosecond lasers can also meet the demands of precise micro-machining. Their pulse duration of about 10 picoseconds provide the optimum performance e.g. for metal processing. These lasers also provide high average powers and much higher repetition rates of more then 100 kHz to maximize throughput. New potentials of picosecond lasers for the processing of different materials with high precision and increased speed will be discussed.
The ESPRIT project CAFE - High security digital payment systems (1994)

. CAFE (&amp;quot;Conditional Access for Europe&amp;quot;) is an ongoing project in the European Community&amp;apos;s ESPRIT program. The goal of CAFE is to develop innovative systems for conditional access, and in particular, digital payment systems. An important aspect of CAFE is high security of all parties concerned, with the least possible requirements that they are forced to trust other parties (so-called multi-party security). This should give legal certainty to everybody at all times. Moreover, both the electronic money issuer and the individual users are less dependent on the tamper-resistance of devices than in usual digital payment systems. Since CAFE aims at the market of small everyday payments that is currently dominated by cash, payments are offline, and privacy is an important issue. The basic devices used in CAFE are so-called electronic wallets, whose outlook is quite similar to pocket calculators or PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant). Particular advantages of the electronic wallets are that PIN...
Assessment of Hepatic Steatosis by Expert Pathologists (2009)

Quantification of hepatic steatosis in histological sections is strongly observer-dependent, not reproducible, and does not correlate with the computerized estimation. Current standards of assessment, previously published data and the clinical relevance of hepatic steatosis for liver surgery and transplantation must be challenged.
The Additional Methionine Residue at the N-Terminus of Bacterially Expressed Human Interleukin-2 Affects the Interaction between the N- and C-Termini (2000)

To gain insight into the origin of the difference in isoelectric point (pI) values for wild-type human interleukin-2 (IL-2) and IL-2 with an additional methionine residue at the N-terminus (Met-IL-2), conformational properties of the two molecular forms of IL-2 were compared by utilizing 1H NMR spectroscopy. Although overall conformations were conserved in the two forms, the presence of the additional methionine residue at the N-terminus induced chemical shift changes for residues Ala1 to Lys8 as well as for Thr133, which is located at the C-terminus. These observations indicate that the effect of the additional methionine residue is confined to the N- and C-terminal regions and unveil the existence of an interaction between the N- and C-terminal regions. The chemical shift change observed for Thr133 can be interpreted in terms of a change in pKa of the C-terminal carboxyl group, which interacts differently with the N-terminal amino group in the two forms of IL-2. It seems to be reasonable to conclude that the difference in pI values for the two forms of IL-2 is the consequence of the different interactions between the C- and N-terminal residues.
Location of Helix III in the Lactose Permease of Escherichia coli As Determined by Site-Directed Thiol Cross-Linking (1999)

The six N-terminal transmembrane helices (N(6)) and the six C-terminal transmembrane helices (C(6)) in the lactose permease of Escherichia coli, each containing a single Cys residue, were coexpressed, and cross-linking was studied. The proximity of paired Cys residues in helices III (position 78, 81, 84, 86, 87, 88, 90, 93, or 96) and VII (position 227, 228, 231, 232, 235, 238, 239, 241, 243, 245, or 246) was examined by using iodine or two rigid homobifunctional thiol-specific cross-linking reagents with different lengths [N,N'-o-phenylenedimaleimide (o-PDM; 6 A) and N, N'-p-phenylenedimaleimide (p-PDM; 10 A)]. Cys residues in the periplasmic half of helix III (position 87, 93, or 96) cross-link to Cys residues in the periplasmic half of helix VII (position 235, 238, 239, 241, or 245). In contrast, no cross-linking is evident with paired Cys residues near the cytoplasmic ends of helices III (position 78 or 81) and VII (position 227, 228, 213, 232, or 235). Therefore, the periplasmic halves of helices III and VII are in close proximity, and the helices tilt away from each other toward the cytoplasmic face of the membrane. On the basis of the findings, a modified helix packing model for the permease is presented.
Structure−affinity relationships in the gp41 ELDKWA epitope for the HIV‐1 neutralizing monoclonal antibody 2F5: effects of side‐chain and backbone modifications and conformational constraints (2002)

