gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Metabolic Syndrome, Components, and Cardiovascular Disease Prevalence in Chronic Kidney Disease: Findings from the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) Study (2011)

The predictive value of this model for future CVD outcomes will subsequently be validated in longitudinal analyses.
Localization of IL-1, IL-2, IL-4, IL-8 and TNF in Superficial Bladder Tumors Treated with Intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (1996)

We conclude that the in situ cytokine response after BCG treatment is highly complex, since cytokine profiles differed among the 8 patients investigated and between tumor and surrounding tumor-free mucosa. Further studies, investigating larger numbers of patients, is required to clarify whether cytokine profiles correlate with the clinical response to BCG.
Human B cell activation. Effect of T cell cytokines on the physicochemical binding requirements for achieving cell cycle progression via the membrane IgM signaling pathway (1995)

Given the range of mIg-binding affinities expressed by Ag-specific B cells, the ligand:receptor affinity threshold for achieving full B cell activation via the mIgM-mediated signaling pathway is quite high. Several recombinant, or semi-purified, cytokines were found to reduce the very high mIgM:ligand affinity threshold for induction of human B cell S phase entry by bivalent, affinity-diverse anti-IgM mAbs without notably affecting the lower affinity threshold for G1-related RNA synthesis. Two-stage culture experiments suggested that one major means by which IL-4, IL-2, and low m.w. B cell growth factor lower the affinity threshold for S phase entry is an indirect one, i.e., rescue of B cells whose mIg engagements with Ag are of sufficient affinity for achieving G1 entry, but of insufficient affinity for initiating the late-phase mIgM-mediated signals needed for the G1-->S phase transition. IL-4 had additional effects in early G1. In contrast to the above cytokines, IFN-gamma, did not function as an independent cell cycle progression factor, but rather required the concomitant presence of mIgM-cross-linking ligand for enhancement. A greater potential of multivalent anti-IgM-dextran conjugates to trigger S phase entry in the absence of cytokines was found to reflect a greater potential for initiating mIgM signals during the late phase in B cell activation. The results indicate that progression of mIgM receptor-activated B cells past a G1-->S phase restriction point is dependent upon continued signal transduction via either the mIgM receptor and/or a cytokine receptor signaling pathway. When mIgM-engaging ligands are ineffective at initiating late-phase signals, due to limited size and binding site valency and/or affinity, ancillary signal transduction through cytokine receptors becomes most relevant.
Roughness Encoding for Discrimination of Surfaces in Artificial Active-Touch (2011)

A 2 × 2 array of four microelectromechanical system (MEMS) tactile microsensors is integrated with readout electronics in the distal phalanx of an anthropomorphic robotic finger. A total of 16 sensing elements are available in a 22.3-mm area (i.e., 72 units/cm ) of the artificial finger, thus achieving a density comparable with human Merkel mechanoreceptors. The MEMS array is covered by a polymeric packaging with biomimetic fingerprints enhancing the sensitivity in roughness encoding. This paper shows the ability of the sensor array to encode roughness for discrimination of surfaces, without requiring dedicated proprioceptive sensors for end-effector velocity. Three fine surfaces with 400-, 440-, and 480- μm spatial periods are quantitatively evaluated. Core experiments consisted in active-touch exploration of surfaces by the finger executing a stereotyped human-like movement. A time-frequency analysis on pairs of tactile array outputs shows a clustering of the fundamental frequency, thus yielding 97.6% worst-case discrimination accuracy with a k -nearest-neighbor (k-NN) classifier. Hence, surfaces differing down to 40 μm are identified in active-touch by both hardware and processing methods based on exteroceptive tactile information. Finally, active-touch results with five textiles (which differ in texture or orientation) are shown as a preliminary qualitative assessment of discrimination in a more realistic tactile-stimulation scenario.
Relationship of p53 to the control of apoptotic cell death. (1994)

