gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
A Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism of Human Neuropeptide S Gene Originated from Europe Shows Decreased Bioactivity (2013)

Using accumulating SNP (Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism) data, we performed a genome-wide search for polypeptide hormone ligands showing changes in the mature regions to elucidate genotype/phenotype diversity among various human populations. Neuropeptide S (NPS), a brain peptide hormone highly conserved in vertebrates, has diverse physiological effects on anxiety, fear, hyperactivity, food intake, and sleeping time through its cognate receptor-NPSR. Here, we report a SNP rs4751440 (L(6)-NPS) causing non-synonymous substitution on the 6(th) position (V to L) of the NPS mature peptide region. L(6)-NPS has a higher allele frequency in Europeans than other populations and probably originated from European ancestors ~25,000 yrs ago based on haplotype analysis and Approximate Bayesian Computation. Functional analyses indicate that L(6)-NPS exhibits a significant lower bioactivity than the wild type NPS, with ~20-fold higher EC50 values in the stimulation of NPSR. Additional evolutionary and mutagenesis studies further demonstrate the importance of the valine residue in the 6(th) position for NPS functions. Given the known physiological roles of NPS receptor in inflammatory bowel diseases, asthma pathogenesis, macrophage immune responses, and brain functions, our study provides the basis to elucidate NPS evolution and signaling diversity among human populations.
Latente zervikale Virusinfektion als mögliche Ursache des Frühaborts (1992)

Cervical smears of 50 women who had an abortion were examined by dot-blot hybridization for human papillomavirus (HPV), herpes simplex virus (HSV) types 1 and 2, and cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA. HPV DNA type 16 or 18 positivity was shown in 17.6% of the cases; in the aborted material, however, it amounted to 30.8%. IgM-positive titres were present in a few cases. In cervical smears of intact pregnancies, positivity for HPV DNA types 6 and 11 was detected in 9.5% and for the HSV DNA types 1 and 2 and CMV DNA in 48.0% of the cases. In this group of patients mostly positive IgM and IgG titers were present.
Evaluating Prussian blue analogues MII3[MIII(CN)6]2 (MII = Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni; MIII = Co, Fe) as activators for peroxymonosulfate in water (2016)

[Fe(CN)<sub>6</sub>] and [Co(CN)<sub>6</sub>]-based Prussian blue analogues (PBAs) were prepared with various metal ions (<italic>i.e.</italic>, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn and Ni) and evaluated as catalysts to activate an important oxidant, peroxymonosulfate (PMS).
Expression of Dominant-negative Fas-associated Death Domain Blocks Human Keratinocyte Apoptosis and Vesication Induced by Sulfur Mustard (2003)

DNA damaging agents up-regulate levels of the Fas receptor or its ligand, resulting in recruitment of Fas-associated death domain (FADD) and autocatalytic activation of caspase-8, consequently activating the executioner caspases-3, -6, and -7. We found that human epidermal keratinocytes exposed to a vesicating dose (300 microm) of sulfur mustard (SM) exhibit a dose-dependent increase in the levels of Fas receptor and Fas ligand. Immunoblot analysis revealed that the upstream caspases-8 and -9 are both activated in a time-dependent fashion, and caspase-8 is cleaved prior to caspase-9. These results are consistent with the activation of both death receptor (caspase-8) and mitochondrial (caspase-9) pathways by SM. Pretreatment of keratinocytes with a peptide inhibitor of caspase-3 (Ac-DEVD-CHO) suppressed SM-induced downstream markers of apoptosis. To further analyze the importance of the death receptor pathway in SM toxicity, we utilized Fas- or tumor necrosis factor receptor-neutralizing antibodies or constructs expressing a dominant-negative FADD (FADD-DN) to inhibit the recruitment of FADD to the death receptor complex and block the Fas/tumor necrosis factor receptor pathway following SM exposure. Keratinocytes pretreated with Fas-blocking antibody or stably expressing FADD-DN and exhibiting reduced levels of FADD signaling demonstrated markedly decreased caspase-3 activity when treated with SM. In addition, the processing of procaspases-3, -7, and -8 into their active forms was observed in SM-treated control keratinocytes, but not in FADD-DN cells. Blocking the death receptor complex by expression of FADD-DN additionally inhibited SM-induced internucleosomal DNA cleavage and caspase-6-mediated nuclear lamin cleavage. Significantly, we further found that altering the death receptor pathway by expressing FADD-DN in human skin grafted onto nude mice reduces vesication and tissue injury in response to SM. These results indicate that the death receptor pathway plays a pivotal role in SM-induced apoptosis and is therefore a target for therapeutic intervention to reduce SM injury.
Tibial Lengthening: Extraarticular Calcaneotibial Screw to Prevent Ankle Equinus (2008)

