gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Surface roughening of Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy plasma nitrided at cathode potential (2021)

A plasma nitriding of titanium alloys is very efficient method of their surface hardness and wear resistance improvement without compromising a core strength of the treated elements. The surface roughening increasing with the temperature of this treatment is a major obstacle on the way toward production of the fine quality products. Confronting of the roughness measurements performed at different scales with complementary plan-view surface observations (OM, SEM/SE, FIB/SE, AFM) and cross-section (TEM) ones, focused on description of the surface defects, allowed the mechanism of their development to be explained. Namely, the TiN layer produced at lower temperatures (∼620 °C) grows predominantly with a flat front, roughly reproducing the substrate morphology, while at intermediate and higher temperatures (680 °C−830 °C) it is a subject of severe self-spalling of the upper part of this layer. It means that simultaneous hardening and preservation of a high surface quality of Ti-6Al-7Nb after CP-PN is possible only during the plasma nitriding performed at the temperatures close to 600 °C. Additionally, a strong self-spalling of the upper part of the TiN layer during this treatment at higher temperatures means that only its remaining part, growing toward the core, could eventually serve as a corrosion protection barrier.
Examples of the Selective Preparation of a Desired Crystal Modification by an Appropriate Choice of Operating Parameters (2000)

If a compound can crystallize in more than one structural modification, this will generally also be manifested as different morphologies. In a manufacturing process crystal morphology can have a decisive impact on product characteristics such as filterability, drying time, flowability, etc. In addition, it is usually one particular modification that undergoes registration. In this lecture transcript, two examples of the influence of operating parameters on the obtained crystal modification are presented. The first example comprises a food colorant for which four crystal modifications are known. The conventional operating procedure always yielded modification D, which is characterized by extremely poor filterability. Systematic investigations have shown that in suspension each crystal modification is stable within a narrow temperature range. After solid−liquid separation no interconversion of the crystal modifications occurs. Through an appropriate change to the manufacturing process it was possible to reliably obtain modification C, the filterability of which is 30% higher than that of modification D. The drying time was also reduced by a half. The second example comprises a pharmaceutical active substance that can crystallize in one of two modifications, A and B, with B being the modification that has been registered. In the manufacturing process the product was obtained from a reaction in ethanol, and crystallized as modification A, with the desired modification B subsequently obtained by recrystallization from n-butanol. To avoid the costly recrystallization and extremely lengthy drying of the butanol-moist crystals, the goal was to obtain modification B from ethanol directly. It was found that it is not only the solvent used that determines which modification is obtained but that modification B can also be obtained through a thermal interconversion at 70 °C. This transformation is most simply achieved during drying.
[Surgical treatment for complex pediatric retroperitoneal tumors]. (2010)

For pediatric complex retroperitoneal tumors, complete resection can reduce the recurrence and improve the long-term survival.
ADAPID D7: E-Government I (2007)

This report presents the work done within ADAPID in the area of e-government applications. We have chosen electronic petitions as our case-study for the implementation of a proof-of-concept demonstrator for its properties as an interactive and participatory e-democracy application. In order to comply with the specific privacy and security requirements of electronic petitions, we have had to overcome the limited functionalities of the Belgian e-ID cards by using more advanced identity management technologies. Our e-petition design and implementation uses the Belgian e-ID for initial authentication, and then allows the user to obtain an anonymous credential that can be used to electronically sign petitions on a server. By using anonymous credentials, our demonstrator reconciles two seemingly contradictory requirements: it allows anonymous petition signing, while it imposes restrictions on who is entitled to sign and ensures that each citizen can only sign a particular petition once. Multiple signing of a petition with the same anonymous credential is detectable by our protocols, such that repeated signatures can be eliminated. This report presents a description of the proof-of-concept demonstrator design and implementation, and gives an introduction to the anonymous credential cryptographic protocols that the demonstrator builds on in order to provide the required functionalities. Additionally, we discuss unique and context-specific identifiers and point out their differences. From a legal point of view, very little regulation specifically tailored to the activities of epetition servers exists. The lack of specific rules does not mean e-petition servers operate in a legal void, as a number of regulations of a general nature are applicable. There are several unresolved questions regarding the application of these legal regulations, though this is due more to the lack of jurisprudence on these matters, than to inherent flaws of the legal framework. The e-petition server achieves a notable advance in protecting user privacy by shielding off any and all identifiable information about the users through the use of anonymous credentials and communications channels. Even when the broadest interpretation of the term is adopted, the e-petition server does not process personal data of its users.
Combination Patterns of Major R Genes Determine the Level of Resistance to the M. oryzae in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) (2015)

