gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Online Stochastic Optimization for Unknown Linear Systems: Data-Driven\n Synthesis and Controller Analysis (2021)

This paper proposes a data-driven control framework to regulate an unknown,\nstochastic linear dynamical system to the solution of a (stochastic) convex\noptimization problem. Despite the centrality of this problem, most of the\navailable methods critically rely on a precise knowledge of the system dynamics\n(thus requiring off-line system identification and model refinement). To this\naim, in this paper we first show that the steady-state transfer function of a\nlinear system can be computed directly from control experiments, bypassing\nexplicit model identification. Then, we leverage the estimated transfer\nfunction to design a controller -- which is inspired by stochastic gradient\ndescent methods -- that regulates the system to the solution of the prescribed\noptimization problem. A distinguishing feature of our methods is that they do\nnot require any knowledge of the system dynamics, disturbance terms, or their\ndistributions. Our technical analysis combines concepts and tools from\nbehavioral system theory, stochastic optimization with decision-dependent\ndistributions, and stability analysis. We illustrate the applicability of the\nframework on a case study for mobility-on-demand ride service scheduling in\nManhattan, NY.\n
Tensile bond strength of veneering resins to PEEK: Impact of different adhesives (2013)

This study tested tensile bond strength (TBS) between veneering resins and polyetheretherketone (PEEK) after pre-treatment with adhesive systems. Five-hundred-seventy-six PEEK disks were fabricated, air-abraded and divided into six pre-treatment groups (n=96/group): Z-Prime Plus, Ambarino P60, Monobond Plus, Visio.link, Signum PEEK Bond, and control group without pre-treatment. Each group was divided into three subgroups of different veneering resins (n=32): Sinfony, GC Gradia and VITA VM LC. After specimen preparation with a bond area of 6.6 mm(2), half of each subgroup (n=16) was tested initially, and the other half was thermo-cycled. TBS measurements were analysed by three-way and one-way ANOVA, t-test and Weibull statistics. Groups without pre-treatment and groups pre-treated by Z-Prime Plus and Ambarino P60 showed no TBS. Pre-treatment with Monobond Plus increased the TBS values. The highest TBS before and after thermo-cycling between PEEK and all tested veneering resins was observed for groups pre-treated with Visio.link and Signum PEEK Bond.
[A Case of Undifferentiated Carcinoma of the Sigmoid Colon That Responded to Paclitaxel and Carboplatin Chemotherapy]. (2016)

We report a case of a 72-year-old woman who was initially diagnosed with ovarian cancer with peritoneal carcinomatosis. Systemic chemotherapy consisting of paclitaxel and carboplatin(TC)was administered. Although a partial response(PR)was achieved after the 4 courses of TC, this regimen was discontinued due to severe adverse events. Ten months after discontinuation of TC, because abdominal CT and colonoscopy showed an intra-tumoral abscess caused by invasion of the tumor to the sigmoid colon, abdominal total hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and a Hartmann's operation were performed to control the disease symptoms. Pathological examination revealed that the tumor was an undifferentiated carcinoma of the sigmoid colon. This case report suggests that the TC regimen may be effective for treating undifferentiated carcinoma of the colon.
Supplementary Materials and Methods from Chloroquine Targets Pancreatic Cancer Stem Cells via Inhibition of CXCR4 and Hedgehog Signaling (2023)

&lt;p&gt;PDF - 147K, Supplementary methods including related references.&lt;/p&gt;
The androgen receptor CAG and GGN repeat polymorphisms and prostate cancer susceptibility in African-American men: results from the Flint Men’s Health Study (2020)