The human monoclonal antibody, mAb 2F5, has broad HIV-1 neutralizing activity and binds a conserved linear epitope within the envelope glycoprotein gp41 having a core recognition sequence ELDKWA. In this study, the structural requirements of this epitope for high-affinity binding to mAb 2F5 were explored using peptide synthesis and competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA). Expansion of the minimal epitope to an end-capped, linear nonapeptide, Ac-LELDKWASL-amide, was sufficient to attain maximal affinity within the set of native gp41-sequence peptides assayed. Scanning single-residue alanine and d-residue substitutions then confirmed the essential recognition requirements of 2F5 for the central DKW sequence, and also established the importance of the terminal leucine residues in determining high-affinity binding of the linear nonapeptide. Further studies of side-chain and backbone-modified analogs revealed a high degree of structural specificity for the DK sequence in particular, and delineated the steric requirements of the Leu(3) and Trp(6) residues. The nine-residue 2F5 epitope, flanked by pairs of serine residues, retained a high affinity for 2F5 when it was conformationally constrained as a 15-residue, disulfide-bridged loop. However, analogs with smaller or larger loop sizes resulted in lower 2F5 affinities. The conformational effects of the gp41 C-peptide helix immediately adjacent to the N-terminal end of the ELDKWA epitope were examined through the synthesis of helix-initiated analogs. Circular dichroism (CD) studies indicated that the alpha-helical conformation was propagated efficiently into the LELDKWASL epitope, but without any significant effect on its affinity for 2F5. This study should guide the design of a second generation of conformationally constrained ELDKWA analogs that might elicit an immune response that mimics the HIV-neutralizing actions of 2F5.
Regulatory T cells play a role in T‐cell receptor CDR2 peptide regulation of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (2011)

Eliciting T-cell receptor (TCR) -specific responsiveness has been known to provide an effective autoregulatory mechanism for limiting inflammation mediated by T effector cells. Our previous use of TCR peptides derived from the CDR3 regions of a pathogenic TCR effectively reversed ongoing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in a humanized TCR transgenic model. In this study, we use the TCR BV8S2 CDR2 peptide in the non-transgenic C57BL/6 EAE model to down-regulate the heterogeneous TCR BV8S2(+) MOG-35-55-specific pathogenic T-cell population and demonstrate successful treatment of EAE after disease onset. Suppression of disease was associated with reduced MOG-35-55-specific and non-specific T-cell production of interleukin-17a and interferon-γ in the central nervous system, as well as reduced numbers of CD4(+) and Foxp3(+) T cells in the central nervous system. With the use of Foxp3-GFP and Foxp3 conditional knockout mice, we demonstrate that the TCR CDR2 peptide treatment effect is dependent on the presence of Foxp3(+) regulatory T cells and that regulatory T cell numbers are significantly expanded in the periphery of treated mice. Hence, TCR CDR2 peptide therapy is effective in regulating heterogeneous, pathogenic T-cell populations through the activity of the Foxp3(+) regulatory T cell population.
Elevated plasma glucagon-like peptide 1 and 2 concentrations in ileum resected short bowel patients with a preserved colon (2000)

Ileum resected short bowel patients with a preserved colon had elevated fasting plasma concentrations of GLP-1 and GLP-2 and significantly larger meal stimulated areas under the curve compared with age and sex matched controls. Elevated GLP-1 and GLP-2 concentrations may contribute to the positive effects of a preserved colon on intestinal motility and functional adaptation in ileum resected short bowel patients.
Immunosuppressory activity of the cyclodimeric peptide with RGD-sequences. (2001)

Our previous studies showed that the nonapeptide fragment of HLA-DQ of the sequence H-Thr-Pro-Gln-Arg-Gly-Asp-Val-Tyr-Thr-OH, located in the beta164-172 loop, strongly suppresses the humoral and cellular immune responses, while its shorter analogs, H-Arg-Gly-Asp-Val-OH, H-Arg-Gly-Asp-Val-Tyr-OH and H-Gln-Arg-Gly-Asp-Val-Tyr-OH show only a weak stimulatory activity in respect to the humoral immunological response. These fragments contain the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequence, known for its importance for cellular association phenomena. Based on the crystal structure of HLA-DR1, we also designed and synthesized a cyclic analog H-Cys-Arg-Gly-Asp-Val-Tyr-Cys-OH with restricted conformation, which strongly suppresses the immune response and selectively inhibits the alphavbeta3 integrin, suggesting that the mechanism of the immunosuppressory action of the peptide is associated with inhibition of the integrin. In this paper we present the design and synthesis of the cyclodimeric peptide, Arg-Gly-Asp-Arg-Gly-Asp, which is also known as a selective alphavbeta3 inhibitor. The synthesized peptide strongly suppresses both the humoral and cellular immune response. The results support our hypothesis that the immunomodulatory activity of HLA-DQ fragments may be connected with their interactions with some particular integrins on the cell surface.
Outbreak of Poliomyelitis in Hispaniola Associated with Circulating Type 1 Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus (2002)