Rice blast caused by Magnaporthe oryzae is the most devastating disease of rice and poses a serious threat to world food security. In this study, the distribution and effectiveness of 18 R genes in 277 accessions were investigated based on pathogenicity assays and molecular markers. The results showed that most of the accessions exhibited some degree of resistance (resistance frequency, RF >50%). Accordingly, most of the accessions were observed to harbor two or more R genes, and the number of R genes harbored in accessions was significantly positively correlated with RF. Some R genes were demonstrated to be specifically distributed in the genomes of rice sub-species, such as Pigm, Pi9, Pi5 and Pi1, which were only detected in indica-type accessions, and Pik and Piz, which were just harbored in japonica-type accessions. By analyzing the relationship between R genes and RF using a multiple stepwise regression model, the R genes Pid3, Pi5, Pi9, Pi54, Pigm and Pit were found to show the main effects against M. oryzae in indica-type accessions, while Pita, Pb1, Pik, Pizt and Pia were indicated to exhibit the main effects against M. oryzae in japonica-type accessions. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis revealed that combination patterns of major R genes were the main factors determining the resistance of rice varieties to M. oryzae, such as 'Pi9+Pi54', 'Pid3+Pigm', 'Pi5+Pid3+Pigm', 'Pi5+Pi54+Pid3+Pigm', 'Pi5+Pid3' and 'Pi5+Pit+Pid3' in indica-type accessions and 'Pik+Pib', 'Pik+Pita', 'Pik+Pb1', 'Pizt+Pia' and 'Pizt+Pita' in japonica-type accessions, which were able to confer effective resistance against M. oryzae. The above results provide good theoretical support for the rational utilization of combinations of major R genes in developing rice cultivars with broad-spectrum resistance.
Absence of sclerostin adversely affects B-cell survival (2012)

Increased osteoblast activity in sclerostin-knockout (Sost(-/-)) mice results in generalized hyperostosis and bones with small bone marrow cavities resulting from hyperactive mineralizing osteoblast populations. Hematopoietic cell fate decisions are dependent on their local microenvironment, which contains osteoblast and stromal cell populations that support both hematopoietic stem cell quiescence and facilitate B-cell development. In this study, we investigated whether high bone mass environments affect B-cell development via the utilization of Sost(-/-) mice, a model of sclerosteosis. We found the bone marrow of Sost(-/-) mice to be specifically depleted of B cells because of elevated apoptosis at all B-cell developmental stages. In contrast, B-cell function in the spleen was normal. Sost expression analysis confirmed that Sost is primarily expressed in osteocytes and is not expressed in any hematopoietic lineage, which indicated that the B-cell defects in Sost(-/-) mice are non-cell autonomous, and this was confirmed by transplantation of wild-type (WT) bone marrow into lethally irradiated Sost(-/-) recipients. WT→Sost(-/-) chimeras displayed a reduction in B cells, whereas reciprocal Sost(-/-) →WT chimeras did not, supporting the idea that the Sost(-/-) bone environment cannot fully support normal B-cell development. Expression of the pre-B-cell growth stimulating factor, Cxcl12, was significantly lower in bone marrow stromal cells of Sost(-/-) mice, whereas the Wnt target genes Lef-1 and Ccnd1 remained unchanged in B cells. Taken together, these results demonstrate a novel role for Sost in the regulation of bone marrow environments that support B cells.
Effect of Poly(N-vinyl-pyrrolidone)-block-poly(d,l-lactide) as Coating Agent on the Opsonization, Phagocytosis, and Pharmacokinetics of Biodegradable Nanoparticles (2009)