Repeat lengths of the CAG and GGN micro-satellites in exon 1 of the androgen receptor (AR) gene have been hypothesized to be associated with prostate cancer risk. In vitro studies have showed an inverse association between AR CAG and GGN repeat length and activity levels of the AR product. It is known that men of African descent have a higher incidence of and greater mortality from prostate cancer than men of Caucasian or Asian descent and, on average, a smaller number of repeats at AR CAG and GGN. Consistent with these findings, studies have also found increased AR protein expression levels in benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostatic diseased tissues from men of African descent. Despite these findings, limited studies have been conducted to evaluate the association between repeat lengths at AR CAG and prostate cancer risk in African Americans. Our study is the first such study to examine whether repeat length of the AR GGN repeat is associated with prostate cancer risk in African Americans. We found no evidence for an association between AR CAG or GGN repeat lengths and prostate cancer risk in a population-based sample of African Americans.
Investigations on the occlusive properties of solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN). (2001)

Skin hydration can be influenced to a great extent by occlusive compounds. Conventional highly occlusive compounds tend to have an unacceptable appearance. Therefore, the development of innovative occlusive topicals is an essential issue regarding the formulation of cosmetic and pharmaceutical preparations. Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) represent a novel carrier system for controlled release of topical cosmetic and pharmaceutical compounds. In addition to their controlled release characteristics, it has been found that SLN have an occlusive effect. The extent of the occlusive effect depends on various factors such as particle size, applied sample volume, lipid concentration, and crystallinity of the lipid matrix. These factors have been investigated in detail by an in vitro test, and the obtained data give insight into their importance.
An Electrically Tunable Focusing Pico-Projector Adopting a Liquid Crystal Lens (2010)

An electrically tunable pico-projector adopting a liquid crystal (LC) lens as an active optical element is demonstrated. The focal length of this pico-projector is electrically tunable from 350 to 14 cm and the tunable range is even wider than that of a manually focused pico-projector. The response times of turn-on and turn-off are approximately 313 and 880 ms, respectively. In addition, the location of the projection lens can affect the electrically tunable range of the system. A small shift of the projection lens results in the large tunable focusing range of the pico-projector and a tunable focusing range is determined by the LC lens. The optical analysis is also discussed. This concept can even be applied to design other electrically auto focusing pico-projectors based on other optical elements such as liquid lenses and spatial light modulators.
Estimation of Respiratory Rate and Heart Rate During Treadmill Tests Using Acoustic Sensor (2005)

The objective was to test the robustness of an acoustic method to estimate respiratory rates (RR) during treadmill test. The accuracy was assessed by the comparison with simultaneous estimates from a capnograph, using as a common reference a pneumotachometer. Eight subjects without any pulmonary disease were enrolled. Tracheal sounds were acquired using a contact piezoelectric sensor placed on the subject's throat and analyzed using a combined investigation of the sound envelope and frequency content. The capnograph and pneumotachometer were coupled to a face mask worn by the subjects. There was a strong linear correlation between all three methods (r<sup>2</sup>ranged from 0.8 to 0.87), and the SEE ranged from 1.97 to 2.36. As a conclusion, the accuracy of the respiratory rate estimated from tracheal sounds on adult subjects during treadmill stress test was comparable to the accuracy of a commercial capnograph. The heart rate (HR) estimates can also be derived from carotid pulse using the same single sensor placed on the subject's throat. Compared to the pulse oximeter the results show an agreement of acoustic method with r<sup>2</sup>=0.76 and SEE = 3.51.
Dynamic provisioning of storage workloads (2015)

Due to lack of generic, accurate, dynamic and comprehensive models for performance estimation, customers typically tend to underprovision or over-provision storage systems today. With multi-tenancy, virtualization, scale and unified storage becoming norms in the industry, it is highly desirable to strike an optimum balance between utilization and performance. However, performance prediction for enterprise storage systems is a tricky problem, considering that there are multiple hardware and software layers cascaded in complex ways that affect behavior of the system. Configuration factors such as CPU, cache size, RAM size, capacity, storage backend (HDD/Flash) and network cards etc. are known to have significant effect on the number of IOPS that can be pushed to the system. However, apart from system characteristics as these, storage workloads vary reasonably and therefore, IOPS numbers depend heavily on types of workloads provisioned on storage systems. In this work, we treat storage system as a hybrid of black-box and white-box models, and propose a solution that will enable administrators to make decisions in the presence of multiple workloads dynamically. Our worst-case prediction is within 15% error margin.
GABA Transporter Deficiency Causes Tremor, Ataxia, Nervousness, and Increased GABA-Induced Tonic Conductance in Cerebellum (2005)