While the centrality of aberrant cell proliferation in cancer was widely acknowledged long ago, it is only recently that the control of cell death has been recognized as an important target in carcinogenesis. Various lines of evidence now suggest that p53 is a positive regulator of cell death, and particularly of apoptosis. Initial studies have shown that the forced overexpression of wild-type p53 can induce apoptosis in a number of cell types, mostly of hematopoietic origin. Subsequent work has confirmed that non-manipulated, endogenous wild-type p53 is required for the efficient induction of apoptotic death by a variety of signals. In particular, the lack of functional p53 interferes with the ability of ionizing radiation, and probably other types of DNA damage, to elicit apoptosis. In addition, p53 function appears to contribute to the dependence of certain cell types on survival factors, and to the induction of apoptosis by viral proteins. The decision whether the activation of wild-type p53 will lead to a growth arrest or to apoptosis, as well as the extent to which a cell is at all responsive to p53, depends on the intracellular context. DNA damage, as well as the constitutive activation of certain growth-promoting genes, are likely to be among the determinants of this context. Illegitimate cell survival may be an important consequence of the loss of p53 function, and may contribute to the carcinogenic effects of p53 inactivation.
Network Coded TCP (CTCP) Performance over Satellite Networks (2013)

We show preliminary results for the performance of Network Coded TCP (CTCP) over large latency networks. While CTCP performs very well in networks with relatively short RTT, the slow-start mechanism currently employed does not adequately fill the available bandwidth when the RTT is large. Regardless, we show that CTCP still outperforms current TCP variants (i.e., Cubic TCP and Hybla TCP) for high packet loss rates (e.g., &gt;2.5%). We then explore the possibility of a modified congestion control mechanism based off of H-TCP that opens the congestion window quickly to overcome the challenges of large latency networks. Preliminary results are provided that show the combination of network coding with an appropriate congestion control algorithm can provide gains on the order of 20 times that of existing TCP variants. Finally, we provide a discussion of the future work needed to increase CTCP's performance in these networks.
Hypothermia and injury (2004)

The dichotomy between laboratory findings that show a benefit of hypothermia and clinical findings that suggest detrimental effects remains difficult to explain. For now, preventing hypothermia remains prudent. Suspended animation seems promising for patients with exsanguinating trauma. Clinical trials of mild hypothermia during hemorrhagic shock and suspended animation for exsanguination are indicated. Clinical trials of hypothermia for traumatic brain injury are in progress.
Induction of a Novel Class of Diacylglycerol Acyltransferases and Triacylglycerol Accumulation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis as It Goes into a Dormancy-Like State in Culture (2004)

Mycobacterium tuberculosis enters the host by inhalation of an infectious aerosol and replicates in the alveolar macrophages until the host's immune defense causes bacteriostasis, which leads the pathogen to go into nonreplicative drug-resistant dormancy. The dormant pathogen can survive for decades till the host's immune system is weakened and active tuberculosis develops. Even though fatty acids are thought to be the major energy source required for the persistence phase, the source of fatty acids used is not known. We postulate that the pathogen uses triacylglycerol (TG) as a storage form of fatty acids. Little is known about the biosynthesis of TG in M. tuberculosis. We show that 15 mycobacterial genes that we identified as putative triacylglycerol synthase (tgs) when expressed in Escherichia coli showed TGS activity, and we report some basic catalytic characteristics of the most active enzymes. We show that several tgs genes are induced when the pathogen goes into the nonreplicative drug-resistant state caused by slow withdrawal of O(2) and also by NO treatment, which is known to induce dormancy-associated genes. The gene (Rv3130c) that shows the highest TGS activity when expressed in E. coli shows the highest induction by hypoxia and NO treatment. Biochemical evidence shows that TG synthesis and accumulation occur under both conditions. We conclude that TG may be a form of energy storage for use during long-term dormancy. Therefore, TG synthesis may be an appropriate target for novel antilatency drugs that can prevent the organism from surviving dormancy and thus assist in the control of tuberculosis.
64 bit monolithic floating point processors (1982)

