gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Leptin in Relation zu Östradiol, Progesteron und Prolaktin in Follikeln von IVF- und ICSI-Patientinnen (1999)

Leptin wurde 1994 als zentrales, hungerregulierendes Stoffwechselhormon entdeckt. Seither konnte in einer Reihe von Untersuchungen die Bedeutung dieses Hormons für die Reproduktion bei Tier und Mensch gezeigt werden, wobei Funktion und Regulation von Leptin im Rahmen der Reproduktion noch nicht im Detail geklärt sind. Um eine mögliche Bedeutung von Leptin für die Follikulogenese zu untersuchen, haben wir in unserer Studie Leptinkonzentrationen in Follikelflüssigkeiten von Follikeln unterschiedlicher Größe nach kontrollierter hormoneller Stimulation von IVF- und ICSI-Patientinnen bestimmt. Leptinwerte in kleinen Follikeln betragen etwa 3,9 ng/ml, in mittleren etwa 4,6 ng/ml und in großen etwa 9,0 ng/ml. Dabei wurde auch das Vorkommen von Eizellen in den Follikelflüssigkeiten berücksichtigt. Zusätzlich wurden Östradiol, Progesteron und Prolaktin in diesen Proben bestimmt, da im Spontanzyklus gezeigt wurde, daß Hormone und vor allem Progesteron einen Einfluß auf die Leptinproduktion haben. Die Konzentration der drei Hormone sowie die des Leptins steigt mit der Follikelgröße an, wobei in großen Follikeln mit Eizellen die höchsten Konzentrationen gemessen werden. Die Leptinmenge ist jedoch unabhängig von der Gesamtmenge an Protein in der Follikelflüssigkeit (p = 0,165). Im Serum ist Leptin nach hormoneller Stimulation deutlich höher als im Spontanzyklus (12,7 ng/ml vs. 5,5 ng/ml). Wir finden eine streng positive Korrelation zwischen Serumleptin und Leptin in der Follikelflüssigkeit großer Follikel (p 0,001), wohingegen sich keine Korrelation mit Östradiol, Progesteron oder Prolaktin nachweisen läßt. Auch beobachten wir keinerlei Zusammenhang zwischen der applizierten, rekombinanten FSH-Menge sowie den FSH-Werten im Serum mit den jeweiligen Leptin-Konzentrationen in den Follikelflüssigkeiten. Unter kontrollierter hormoneller Stimulation scheinen FSH, Östradiol, Progesteron und Prolaktin keinen direkten Einfluß auf die Leptinproduktion zu haben. Aus unseren Ergebnissen schließen wir, daß Leptin von Bedeutung für Reifung und Differenzierung von Follikel und Eizelle ist und damit einen weiteren biochemischen und funktionellen Marker für die assistierte Reproduktion darstellt.
Antimicrobial activity of lactobacillus strains against uropathogens (2016)

Lactobacillus strains had similar moderate antimicrobial activities against uropathogens. Further research is needed to ascertain the strains with the best probiotic potential.
Successful formation of a chimeric human thymus allograft following transplantation of cultured postnatal human thymus (1997)

Transplantation of cultured postnatal human thymus was performed in a patient with complete DiGeorge syndrome. Biopsy of the graft 3 mo after implantation revealed normal CD1+ thymocytes in thymic cortical epithelial regions and CD1- thymocytes in thymic medullary epithelial regions, respectively. HLA analysis of graft thymocyte and thymic microenvironment components demonstrated that developing thymocytes and thymic macrophages were recipient derived, while thymic epithelial components were of donor origin. The patient, who initially had no T cells and had profoundly defective T cell function, developed normal T cell responses to mitogens and Ags, tolerance to donor in a mixed lymphocyte reaction, and normal Ab titers after tetanus toxoid and pneumovax immunization. Thus, transplantation of cultured postnatal human thymic tissue in humans can form functional chimeric thymic tissue, and may provide a strategy to reconstitute the peripheral T cell pool in select congenital and acquired immune deficiency syndromes.
Tilted-Pulse-Front Pumped Plane-Parallel LiNbO3 Slab THz Source (2019)