GABA transporter subtype 1 (GAT1) knock-out (KO) mice display normal reproduction and life span but have reduced body weight (female, -10%; male, -20%) and higher body temperature fluctuations in the 0.2-1.5/h frequency range. Mouse GAT1 (mGAT1) KO mice exhibit motor disorders, including gait abnormality, constant 25-32 Hz tremor, which is aggravated by flunitrazepam, reduced rotarod performance, and reduced locomotor activity in the home cage. Open-field tests show delayed exploratory activity, reduced rearing, and reduced visits to the central area, with no change in the total distance traveled. The mGAT1 KO mice display no difference in acoustic startle response but exhibit a deficiency in prepulse inhibition. These open-field and prepulse inhibition results suggest that the mGAT1 KO mice display mild anxiety or nervousness. The compromised GABA uptake in mGAT1 KO mice results in an increased GABA(A) receptor-mediated tonic conductance in both cerebellar granule and Purkinje cells. The reduced rate of GABA clearance from the synaptic cleft is probably responsible for the slower decay of spontaneous IPSCs in cerebellar granule cells. There is little or no compensatory change in other proteins or structures related to GABA transmission in the mGAT1 KO mice, including GAT1-independent GABA uptake, number of GABAergic interneurons, and GABA(A)-, vesicular GABA transporter-, GAD65-, and GAT3-immunoreactive structures in cerebellum or hippocampus. Therefore, the excessive extracellular GABA present in mGAT1 KO mice results in behaviors that partially phenocopy the clinical side effects of tiagabine, suggesting that these side effects are inherent to a therapeutic strategy that targets the widely expressed GAT1 transporter system.
Separating web applications from user data storage with BSTORE (2010)

URL to paper from conference site
Photolysis of Tetraalkyl‐1‐pyrazoline‐4‐thiones. – Diastereoselective Formation of (E)/(Z)‐Alkylidenethiiranes from cis‐ and trans‐Tetraalkyl‐1‐pyrazoline‐4‐thiones (1991)

Abstract The tetraalkyl‐1‐pyrazolin‐4‐ones 5 react with hydrazine to afford the hydrazones 6 which are transformed into the thiones 7 in high yields by treatment with disulphur dichloride in the presence of triethylamine. Selective excitation of the azo chromophor of 7a with 350‐nm light gives rise to the isopropylidenethiirane 8 , besides molecular nitrogen, in a very clean reaction; at almost quantitative conversions, less than 2% of byproducts are observed, and about 10% of 8 have isomerized to the pentadienethiol 9 . Photolysis of the stereoisomers cis ‐ and trans ‐ 7b yields mixtures of the alkylidenethiiranes ( E )‐and ( Z )‐ 10 with ( E )/( Z ) ratios of 35:65 and 49:51. The results are interpreted in terms of diastereomeric bis‐orthogonal ( cis ‐ and trans ‐ 21 ) and mono‐orthogonal thioxyallyl diradicals ( E )‐ and ( Z )‐ 23 which cyclize to furnish ( E )‐ and ( Z )‐ 10 . There seems to be a qualitative resemblance between the photochemical and thermal stabilities in the series of 4‐substituted tetramethyl‐1‐pyrazolines, viz. 7a &lt; 12 &lt; 5a , 13 , similar to that suggested by Engel for 2,3‐diazabicyclo[2.2.2]oct‐2‐ene derivatives.
In vivo multimodality ophthalmic imaging using surgical microscope-integrated intraoperative spectrally-encoded coherence tomography and reflectometry (iSECTR) (Conference Presentation) (2019)