Level IV, therapeutic study. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
InAs quantum dots for quantum information processing (2004)

InAs quantum dots attract much interest because of their potential application in quantum information processing. In this paper, two wafers of self-organized InAs quantum dots incorporated in p-i-n junction structures are investigated with both photoluminescence and electroluminescence: one has a single layer of uniform quantum dots at low density; the other has vertically-stacked double layer quantum dots with graded densities across the wafer. For the single layer dot wafer, single-photon emission has been obtained successfully, by pumping optically and electrically at high repetition rates. The coupling between vertically stacked double dots has been observed from the abnormal Stark shifts and from anticrossings in photoluminescence and electroluminescence spectra.
TACE and conformal radiotherapy vs. TACE alone for hepatocellular carcinoma: A randomised controlled trial (2023)

NCT01300143.
A stepwise algorithm for finding minimum evolution trees (1996)

A stepwise algorithm for reconstructing minimum evolution (ME) trees from evolutionary distance data is proposed. In each step, a taxon that potentially has a neighbor (another taxon connected to it with a single interior node) is first chosen and then its true neighbor searched iteratively. For m taxa, at most (m-1)!/2 trees are examined and the tree with the minimum sum of branch lengths (S) is chosen as the final tree. This algorithm provides simple strategies for restricting the tree space searched and allows us to implement efficient ways of dynamically computing the ordinary least squares estimates of S for the topologies examined. Using computer simulation, we found that the efficiency of the ME method in recovering the correct tree is similar to that of the neighbor-joining method (Saitou and Nei 1987). A more exhaustive search is unlikely to improve the efficiency of the ME method in finding the correct tree because the correct tree is almost always included in the tree space searched with this stepwise algorithm. The new algorithm finds trees for which S values may not be significantly different from that of the ME tree if the correct tree contains very small interior branches or if the pairwise distance estimates have large sampling errors. These topologies form a set of plausible alternatives to the ME tree and can be compared with each other using statistical tests based on the minimum evolution principle. The new algorithm makes it possible to use the ME method for large data sets.
Assessment of splanchnic hemodynamics in patients with cirrhosis after portocaval shunting in comparison with no-operated patients with the compensated and decompensated course of disease (2015)