A new type of tilted-pulse-front pumped terahertz (THz) source has been demonstrated, which is based on a LiNbO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> plane-parallel slab with an echelon structure on its input surface. The use of a plane-parallel nonlinear optical crystal slab enables straightforward scaling to high THz pulse energies and the production of a symmetric THz beam with a uniform pulse shape for good focusability and high field strength.
Medicinal Cannabis in Oncology Practice: Still a Bridge Too Far? (2005)

Floris A. de Jong, Frederike K. Engels, Ron H.J. Mathijssen, Lia van Zuylen, and Jaap Verweij, Department of Medical Oncology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam—Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam Remco P.H. Peters, Department of Internal Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Alex Sparreboom, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam—Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam and Clinical Pharmacology Research Core, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD
Penetration of Meropenem into Epithelial Lining Fluid of Patients with Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (2011)

Antibiotic penetration to the infection site is critical for obtaining a good clinical outcome in patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Surprisingly few studies have quantified the penetration of β-lactam agents into the lung, as measured by the ratio of area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) in epithelial lining fluid (ELF) to AUC in plasma (AUC(ELF)/AUC(plasma) ratio). These have typically involved noninfected patients. This study examines the penetration and pharmacodynamics of meropenem in the ELF among patients with VAP. Meropenem plasma and ELF concentration-time data were obtained from patients in a multicenter clinical trial. Concentration-time profiles in plasma and ELF were simultaneously modeled using a three-compartment model with zero-order infusion and first-order elimination and transfer (big nonparametric adaptive grid [BigNPAG]). A Monte Carlo simulation was performed to estimate the range of ELF/plasma penetration ratios one would expect to observe in patients with VAP, as measured by the AUC(ELF)/AUC(plasma) ratio. The range of AUC(ELF)/AUC(plasma) penetration ratios predicted by the Monte Carlo simulation was large. The 10th percentile of lung penetration was 3.7%, while the 90th percentile of penetration was 178%. The variability of ELF penetration is such that if relatively high ELF exposure targets are required to attain multilog kill or resistance suppression for bacteria like Pseudomonas aeruginosa, then even receiving the largest licensed dose of meropenem with an optimal prolonged infusion may not result in target attainment for a substantial fraction of the population.
Optical tools for analyzing and controlling the brain (Conference Presentation) (2020)

Understanding and repairing complex biological systems, such as the brain, requires new technologies that enable such systems to be observed and controlled with great precision, across extended spatial and temporal scales. We are discovering new molecular principles that are leading to such technologies. For example, we recently discovered that it was possible to physically magnify biological specimens manyfold, in an even way, by embedding them in dense swellable polymers, mechanically homogenizing the specimens, and then adding water to isotropically swell the specimens. In this method, which we call expansion microscopy (ExM), we enable scalable, inexpensive diffraction-limited microscopes to do large-volume nanoscopy, in a multiplexed fashion – important, for example, for brain mapping. As another example, we discovered that microbial opsins, genetically expressed in neurons, could enable their electrical activities to be precisely driven or silenced in response to millisecond timescale pulses of light. These tools, called optogenetic tools, are enabling causal assessment of the contribution of defined neurons to behaviors and pathologies in a wide variety of basic science settings. Finally, we have developed new methods of directed evolution, and discovered mutant forms of optogenetic tools that enable precision fluorescent imaging of the high-speed voltage of neurons in the living brain. We share all these tools freely, and aim to integrate the use of these tools so as to lead to comprehensive understandings of neural circuits.
The Multivariate GARCH Model and its Application to East Asian Financial Market Integration (2020)