Limited visualization of semi-transparent structures in the eye remains a critical barrier to improving clinical outcomes and developing novel surgical techniques. While increases in imaging speed has enabled intraoperative optical coherence tomography (iOCT) imaging of surgical dynamics, several critical barriers to clinical adoption remain. Our previous implementation of surgical microscope-integrated multimodal imaging technologies to address these limitations lacked the resolution and optical throughput for in vivo retinal imaging. Here, we present an optimized intraoperative spectrally encoded coherence tomography and reflectometry (iSECTR) system and demonstrate in vivo multimodality ophthalmic imaging. The ophthalmic surgical microscope objective was optically characterized to develop a lens model for system design. We estimated the glass thicknesses, refractive index, and intermediate curvature of the doublet objective lens using a novel combination of OCT, focus tracking, and computational ray tracing. The resulting lens model and corresponding optical aberrations were used to optimize the optical design for an iSECTR scan-head. In vivo ophthalmic imaging using iSECTR was performed on a healthy volunteer. En face spectrally encoded reflectometry (SER) and cross-sectional OCT images were acquired at 350 fps with 2560 x 1000 pix. (spectral x lateral). OCT volumes of 1000 B-scans were acquired in 2.86 s. Retinal and choroidal vasculature were readily visible on SER and provided complementary contrast to the OCT volume projection. We presented optimized designs for multimodal ophthalmic imaging with surgical microscope-integrated iSECTR. Clinical translation of iSECTR will benefit real-time instrument and FOV tracking for imaging of surgical dynamics and image-guided ophthalmic surgery.
Entanglement between Nitrogen-Vacancy spin in diamond and Telecom frequency photon (2019)

We experimentally demonstrate the preservation of entanglement between an NV spin and a photon upon quantum frequency conversion to the Telecom band. This is a crucial step in realizing long-distance quantum networks.
Electrically controlled frustration of total internal reflection on transparent superhydrophobic surfaces (2010)

Superhydrophobic surfaces are those that have a very low adhesion to water due to a combination of surface chemistry and physical roughness. This low adhesion surface offers the potential for enabling low energy optical contact between a liquid and solid surface. For the purposes of this study, optical contact occurs when the distance between the liquid and solid surface is less than the evanescent wave region of light that is undergoing total internal reflection. To develop an improved understanding of superhydrophobicity, a novel visualization technique was employed using neutrally buoyant immiscible liquids, which allowed liquid drops on the order of centimeters to be studied without distortion due to gravity. This allowed the visualization of wetting behaviors of liquids on different surface geometries, revealing the importance of overhanging structures to superhydrophobicity. A nanoporous, optically transparent film of polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) was fabricated via oxygen plasma etching with roughness features on the order of 100 nm. The surface was made superhydrophobic by spin-coating with Teflon® AF. A new technique was developed to modulate reflectivity by changing the optical properties at an interface by moving water to and from the interface. The technique electrically controls reflectance of visible light at a transparent superhydrophobic surface by frustration of total internal reflection and was demonstrated in an experimental device. The device consisted of a water drop positioned above a dual-scale superhydrophobic surface. Application of an electrical potential difference between the water and the surface caused it to undergo electrostatic deformation. This deformation would move the water into optical contact with the transparent superhydrophobic surface, thereby changing the optical properties and enabling the modulation of the surface reflection. Removing the electrical potential caused the water to return to its original curvature, separating it from the superhydrophobic surface. Such a device has potential applications as a low-power reflective display. The results presented in this work highlight the feasibility of this technique in practical devices, and suggest that further research is warranted.
Digital Design of a Universal Rat Intraoral Device for Therapeutic Evaluation of a Topical Formulation against Candida -Associated Denture Stomatitis (2019)