An outbreak of paralytic poliomyelitis occurred in the Dominican Republic (13 confirmed cases) and Haiti (8 confirmed cases, including 2 fatal cases) during 2000-2001. All but one of the patients were either unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated children, and cases occurred in communities with very low (7 to 40%) rates of coverage with oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). The outbreak was associated with the circulation of a derivative of the type 1 OPV strain, probably originating from a single OPV dose given in 1998-1999. The vaccine-derived poliovirus associated with the outbreak had biological properties indistinguishable from those of wild poliovirus.
Retinal degeneration and RPE transplantation in Rpe65(-/-) mice. (2002)

Retinal degeneration in the Rpe65(-/-) mice is slowly progressive. Photoreceptor function can be transiently increased for several months and anatomic degeneration slightly reduced in Rpe65(-/-) mice by RPE cell transplantation. Loss of the rescue effect may be due to degeneration of the transplanted RPE.
Synthesis of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes in Flames (2000)

The synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in sooting flames is reported. This method offers a viable path towards low-cost large-scale synthesis, which is lacking in arc- and laser-based SWNT synthetic techniques. As with other methods, the growth of the SWNTs in the flame is catalyzed by the presence of metals. Iron and nickel were introduced into the flames by subliming their bis(cyclopentadienyl) derivatives into an inert gas feed line that mixes with the hydrocarbon fuel and oxygen at the burner surface. Acetylene and ethylene are both suitable fuel choices for SWNT synthesis. While no SWNTs could be detected when benzene was used as the fuel, long metal-filled multiwalled nanotubes (MWNTs) with many defects were abundant. The effect of the fuel's chemical identity is discussed within the formation mechanisms for vapor-grown carbon fibers (VGCFs), SWNTs, MWNTs, and fullerenes.
Review: Anthony B. Atkinson, Inequality: What can be done? (2015)

This book tells the narrative of the fall in social inequality after the second world war and its subsequent and continuing rise. It then proposes a set of policies to reverse the current trend, which could be implemented in the UK without undermining its capitalist economy. They include a more progressive income tax, with a top rate of 65%, a capital endowment paid to all citizens on their reaching adulthood and guaranteed public employment for job-seekers at the level of the living wage.
Genetic Landscape of Somatic Mutations in a Large Cohort of Sporadic Medullary Thyroid Carcinomas Studied by Next-Generation Targeted Sequencing (2019)

Sporadic Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma (sMTC) is a rare but aggressive thyroid tumor. RET and RAS genes are present in about 50%-80% of cases, but most of the remaining cases are still orphan of a genetic driver. We studied the largest series of sMTC by deep sequencing to define the mutational landscape. With this methodology we greatly reduced the number of RET- or RAS-negative cases and we confirmed the central role of RET and RAS mutations. Moreover, we highlighted the bad prognostic role of RET mutations in sMTC and consolidated the favorable prognostic role of RAS mutations. For the first time, we showed that the variant allele frequency represents an additional prognostic marker inside the group of RET-mutated sMTC.
Preadipocyte Seeded PLGA Scaffolds for Adipose Tissue Engineering (1999)