We review briefly multivariate GARCH models in contrast with univariate GARCH models, and clarify the statistical perspective of the DCC-GARCH model introduced by Engel (2002). This model ingeniously compromises two contrary requirements for constructing a model: sufficiently flexible to catch the behaviors of actually observed data process, and sufficiently parsimonious for statistical analysis in practice. Then, we illustrate practical usefulness of the DCC-GARCH through its application to the bond and stock markets in the emerging East Asian countries. The DCC-GARCH can evaluate the comovements of different financial assets by use of dynamic variance decomposition (volatility spillover) in addition to the DCCs. Empirical investigation of this paper clarifies that the bond market integration is still limited in terms of both DCCs and volatility spillover, while the stock markets are highly integrated both regionally and globally.
Antipeptide Antibodies as Analytical Tools To Discriminate among Bovine αs1-Casein Components (1998)

Polyclonal antibodies raised against synthetic peptides reproducing sequence stretches of bovine alpha(s1)-casein were used as probes to discriminate within the alpha(s1)-casein fraction of bovine milk and cheese. A minor alpha(s1)-casein component, selectively recognized by an antisera directed against the bovine 139-149 alpha(s1)-casein sequence, was found to be a C-terminally truncated alpha(s1)-casein form. This component coeluted with the main alpha(s1)- and alpha(s2)-casein by anion-exchange chromatography of whole casein, whereas by RP-HPLC it eluted with alpha(s2)-casein only. Similarly to the main alpha(s1)-casein, the C-terminally truncated form was hydrolyzed in vitro by chymosin and early in the cheese-making.
TSP: mining top-K closed sequential patterns (2004)

Sequential pattern mining has been studied extensively in data mining community. Most previous studies require the specification of a minimum support threshold to perform the mining. However, it is difficult for users to provide an appropriate threshold in practice. To overcome this difficulty, we propose an alternative task: mining top-k frequent closed sequential patterns of length no less than min-l, where k is the desired number of closed sequential patterns to be mined, and minl, is the minimum length of each pattern. We mine closed patterns since they are compact representations of frequent patterns. We developed an efficient algorithm, called TSP, which makes use of the length constraint and the properties of top-k closed sequential patterns to perform dynamic support-raising and projected database-pruning. Our extensive performance study shows that TSP outperforms the closed sequential pattern mining algorithm even when the latter is running with the best tuned minimum support threshold.
Invited Presentation: The Role of Dispersing Molecules on the Separation and Optical Properties of Carbon Nanotubes (2014)

When studying the optical properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), it is known that the dispersing agent(s) play an important role in the observed optical and electronic properties as well as in the separation of tubes. However, fundamental and applied reports are hindered by poor control over the interaction between the dispersant molecules and the nanotubes. Here I will discuss how interfacial chemistry affects the separation of SWCNTs and their optical properties. Compelling spectroscopic evidence has shown that surfactant composition, concentration, and structure are crucial factors to separate SWCNTs and obtain highly stable and fluorescent nanotube dispersions.
Optical matched-filter and phased-array detection of surface acoustic waves (2000)

A method to optically measure surface acoustic displacements simultaneously over an array of detection points is described. Optical phase gratings are used to create a detection array of laser beams that is directed to the specimen. The scattered beams from the detection array are then collected and combined with a single reference beam in a photorefractive crystal in a multiplexed two-wave mixing configuration. The output beams of the resulting multiplexed photorefractive interferometer are imaged onto either a single photodetector (matched-filter scheme) or to separate photodetector elements (phased-array scheme). The optical matched filter requires less electronic overhead. By using different object beam footprints, it is possible to configure optical matched-filter receivers that selectively detect SAWs (broadband, narrow-band, chirped, etc.) with enhanced sensitivity. The responses of equispaced and chirped array receivers to propagating SAWs are discussed. The more general phased-array configuration, although requiring greater electronic overhead, provides time-domain signals from each element for postprocessing. This system can therefore be synthetically focused by applying appropriate phase shifts between the detected signals to create images of the acoustic scattering region. Both these multiplexed optical detection schemes, with their high spatial resolution and subnanometer displacement sensitivities, have applications in nondestructive testing and materials characterization.
Spatially programmable temperature control and measurement for chemically amplified photoresist processing (1999)