Portocaval shunting is recommended for decrease of the portal pressure and regression of the varicose veins in patients with cirrhosis. But the shunting surgery at cirrhosis is limited by the high risk of development of hepatic encephalopathy and the hepatocellular insufficiency in post-surgical period. And the disorder of the hepatic and splanchnic hemodynamics that inevitably appears at different dates after surgery is considered as the main cause of these states.Aim of research. To assess an influence of the shunting surgical interventions on the character of changes of splanchnic hemodynamics in patients with cirrhosis in comparison with no-operated patients with compensated and decompensated course of disease.Material and methods. 190 patients with cirrhosis were examined: 133 had gastrointestinal bleeding, 57 – diuretic-resistant ascites. 18 patients underwent surgery – portocaval shunting. 84 patients died during observation (10 after surgery). The duration of observation was from 2-3 weeks to 2,5-3 years.All patients underwent the repeated ultrasound examination of abdominal cavity. There were defined the diameter of hepatic and splenic vessels; quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the blood flow in hepatic and splenic arteries, in portal and splenic veins. Results of research. At assessment of splanchnic hemodynamics we noticed the differences of parameters depending on time that passed after surgery. The changes of portal blood flow in first 3-6 month were characterized by the moderate widening of portal and splenic veins at little decrease of its mean linear and volume speed so an inflow of the portal blood still stable. Arterial blood flow in hepatic artery was forced at the expense of both widening of diameter and increase of the mean speed of blood flow. The splenic arterial blood flow practically was not changed. The reliable decrease of the volume blood flow in portal vein at the expense of decrease of its linear speed was observed in all patients at later dates. An unfavorable sign was an increase of an index of haemostasia in portal vein and of splenic and hepatic portal index in dynamics that took place in all operated patients and in no-operated ones at the stage of decompensation.Conclusions. The character of changes of splanchnic hemodynamics after portocaval shunting is analogous to the one in no-operated patients at transition from the compensated course of cirrhosis to decompensated one. The compensatory mechanism that preserves the volume of the portal inflow to liver is the widening of the portal vein and preservation of the splenic blood flow. The quality of life in post-surgical period is determined by the duration of compensation of hemodynamic disorders
Abstract P3-14-08: A randomized phase II trial comparing docetaxel plus cyclophosphamide with epirubicin plus cyclophosphamide followed by docetaxel as neoadjuvant chemotherapy for hormone receptor-negative breast cancer. Kanagawa breast oncology group (KBOG) 1101 study (2013)

Abstract Background: Taxane-based regimens have been developed and used widely to treat breast cancer. It has therefore become important to identify subgroups of patients in which anthracyclines are indispensable. Pathological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) predicts prognosis in hormone-negative subtypes. We therefore initiated a randomized phase II NAC study to compare a taxane with and without an anthracycline in these breast-cancer subtypes. Aim: To determine the safety and activity of six cycles of docetaxel and cyclophosphamide (TC6) compared with 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide followed by docetaxel (FEC-D), and to examine the predictive factors for each regimen. Methods: Eligibility criteria were operable hormone-receptor-negative breast cancer, age younger than 75 years and ECOG PS0-1. According to HER2 status, patients were randomly assigned to TC (75/600 mg/m2) every 3 weeks X 6 or FEC (500/100/500 mg/m2) every 3 weeks X 3 followed by D (100 mg/m2) every 3 weeks X 3. The primary endpoint was the rate of pathological complete response (pCR; grade 3). Triple-negative (TN) breast cancer was subdivided by cytokeratin 5/6 and epidermal growth factor receptor into basal- and non-basal subtypes. Secondary endpoints were safety, breast-conserving surgery, disease-free survival, overall survival, and predictive factors: Ki-67, p53, aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) 1 and topoisomerase 2A by both immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization for each regimen. Results: Ninety-seven of 103 patients were analyzed successfully (50 for FEC-D and 47 for TC6). Significantly more severe adverse events (grade 2) were observed in FEC-D-treated patients (poor appetite, nausea and vomiting: p = 0.001; febrile neutropenia: p = 0.016). The pCR rate tended to be higher in FEC-D-treated patients compared with TC6-treated patients (pCR: 36.0 vs. 25.5%, n.s.). FEC-D treatment was significantly more effective than TC6 in basal-type (p = 0.033) but not in non-basal and HER2 subtypes. ALDH1 was associated with resistance to both regimens (FEC-D: p = 0.047, TC6: p = 0.085) Conclusions: TC6 was safer, but not more effective than FEC-D. TC6 was significantly less active than FEC-D in basal subtype, and equivalent to FEC-D in HER2 and non-basal subtypes. Concurrent use of trastuzumab with TC could thus represent a reasonable option for NAC in HER2-subtype patients. ALDH1 could provide a marker for novel strategies such as stem cell-based therapies for breast cancer. Analyses on pathological factors in surgical specimens after NAC will be presented at the meeting. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr P3-14-08.
Neutropenia and anemia secondary to copper deficiency in a child receiving long term jejunal feeding (2022)