Adipose tissue equivalents have not been addressed as yet despite the clinical need in congenital deformities, posttraumatic repair, cancer rehabilitation, and other soft tissue defects. Preadipocytes were successfully harvested from rat epididymal fat pads of Sprague-Dawley and Lewis rats and expanded ex vivo. In vitro cultures demonstrated full differentiation of preadipocytes into mature adipocytes with normal lipogenic activity. The onset of differentiation was well-controlled by regulating preadipocyte confluency. Poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) polymer disks with 90% porosity, 2.5 mm thick, 12 mm diameter, pore size range of 135-633 microm were fabricated and seeded with preadipocytes at 10(5) cells/mL. Disks in vitro demonstrated fully differentiated mature adipocytes within the pores of the disks. Short-term in vivo experiments were conducted by implanting preseeded disks subcutaneously on the flanks of rats for 2 and 5 weeks. Histologic staining of harvested disks with osmium tetroxide (OsO4) revealed the formation of adipose tissue throughout the disks. Fluorescence labeling of preadipocytes confirmed that formed adipose tissue originated from seeded preadipocytes rather than from possible infiltrating perivascular tissue. This study demonstrates the potential of using primary preadipocytes as a cell source in cell-seeded polymer scaffolds for tissue engineering applications.
Antagonistic Effect of Salicylic Acid and Jasmonic Acid on the Expression of Pathogenesis-Related (PR) Protein Genes in Wounded Mature Tobacco Leaves (1998)

Salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) are essential compounds in the pathogen- and wound-signaling pathways accompanying induced expression of acidic and basic pathogenesis-related (PR) protein genes, respectively. However, on the effect of exogenously supplied SA and JA in induction of PR gene expression, conflicting results have been obtained using various plant materials at different developmental stages. There is no clear evidence on these effects in the presence of both signals at the same time. We analyzed the effect of SA on wound- and JA-induced basic PR gene expression and that of JA on SA-induced acidic Pi? gene expression in mature tobacco leaves. Wound-induced accumulation of transcripts for all 4 basic PR genes tested was enhanced in the presence of MeJA, and inhibited in the presence of SA. On the other hand, expression of all 3 acidic PR genes tested was induced by SA and was inhibited by MeJA. Using antibodies raised against acidic PR-1 and PR-2 proteins, these effects were confirmed at the protein level. These results indicated that JA works as an inducer of basic PR genes, and also as an inhibitor for acidic PR genes, while SA does the opposite.
Unified channel model for mobile radiosystems withsmart antennas (1998)

The definition of flat fading and frequency-selective fading channels is extended to low-rank and high-rank channels to include the angular domain. By physical reasoning a generic channel model is introduced incorporating directions of arrival and a set of parameters is given for its configuration. The time evolution of the scattering processes and directions of arrival is taken into account. Analytical expressions are derived for space-correlation coefficients and frequency-correlation coefficients. Spatial correlation decreases with increasing angular spread and decreasing angle of incidence, measured from array broadside.
Single-image motion deblurring using adaptive anisotropic regularization (2010)

We present a novel algorithm to remove motion blur from a single blurred image. To estimate the unknown motion blur kernel as accurately as possible, we propose an adaptive algorithm using anisotropic regularization. The proposed algorithm preserves the point spread function (PSF) path while keeping the properties of the motion PSF when solving for the blur kernel. Adaptive anisotropic regularization and refinement of the blur kernels are incorporated into an iterative process to improve the precision of the blur kernel. Maximum likelihood (ML) estimation deblurring based on edge-preserving regularization is derived to reduce artifacts while avoiding oversmoothing of the details. By using the estimated blur kernel and the proposed ML estimation deblurring, the motion blur can be removed effectively. The experimental results for real motion blurred images show that the proposed algorithm can removes motion blur effectively for a variety of real scenes.
Efficient Design and Decoding of Polar Codes (2012)

Polar codes are shown to be instances of both generalized concatenated codes and multilevel codes. It is shown that the performance of a polar code can be improved by representing it as a multilevel code and applying the multistage decoding algorithm with maximum likelihood decoding of outer codes. Additional performance improvement is obtained by replacing polar outer codes with other ones with better error correction performance. In some cases this also results in complexity reduction. It is shown that Gaussian approximation for density evolution enables one to accurately predict the performance of polar codes and concatenated codes based on them.
Highly efficient base editing in bacteria using a Cas9-cytidine deaminase fusion (2018)

The ability to precisely edit individual bases of bacterial genomes would accelerate the investigation of the function of genes. Here we utilized a nickase Cas9-cytidine deaminase fusion protein to direct the conversion of cytosine to thymine within prokaryotic cells, resulting in high mutagenesis frequencies in <i>Escherichia coli</i> and <i>Brucella melitensis</i>. Our study suggests that CRISPR/Cas9-guided base-editing is a viable alternative approach to generate mutant bacterial strains.