Describes a set of three processor chips capable of performing 32 and 64 bit floating point add/subtract, multiply, and divide operations. The chips can perform over one million scalar floating point operations per second, and over four million vector operations per second. The set is implemented in a four micron CMOS-on-sapphire process. Each chip has between 30000 and 60000 devices, and is about 250 mils on a side. Although asynchronous data paths are used within the chips, their interface to external system buses is synchronous with a maximum data bandwidth of over 70 Mbytes/s. The set has been designed for use in Hewlett-Packard computer and instrument systems.
Cell mosaic patterns in the native and regenerated inner retina of zebrafish: Implications for retinal assembly (2000)

In part because of its laminar organization and morphologically distinct cell populations, the vertebrate retina has often been used as a system for investigating the assembly of neural structures. The retinas of adult teleost fish, because they grow throughout life and can regenerate following an injury, provide an especially attractive model system for such investigations. In an effort to provide a quantitative foundation for testing hypotheses regarding the mechanisms of pattern formation during growth and regeneration of the vertebrate retina, nearest neighbor and auto-correlation analyses were used to examine the mosaic patterns of eight inner retinal cell groups in the native and regenerated retina of adult zebrafish. In both native and regenerated retina, the mosaic patterns of most inner retinal cells are non-random. However, regenerated mosaics tend toward significantly lower nearest neighbor distances, less orderly patterns, and more variable radial locations than their native retina counterparts. The individual cell groups in both native and regenerated inner retina are likely to be spatially distributed independently. The results support the hypotheses that, in the adult zebrafish: 1) distinct inner retinal cell groups of native retina are also present in regenerated retina; 2) the assembly of inner retinal cell mosaics is controlled by non-random spatial organizing mechanisms during development, growth, and regeneration; and 3) the spatial organization of cell mosaics is disrupted during regeneration. The results suggest that retinal regeneration may represent a spatially disrupted recapitulation of retinal developmental mechanisms. J. Comp. Neurol. 416:356-367, 2000. © 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Wild-type PINK1 Prevents Basal and Induced Neuronal Apoptosis, a Protective Effect Abrogated by Parkinson Disease-related Mutations (2005)

Mutations in the PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1) gene have recently been implicated in autosomal recessive early onset Parkinson Disease (1, 2). To investigate the role of PINK1 in neurodegeneration, we designed human and murine neuronal cell lines expressing either wild-type PINK1 or PINK1 bearing a mutation associated with Parkinson Disease. We show that under basal and staurosporine-induced conditions, the number of terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL)-positive cells was lower in wild-type PINK1 expressing SH-SY5Y cells than in mock-transfected cells. This phenotype was due to a PINK1-mediated reduction in cytochrome c release from mitochondria, which prevents subsequent caspase-3 activation. We show that overexpression of wild-type PINK1 strongly reduced both basal and staurosporine-induced caspase 3 activity. Overexpression of wild-type PINK1 also reduced the levels of cleaved caspase-9, caspase-3, caspase-7, and activated poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase under both basal and staurosporine-induced conditions. In contrast, Parkinson disease-related mutations and a kinase-inactive mutation in PINK1 abrogated the protective effect of PINK1. Together, these results suggest that PINK1 reduces the basal neuronal pro-apoptotic activity and protects neurons from staurosporine-induced apoptosis. Loss of this protective function may therefore underlie the degeneration of nigral dopaminergic neurons in patients with PINK1 mutations.
Mitochondrial-targeted antioxidants protect skeletal muscle against immobilization-induced muscle atrophy (2011)