Jejunal feeding is increasingly utilized in the pediatric population to reduce gastroesophageal reflux or aspiration pneumonia. We describe a pediatric patient who developed persistent neutropenia and anemia secondary to copper deficiency after more than one year of exclusive jejunal feeding. Bone marrow aspiration and trephine biopsy showed vacuolated myeloid and erythroid precursors compatible with copper deficiency. Short term treatment with mineral mixture powder including copper reversed the hematological abnormalities. This report highlights the risk of micronutrient deficiency and the haematological manifestations as a result of acquired copper deficiency in pediatric patients receiving long term jejunal feeding.
Carbon nanotube-graphene composite film as transparent conductive electrode for GaN-based light-emitting diodes (2016)

Transparent conductive electrodes (TCE) made of carbon nanotube (CNT) and graphene composite for GaN-based light emitting diodes (LED) are presented. The TCE with 533-Ω/□ sheet resistance and 88% transmittance were obtained when chemical-vapor-deposition grown graphene was fused across CNT networks. With an additional 2-nm thin NiOx interlayer between the TCE and top p-GaN layer of the LED, the forward voltage was reduced to 5.12 V at 20-mA injection current. Four-fold improvement in terms of light output power was observed. The improvement can be ascribed to the enhanced lateral current spreading across the hybrid CNT-graphene TCE before injection into the p-GaN layer.
Workload Measurement: A Survey of Computerized Data Collection (1994)

The results of a national survey which examined current computer usage and occupational therapist direct entry of Workload Measurement Data is presented. Results indicated an almost equal distribution of departments using computers versus not using computers. A variety of software packages are used for the purposes of collecting workload measurement data, but the majority of departments use customized in-house programmes. The most common method of data entry was a clerk in a central location, however, a number of departments are considering a switch to therapist direct entry. Advantages and disadvantages of both methods were described by survey respondents.
Improvements for 802.11-Based Location Fingerprinting Systems (2009)

Position estimation with 802.11 and location fingerprinting has been a topic in research for quite some time already. But there are still some unaddressed issues that are the reason why such systems are not widely used. First, the positioning accuracy still leaves space for improvements. Second, users generally have no information about the quality of the estimated position. Especially in cases where the positioning error is large, the user's trust in the system suffers if he is not notified. Third, most systems that rely on a location fingerprinting approach need a time and effort consuming setup phase in which the training data has to be collected and processed. In this paper, we give an overview of existing possibilities to improve location fingerprinting systems under each of these three aspects. Several alternative solutions for each problem are presented. Finally, a discussion gives an overall picture of the usability of the solutions when considering the system as a whole.
A comparison of excimer laser, thermal probe, and mechanical devices for recanalizing occluded human arteries. (1991)