The effect of the coating polymer poly(N-vinyl-pyrrolidone) (PVP) on the protein adsorption, phagocytosis, and pharmacokinetics of poly(D,L-lactide)-based nanoparticles was evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Control poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-coated nanoparticles were included for comparison. While no difference between PEG- and PVP-decorated nanoparticles in terms of amount of adsorbed protein was evident upon incubation in single protein solutions (BSA, IgG), incubation in serum revealed a protein adsorption pattern both quantitatively and qualitatively distinct. Larger amounts of complement components and immunoglobulins were found to adhere to PVP-coated particles, whereas PEG particles showed preferential adsorption of apolipoproteins. Furthermore, preopsonization in fresh rather than heat-inactivated serum enhanced uptake of both types of particles by murine RAW 264.7 macrophages. However, when isolated rat Kupffer cells were employed, activation of the complement system significantly enhanced the uptake of PVP-coated nanoparticles compared to PEG particles. Ultimately, PVP-coated nanoparticles exhibited considerably shorter circulation times compared to their PEG counterparts when administered intravenously to rats.
Fiber optic Cerenkov radiation sensor system to estimate burn-up of spent fuel: characteristic evaluation of the system using Co-60 source (2013)

Cerenkov radiation occurs when charged particles are moving faster than the speed of light in a transparent dielectric medium. In optical fibers, the Cerenkov light also can be generated due to their dielectric components. Accordingly, the radiation-induced light signals can be obtained using optical fibers without any scintillating material. In this study, to measure the intensities of Cerenkov radiation induced by gamma-rays, we have fabricated the fiber-optic Cerenkov radiation sensor system using silica optical fibers, plastic optical fibers, multi-anode photomultiplier tubes, and a scanning system. To characterize the Cerenkov radiation generated in optical fibers, the spectra of Cerenkov radiation generated in the silica and plastic optical fibers were measured. Also, the intensities of Cerenkov radiation induced by gamma-rays generated from a cylindrical Co-60 source with or without lead shielding were measured using the fiberoptic Cerenkov radiation sensor system.
Biometrics education with hands-on labs (2008)

Biometrics is an emerging field via the automated use of unique and measurable physiological or behavioral characteristics to determine or verify identity. Biometrics has a variety of applications in governments, military and commercial areas. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga offers a biometrics course for senior undergraduate students through integration of engineering, statistics, mathematics, policy and ethics. In order to expose students to the area of biometrics with minimum costs, we employ open-source based software to design a series of hands-on labs including fingerprint, face, handwriting, and voice biometrics. Our lab design can serve as a model of biometrics education for programs that have limited budget which may prohibit the use of expensive commercial biometrics devices and software.
ChemInform Abstract: Methods for Indole Alkaloid Synthesis: Reactions of N‐Arylsulfonylenamines with Electrophiles. (1986)

Abstract The known thiophenylamide (Ia) is converted into the amine (Ib) via the corresponding thiophenylthioamide.
THE SYNTHESIS OF SYRINGALDEHYDE FROM VANILLIN (1953)

Syringaldehyde has been synthesized in high yields from vanillin. The process consists of the iodination of vanillin, followed by the interaction of the resultant 5-iodovanillin with sodium methoxide in anhydrous methanol at temperatures of 130 ± 4 °C. for one hour in the presence of a copper catalyst. Along with the syringaldehyde, small amounts of unchanged 5-iodovanillin and vanillin were always found in the reaction mixture. Analysis of the final product was made by an initial separation of the components by downward paper chromatography using a mixture of petroleum ether (b.p. 100–120 °C), di-n-butyl ether, and water (10: 1: 1) as the developing agent for a period of 10 hr. The separated compounds were extracted from the paper and their concentrations in alcoholic alkaline solutions determined spectrophotometrically.Under conditions by which 5-iodovanillin was converted to syringaldehyde in better than a 95% yield, 5-bromovanillin gave only a 61% yield and 5-chlorovanillin gave no detectable amounts of syringaldehyde.
A ghosting artifact detector for interpolated image quality assessment (2009)