Prolonged periods of muscular inactivity (e.g., limb immobilization) result in skeletal muscle atrophy. Although it is established that reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a role in inactivity-induced skeletal muscle atrophy, the cellular pathway(s) responsible for inactivity-induced ROS production remain(s) unclear. To investigate this important issue, we tested the hypothesis that elevated mitochondrial ROS production contributes to immobilization-induced increases in oxidative stress, protease activation, and myofiber atrophy in skeletal muscle. Cause-and-effect was determined by administration of a novel mitochondrial-targeted antioxidant (SS-31) to prevent immobilization-induced mitochondrial ROS production in skeletal muscle fibers. Compared with ambulatory controls, 14 days of muscle immobilization resulted in significant muscle atrophy, along with increased mitochondrial ROS production, muscle oxidative damage, and protease activation. Importantly, treatment with a mitochondrial-targeted antioxidant attenuated the inactivity-induced increase in mitochondrial ROS production and prevented oxidative stress, protease activation, and myofiber atrophy. These results support the hypothesis that redox disturbances contribute to immobilization-induced skeletal muscle atrophy and that mitochondria are an important source of ROS production in muscle fibers during prolonged periods of inactivity.
Fabrication and Functionalization of Nanochannels by Electron-Beam-Induced Silicon Oxide Deposition (2006)

We report on the fabrication and electrical characterization of functionalized solid-state nanopores in low stress silicon nitride membranes. First, a pore of approximately 50 nm diameter was drilled using a focused ion beam technique, followed by the local deposition of silicon dioxide. A low-energy electron beam induced the decomposition of adsorbed tetraethyl orthosilicate resulting in site-selective functionalization of the nanopore by the formation of highly insulating silicon oxide. The deposition occurs monolayer by monolayer, which allows for control of the final diameter with subnanometer accuracy. Changes in the pore diameter could be monitored in real time by scanning electron microscopy. Recorded ion currents flowing through a single nanopore revealed asymmetry in the ion conduction properties with the sign of the applied potential. The low-frequency excess noise observed at negative voltage originated from stepwise conductance fluctuations of the open pore.
Low Latency Geo-distributed Data Analytics (2015)

Low latency analytics on geographically distributed datasets (across datacenters, edge clusters) is an upcoming and increasingly important challenge. The dominant approach of aggregating all the data to a single datacenter significantly inflates the timeliness of analytics. At the same time, running queries over geo-distributed inputs using the current intra-DC analytics frameworks also leads to high query response times because these frameworks cannot cope with the relatively low and variable capacity of WAN links. We present Iridium, a system for low latency geo-distributed analytics. Iridium achieves low query response times by optimizing placement of both data and tasks of the queries. The joint data and task placement optimization, however, is intractable. Therefore, Iridium uses an online heuristic to redistribute datasets among the sites prior to queries' arrivals, and places the tasks to reduce network bottlenecks during the query's execution. Finally, it also contains a knob to budget WAN usage. Evaluation across eight worldwide EC2 regions using production queries show that Iridium speeds up queries by 3× -- 19× and lowers WAN usage by 15% -- 64% compared to existing baselines.
Analysis of the role of 5-HT in the enteric nervous system using anti-idiotopic antibodies to 5-HT receptors (1994)

The effects of anti-idiotypic antibodies (alpha-id) that recognize serotonin [5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)] receptors on myenteric neurons of the guinea pig small intestine were characterized electrophysiologically, and alpha-id binding sites were located immunocytochemically. Initial applications of the alpha-id mimicked each of three actions of 5-HT: a rapid depolarization, associated with a fall in input resistance (Rin), which was inhibited by the 5-HT3 antagonists tropisetron (> or = 1 microM) and renzapride (100 microM); a slow membrane depolarization, associated with increased Rin, that was inhibited by the 5-HT1P antagonist renzapride but was unaffected by a 5-HT4 blocking concentration of tropisetron (10 microM); and a hyperpolarization, associated with decreased Rin, that was antagonized by the 5-HT1A inhibitor NAN-190. Cross-desensitization was observed between responses to 5-HT and the alpha-id. After exposure to the alpha-id, subsequent responses to the alpha-id, 5-HT, and stimulus-evoked slow excitatory postsynaptic potentials were antagonized; however, responses to carbachol and substance P were unaffected. The alpha-id thus specifically inhibits the effects of endogenously released and exogenously applied 5-HT. The alpha-id bound to sites on myenteric and submucosal neurons and a subepithelial nerve plexus. Binding of the alpha-id was blocked by 5-HT1P-, 5-HT3-, and 5-HT4-specific antagonists. We concluded that the alpha-id binds selectively to all known subtypes of 5-HT receptor in the enteric nervous system and is thus useful for investigating the gastrointestinal function of 5-HT.
Immunotherapy of advanced ovarian carcinomas by activation of the idiotypic network. (1992)