Preliminary performance data is presented for a new thermal processing module. The system is directed towards conducting the temperature sensitive baking and chilling steps for chemically amplified photoresists. The module is comprised of 49 individual heating zones. The zones can be controlled independently with separate temperature sensing, actuation and feedback control mechanisms. A supervisory control strategy is applied to coordinate the individual zones. An in-situ chill plate is used to enable a temperature controlled cool-down phase without the need for substrate movement. Results are presented to demonstrate temperature control over the plate to within plus or minus 0.02 degrees Celsius. Wafer temperature is controlled to within plus or minus 0.05 degrees Celsius as measured at 5 sites. Photomask processing results are presented depicting steady-state control to within plus or minus 0.05 degrees Celsius as measured at 16 sites within one quadrant of the substrate. The advantages of the system are discussed including better temperature uniformity than conventional systems and the ability to conduct multiple experiments in a single run by biasing the setpoint across the substrate.
Development of High Temperature Superconducting Josephson Junction Device Technology (1998)

Abstract : The DuPont program was successful in generating useful knowledge about thallium cuprate materials, photoresist reflow processing, and radiant heater technology though it did not lead to a new junction technology. Among the achievements of this program was the in situ fabrication of both (Tl,Pb)Sr2CuO5 and (Tl,Pb)Sr2Ca(1-x)Y(x)Cu2O7 films on full two inch wafers. These films were uniform in properties and had quite smooth surfaces as predicted. We were also able to qualify cerium oxide as compatible with the in situ growth process and suitable in a thallium-based multilayer technology. In addition, this project resulted in the first-ever epitaxial thallium cuprate films with copper oxide sheets oriented out of the plane of the film. The program has determined that standard HTS substrates, NdGaO3, CeO2- buffered Al2O3, and LaAlO3, are not ideal for an in situ thallium cuprate junction technology Moreover, we have found that (Tl,Pb) Sr2Ca(1-x)Y(x)Cu2O7 can be as susceptible to electromigration as YBa2Cu3O7. The potentially greater stability of (Tl,Pb)Sr2Ca(1-x)Y(x)Cu2O7 was considered to be one of the key benefits of developing this new technology. In conclusion, the development of stable, reproducible multilayer SNS junctions is no more likely to be achieved with the thallium lead cuprates than with any other HTS materials system.
Advanced H.264/AVC-Based Perceptual Video Coding: Architecture, Tools, and Assessment (2011)

The characteristics of the human visual system may be further exploited in lossy video coding to improve the video compression efficiency beyond the state-of-the-art H.264/AVC standard. Although the literature is rich in solutions to model the human visual system characteristics, the performance and real benefits brought by these models have not been fully integrated and assessed yet. Moreover, the rate-distortion (RD) performance is usually measured by means of methodologies that do not account for the implicit variability of the observers when rating the video quality. In this context, the novelty brought by this paper is threefold: first, it proposes novel perceptual video coding tools, notably decoder side just noticeable distortion (JND) model estimation to perceptually allocate the available rate with the finest level of granularity while avoiding the extra rate associated to coding the varying quantization steps. Second, it proposes an integrated, powerful H.264/AVC-based perceptual video coding architecture embedding a state-of-the-art JND model based on spatio-temporal human visual system masking mechanisms; this model is exploited for both the aforementioned rate allocation as well as to perceptually weight the distortion used in the motion estimation and RD optimization. Finally, it proposes a relative assessment methodology to measure the RD performance of a perceptual video codec (PVC) with respect to another codec taken as reference. The methodology considers the implicit observers variability when rating video quality which leads to a nonlinear sensitivity of the objective metrics used for quality assessment. The obtained RD performance, measured according to this methodology, shows an average bitrate reduction of up to 30% when the proposed PVC is compared with the H.264/AVC High profile at the same objective quality level. Moreover, the proposed perceptual codec outperforms an alternative perceptual codec recently published in the literature.
P2PLoc: Peer-to-Peer Localization of Fast-Moving Entities (2018)