To evaluate the mechanism of excimer laser recanalization and compare the results with those of laser-assisted thermal probe recanalization and mechanical recanalization, a total of 42 human atherosclerotic totally occluded arterial segments (2-15 cm long) were recanalized by excimer laser with a 400-800 micron quartz fiber pulsed at 20 Hz with 50 mJ/mm2 of energy (n = 21), an Argon heated thermal probe at 10-12 watts (n = 11), a guidewire directed through a 6 Fr multipurpose catheter, or an angioplasty balloon catheter (n = 10). On histologic examination, the excimer laster created a single round lumen or multiple lumens ("Swiss-cheese" like appearance) with no evidence of thermal injury at the perimeter of the lumen. The incidence of perforation in vitro was less with an excimer laser catherter (8/21 or 38%) than with the thermal prove (10/11 or 91%) (p less than 0.01). However, serial histologic cross-sectional examination showed that the pathway of the devices were essentially the same in all recanalization procedures. The pathway of the device was located outside the atheroma but proximal to the internal elastic membrane in 13 arteries with the excimer laser (62%), in 10 arteries with the thermal probe (91%), and 8 arteries with mechanical devices (80%). These results indicate that although the eximer laser could recanalize human atherosclerotic arteries without thermal injury, the fiber frequently deflected around firm atherosclerotic plaque and advanced in a dissection plane between the plaque and media. A similar course was noted for the thermal probe or during mechanical recanalization with a guidewire and catheter. To insure the safety of an excimer fiber or a thermal probe to reopen complete occlusions, better guidance systems must be developed.
Flufenacet activity is affected by GST inhibitors in blackgrass (Alopecurus myosuroides) populations with reduced flufenacet sensitivity and higher expression levels of GSTs (2020)

Abstract The WSSA Group 15 (HRAC Group K 3 ) herbicide flufenacet is a key compound in weed resistance management, primarily used for PRE control of grass weeds in winter cereal–based crop rotations in Europe. Although resistance to compounds of its mechanism of action (inhibition of the synthesis of very-long-chain fatty acids) generally evolves slowly, reduced flufenacet efficacy due to enhanced glutathione transferase (GST) activity has been described in several blackgrass ( Alopecurus myosuroides Huds.) populations. The present study aimed to better understand of the mechanism of flufenacet detoxification in A. myosuroides . Therefore, we characterized four A. myosuroides populations with different levels of flufenacet sensitivity. Flufenacet degradation was significantly slowed down in a sensitive population and a population with reduced flufenacet sensitivity by the use of the GST inhibitors tridiphane and ethacrynic acid at sublethal rates. Finally, an RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) study with the four A. myosuroides populations was conducted. In total, six differentially expressed GSTs and nine transcription factors as well as a keto-acyl-CoA reductase involved in the biosynthesis of very-long-chain fatty acids were identified as candidate genes among a set of 319 significantly more highly expressed gene-associated contigs. Among a set of 218 contigs with significantly lower expression levels, receptor kinase activity was the most frequent annotation. In summary, the likely GST-mediated reduction in sensitivity evolves in A. myosuroides at a slow rate and can partially be reversed by an interaction between flufenacet and the GST inhibitors tridiphane and ethacrynic acid. This provides further evidence for enhanced GST activity as a key mechanism in flufenacet resistance in A. myosuroides and supports the hypothesis that the six differentially expressed GSTs detected in the present RNA-seq study are potentially involved in flufenacet resistance.
Pen-based force display for precision manipulation in virtual environments (2002)

We describe the structure of a force display recently implemented for precision manipulation of scaled or virtual environments. We discuss the advantages of direct-drive parallel manipulators over geared serial manipulators for human-robot interaction application and introduce the serial-parallel structure we chose for our robot which interfaces with the human operator either at the fingertip or at the tip of a freely held pen-like instrument. We derive the statics and the dynamics, and then introduce the optimization criteria that allowed us to choose the dimensional parameters for the force display. Finally we show some of the potential application for this device.
Experimental activities on step motor drives (2012)

Thanks to their robustness, reliability and ease of use, step motor drives are widely used in several fields, mainly for small size automation. Step motor drives have also some well known bad running conditions related to their oscillatory behaviour and synchronism loss. In order to properly design the application, those conditions must be accurately taken into account setting-up proper mathematical models. In particular in this paper we refer to a simplified electro-mechanical model where the most of the parameters can be drawn from datasheets, while the others, as the equivalent damping factor, need experimental investigation. This paper deals with preliminary experimental activities performed on small size step motor drives for both testing the suitability of a test bench designed and developed in previous works, and outlining some remarks on the behaviour of the tested motors.