The positive effect of an immunotherapy using tumor-associated antigens or tumor cells of ovarian carcinomas has not yet been proven. Although many unique tumor-associated antigens have been described and a tumor rejection could be seen in occasional cases, the failure of the immune system to destroy tumor cells is not clearly understood. An alternative approach is to initiate the idiotypic network utilizing antibodies (Ab1 or 2) against a tumor-associated antigen, which induces the production of anti-idiotypic-antibodies (Ab2 beta), mimicking the "internal image" of the tumor-associated antigen. These antibodies are able to induce a specific antitumor immunity in two ways: (1) the Ab2 can present the critical epitope in a different way and so modulates the immune system, or (2) it can induce the production of an Ab3, which by itself binds to the tumor antigen. Our first results on 22 patients with advanced ovarian carcinomas show that the induction of an anti-idiotypic antibody (Ab2 beta) against OC 125 mimicking the TAA Class III CA 125 leads to a prolongation of the survival rate also for extended stages. We see a beneficial role of the induction of the idiotypic network against a tumor-associated antigen showing delayed clinical courses of the disease after vaccination of the patients with antibody fragments of the OC 125.
The paradoxical psychological effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) (2016)

The present findings reinforce the view that psychedelics elicit psychosis-like symptoms acutely yet improve psychological wellbeing in the mid to long term. It is proposed that acute alterations in mood are secondary to a more fundamental modulation in the quality of cognition, and that increased cognitive flexibility subsequent to serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2AR) stimulation promotes emotional lability during intoxication and leaves a residue of 'loosened cognition' in the mid to long term that is conducive to improved psychological wellbeing.
Changes in rat liver mitochondria with aging (2003)

Aging is accompanied by a gradual deterioration of cell functions. Mitochondrial dysfunction and accumulation of protein damage have been proposed to contribute to this process. The present study was carried out to examine the effects of aging in mitochondrial matrix isolated from rat liver. The activity of Lon protease, an enzyme implicated in the degradation of abnormal matrix proteins, was measured and the accumulation of oxidation and glycoxidation (Nepsilon-carboxymethyllysine, CML) products was monitored using immunochemical assays. The function of isolated mitochondria was assessed by measuring respiratory chain activity. Mitochondria from aged (27 months) rats exhibited the same rate of oxygen consumption as those from adult (10 months) rats without any change in coupling efficiency. At the same time, the ATP-stimulated Lon protease activity, measured as fluorescent peptides released, markedly decreased from 10-month-old rats (1.15 +/- 0.15 FU x micro g protein-1 x h-1) to 27-month-old-rats (0.59 +/- 0.08 FU x micro g protein-1 x h-1). In parallel with this decrease in activity, oxidized proteins accumulated in the matrix upon aging while the CML-modified protein content assessed by ELISA significantly increased by 52% from 10 months (11.71 +/- 0.61 pmol CML x micro g protein-1) to 27 months (17.81 +/- 1.83 pmol CML x micro g protein-1). These results indicate that the accumulation of deleterious oxidized and carboxymethylated proteins in the matrix concomitant with loss of the Lon protease activity may affect the ability of aging mitochondria to respond to additional stress.
CHROMONES IN ALOE SPECIES – Part II – Aloesone (1972)

See also: CHROMONES IN ALOE SPECIES – Part. 1. Aloesin – a C–glucosyl–7–hydroxychromonePlanta Med 1971; 19(02): 322-325DOI: 10.1055/s-0028-1099649
Possible mechanism of dexamethasone therapy for prostate cancer: Suppression of circulating level of interleukin‐6 (2003)

Significant suppression of serum IL-6, probably through inhibition of androgen-independent activation of androgen receptor, may be one of the mechanisms for the effect of dexamethasone therapy in prostate cancer patients with progressive disease.