We present a no-reference image quality metric for image interpolation. The approach is capable of detecting ghosting artifacts, e.g., in image based rendering scenarios. Based on the assumption that ghosting artifacts can be detected locally, the perceived visual quality can be predicted from the amount of regions that are affected by ghosting. Because the approach does not require any reference image, it is very suitable, e.g., for assessing the quality of image-based rendering techniques in general settings.
Compressive Sensing Using Symmetric Alpha-Stable Distributions for Robust Sparse Signal Reconstruction (2018)

Traditional compressive sensing (CS) primarily assumes light-tailed models for the underlying signal and/or noise statistics. Nevertheless, this assumption is not met in the case of highly impulsive environments, where non-Gaussian infinite-variance processes arise for the signal and/or noise components. This drives the traditional sparse reconstruction methods to failure, since they are incapable of suppressing the effects of heavy-tailed sampling noise. The family of symmetric alpha-stable (SαS) distributions, as a powerful tool for modeling heavy-tailed behaviors, is adopted in this paper to design a robust algorithm for sparse signal reconstruction from linear random measurements corrupted by infinite-variance additive noise. Specifically, a novel greedy reconstruction method is developed, which achieves increased robustness to impulsive sampling noise by solving a minimum dispersion (MD) optimization problem based on fractional lower-order moments. The MD criterion emerges naturally in the case of additive sampling noise modeled by SαS distributions, as an effective measure of the spread of reconstruction errors around zero, due to the lack of second-order moments. The experimental evaluation demonstrates the improved reconstruction performance of the proposed algorithm when compared against state-of-the-art CS techniques for a broad range of impulsive environments.
Microdischarge devices fabricated in silicon (1997)

Cylindrical microdischarge cavities 200–400 μm in diameter and 0.5–5 mm in depth have been fabricated in silicon and operated at room temperature with neon or nitrogen at specific power loadings beyond 10 kW/cm3. The discharges are azimuthally uniform and stable operation at N2 and Ne pressures exceeding 1 atm and ∼600 Torr, respectively, has been realized for 400 μm diameter devices. Spectroscopic measurements on neon discharges demonstrate that the device behaves as a hollow cathode discharge for pressures &amp;gt;50 Torr. As evidenced by emission from Ne and Ne+ (2P,2F) states as well as N2 (C→B) fluorescence (316–492 nm), these discharge devices are intense sources of ultraviolet and visible radiation and are suitable for fabrication as arrays.
Crosslinking Allosteric Sites on the Nucleosome (2019)

Targeting defined histone protein sites in chromatin is an emerging therapeutic approach that can potentially be enhanced by allosteric effects within the nucleosome. Here we characterized a novel hetero-bimetallic compound with a design based on a nucleosomal allostery effect observed earlier for two unrelated drugs-the Ru<sup>II</sup> antimetastasis/antitumor RAPTA-T and the Au<sup>I</sup> anti-arthritic auranofin. The Ru<sup>II</sup> moiety binds specifically to two H2A glutamate residues on the nucleosome acidic patch, allosterically triggering a cascade of structural changes that promote binding of the Au<sup>I</sup> moiety to selective histidine residues on H3, resulting in cross-linking sites that are over 35 Å distant. By tethering the H2A-H2B dimers to the H3-H4 tetramer, the hetero-bimetallic compound significantly increases stability of the nucleosome, illustrating its utility as a site-selective cross-linking agent.
Effects of nitrogen doping of ZnO during or after deposition (2009)