<i>Candida</i>-associated denture stomatitis (DS) is a persistent and chronic oral infection of the denture-bearing palatal mucosa. DS stems from the ability of the fungal opportunistic pathogen <i>Candida albicans</i> to adhere to denture material and invade palatal tissue. Although DS is the most prevalent form of oral candidiasis, there are currently no feasible therapeutic strategies for the prevention of this recurrent condition. We developed a peptide-based antimicrobial bioadhesive formulation specifically designed for oral topical formulation. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the applicability of the novel formulation for the prevention of <i>C. albicans</i> colonization on denture material and development of clinical disease. To that end, using the latest technological advances in dental digital design and three-dimensional (3D) printing, we fabricated an intraoral device for rats with universal fit. The device was successfully installed and used to develop clinical DS. Importantly, by taking a preventative therapeutic approach, we demonstrated the potential clinical utility of the novel formulation as a safe and feasible prophylactic agent against DS.
Thyroid hormone and adrenergic signaling in the heart (2004)

Thyroid hormone action has profound consequences for the heart, ranging from atrial fibrillation to hemodynamic collapse. It has long been known that the cardiovascular signs and symptoms seen in thyrotoxicosis resemble those seen in states of catecholamine excess. However, measured concentrations of serum catecholamines in patients with thyrotoxicosis are typically normal or even low, suggesting an increase in the adrenergic responsiveness of the thyrotoxic heart. In spite of several decades of work, the question of whether thyroid hormone increases cardiac adrenergic responsiveness is still controversial. In this brief review, we consider the reasons underlying this controversy, focusing on the complexity of the adrenergic signaling cascade.
Application of Titanium Carbide MXenes in Chemiresistive Gas Sensors (2023)

The titanium carbide MXenes currently attract an extreme amount of interest from the material science community due to their promising functional properties arising from the two-dimensionality of these layered structures. In particular, the interaction between MXene and gaseous molecules, even at the physisorption level, yields a substantial shift in electrical parameters, which makes it possible to design gas sensors working at RT as a prerequisite to low-powered detection units. Herein, we consider to review such sensors, primarily based on Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>T<sub>x</sub> and Ti<sub>2</sub>CT<sub>x</sub> crystals as the most studied ones to date, delivering a chemiresistive type of signal. We analyze the ways reported in the literature to modify these 2D nanomaterials for (i) detecting various analyte gases, (ii) improving stability and sensitivity, (iii) reducing response/recovery times, and (iv) advancing a sensitivity to atmospheric humidity. The most powerful approach based on designing hetero-layers of MXenes with other crystals is discussed with regard to employing semiconductor metal oxides and chalcogenides, noble metal nanoparticles, carbon materials (graphene and nanotubes), and polymeric components. The current concepts on the detection mechanisms of MXenes and their hetero-composites are considered, and the background reasons for improving gas-sensing functionality in the hetero-composite when compared with pristine MXenes are classified. We formulate state-of-the-art advances and challenges in the field while proposing some possible solutions, in particular via employing a multisensor array paradigm.
Assessment of a new ZnO:Al contact to CdZnTe for X- and gamma-ray detector applications (2017)

The large mismatch of the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) between the metal contact and CdZnTe exerts thermal stress at the metal/CZT interface, which causes mechanical degradation of the contact in addition to the poor adhesion of the metallic thin film to CZT. To form a reliable and stable interface, the contact material should have better adhesion and a close match of the coefficients of thermal expansion with CZT/CdTe. Here, we report on our investigations of a novel non-metallic contact layer for use in radiation detector applications. The proposed ZnO:Al contact layer offers better adhesion due to the oxide interface, higher hardness and better matching of the CTE with CZT. It has high prospects for a reliable and stable device structure that can serve as a replacement to the common metallic electrodes used today. We evaluated AZO contacts to CZT and extracted the electronic characteristics, such as resistivity and mobility-lifetime product of electrons, and compared the results of the same characterization measurements for CZT with gold contacts. The present observations showed that the characteristics of CZT detectors with AZO contacts are nearly identical to the same detectors with gold contacts.
Placenta perfusion has hematopoietic and mesenchymal progenitor stem cell potential (2011)

Traditionally discarded after childbirth, the term placenta now appears to be an easily accessible and abundant source of diverse origin stem cells suitable for banking strategies and for future clinical applications, including adult therapy.