P2PLoc envisions wearable Internet of Things devices that compute the relative positions of each user, resulting in a topology or configuration of mobile users that can be tracked in real time for group-motion applications.
Automated highway system&amp;#8212;Considerations for success (1980)

An Automated Highway System (AHS) offers significant potential benefits in the areas of petroleum useage, safety, and environmental concerns. The extent of these benefits and the possibility of the AHS becoming an operational reality in the future is significantly affected by the system design approach eventually selected. These issues and a possible design concept are explored in this paper.
227 CALRETICULIN, A 60-kDa PROTEIN, PREVENTS POLYSPERMY IN ZONA PELLUCIDA-FREE PIG OCYTES (2012)

After gamete membrane fusion or artificial oocyte activation, cortical granules undergo exocytosis and the released content modifies the zona pellucida (ZP), preventing polyspermy. Calreticulin (CRT), a calcium-binding highly conserved protein of 60 kDa, is contained in cortical granules from hamster eggs (Muñoz-Gotera et al. 2001 Mol. Reprod. Dev. 60), and we recently showed it is exocytosed from chemically activated ZP-free pig oocytes (Romar et al. 2012 Reprod. Fertil. Dev. 24). When pig ZP-enclosed oocytes were incubated with CRT, monospermy was not improved (Romar et al. 2011, Maternal communication with gametes and embryo, p. 72), suggesting that the likely role of CRT in preventing polyspermy might be carried out at the oolemma level. Our objective was to evaluate whether CRT prevents polyspermy in pig ZP-free oocytes by treating the cells with this protein before being inseminated. In vitro-matured cumulus–oocyte complexes (44 h, NCSU-37 medium) were decumulated and ZP was digested with Tyrode’s acid. The ZP-free oocytes were incubated for 30 min in TALP medium supplemented with 0, 100, 1000, and 5000 pg of CRT (ab91577, Abcam, Cambridge, MA, USA) per oocyte. After washing, ZP-free oocytes were inseminated (25 000 sperm mL–1) and gametes were co-cultured for 18 h. Putative zygotes were fixed and stained with Hoechst 33342 to analyse the fertilization results. Four replicates with 30 to 35 oocytes per group were done, and results were analysed by one-way ANOVA. A P-value =0.05 was taken to denote statistical significance. Incubation with CRT did not affect penetration rates that were similar among groups (77.12 ± 3.88 and 72.73 ± 4.07, respectively, for the 0- and 5000-pg CRT groups). However, the mean number of sperm per penetrated oocyte decreased from 3.01 ± 0.28 (0-pg group) to 2.07 ± 0.16 (5000-pg group), and monospermy rate increased from 30.77 ± 4.87 (0-pg group) to 52.27 ± 5.36 (5000-pg group; P = 0.05). Incubation with CRT did not affect the number of sperm attached to oolemma, which was similar among all groups (11.45 ± 1.16 v. 10.75 ± 1.17, respectively, for 0 and 5000 pg of CRT). These preliminary data suggest that CRT, a protein exocytosed after oocyte activation, participates in the membrane block to polyspermy in pigs. Future studies to describe the exact mechanism of action of this chaperone protein are necessary. Supported by MEC and FEDER (AGL2009-12512-C02-01).
Locomotor projections from the pedunculopontine nucleus to the spinai cord (1990)

Following injections of retrograde tracers into the spinal cord enlargements, the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) was electrically stimulated to induce locomotion in decerebrate rats. MLR sites coincided with cholinergic pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) neurons, which were selectively labelled using NADPH diaphorase histochemistry. Retrogradely labelled (spinal-projecting) PPN neurons were scattered among cholinergic PPN neurons. The absence of retrogradely labelled, NADPH diaphorase positive PPN neurons indicates that spinal enlargement projections are non-cholinergic.