Effects of nitrogen doping of ZnO (ZnO:N) during deposition and after postdeposition annealing have been studied by optical techniques, electronic properties, and the application to metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors (MSM-PDs). Films of ZnO, nitrogen doped during rf sputtering, show larger grain size, narrower full width at half maximum, band gap emission shift in photoluminescence, and higher conductivity. Postannealing has been studied using tube furnace and rapid thermal annealing in nitrogen. These annealing methods not only reconstruct the lattice structure but also activate the nitrogen in the film to improve the conductivity of the film. The MSM-PDs having high photo to dark current ratio of 104 and responsive (R) of 1.79 A/W have been fabricated with those films.
Design and Characterization of Newly Developed 10 kV 2 A SiC p-i-n Diode for Soft-Switching Industrial Power Supply (2014)

10 kV, 2 A SiC p-i-n diodes have been designed and fabricated. The devices feature excellent stability of forward characteristics and robust junction termination with avalanche capability of 1 J. The fabricated diodes have been electrically evaluated with respect to dynamic ON-state voltage, reverse recovery behavior, bipolar stability, and avalanche capability. More than 60% reduction of losses has been demonstrated using newly developed 10-kV p-i-n diodes in a multikilowatt high voltage, high-frequency dc/dc soft-switching converter.
A theoretical study of CH4 dissociation on pure and gold-alloyed Ni(111) surfaces (1996)

We present a density functional theory study of the first step of CH4 adsorption on the Ni(111) surface, dissociation into adsorbed CH3 and H. The rupture of the C–H bond occurs preferentially on top of a Ni atom, with a dissociation barrier of about 100 kJ/mol (including zero point corrections). The transition state involves considerable internal excitation of the molecule. The active C–H bond is both stretched to 1.6 Å and tilted relative to the methyl group. A normal mode analysis shows that the reaction coordinate is mainly a C–H stretch, while the orientation of the C–H bond relative to the surface is responsible for the highest real mode. Alloying the surface with gold also affects the reactivity of the Ni atoms on adjacent surface sites. The dissociation barrier is increased by 16 and 38 kJ/mol for a Ni atom with one or two gold neighbors, respectively. We attribute these changes to a shift in the local density of d states at the nickel atoms in the neighborhood of gold.
Nonlinear MIMO impulse responses determination using pseudo random sequences, and nonlinear compensation (2017)

This paper shows how to estimate an extended polynomial matrix description of a non-linear MIMO system. Both linear and non-linear impulse responses are obtained by transmitting pseudo random binary sequence (PRBS) test-patterns and can be easily separated thanks to the shift-and-add property of PRBS. Further on, a method to equalize such nonlinear systems based on this extended polynomial matrix and the result is compared with a linear zero-forcing equalizer for different channel impairments and in a VPI simulation. This proves the presented approach is suited to cancel self-phase modulation in coherent optical communication systems.
Impact of Liquid Crystal Based Interference Mitigation and Precoding on the Multiuser Performance of VLC Massive MIMO Arrays (2022)

In visible light communication systems, the ability to suppress interference caused by other light sources is a major benefit towards performance improvements. Especially for large transmitter arrays or even multi-cell arrangements, the interference problem needs to be handled. In previous work, we have presented a liquid crystal display (LCD) used as an adaptive interference-suppression filter mounted in front of each photodetector. The display elements are switched on and off in such a way that light emitted by unwanted light sources ideally is blocked, but light emitted by desired light sources reaches the detector. The pattern generated by the LC display has strong impact on the system performance. In this paper, we propose combined precoding in conjunction with LCD-based interference suppression in order to increase the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio and to ensure user fairness in massive MIMO scenarios. The suggested precoding strategy uses a new heuristic optimization approach based on the Santa Claus problem on unrelated machines known from computer sciences, and employs only binary entries in the weighting matrix. Corresponding results are compared with a genetic evolutionary optimization strategy and with conventional zero-forcing precoding. Regarding performance evaluation, we perform numerical ray-tracing simulations and present a room-scale VLC testbed for experimental verification.
Low serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) in children with autism (2012)

Our findings attest to the importance of vitamin supplementation during pregnancy and in the treatment of children with autism, who tend to present low vitamin D consumption rates.