gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
IL-4 and IL-13 exposure during mucociliary differentiation of bronchial epithelial cells increases antimicrobial activity and expression of antimicrobial peptides (2011)

The airway epithelium forms a barrier against infection but also produces antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and other inflammatory mediators to activate the immune system. It has been shown that in allergic disorders, Th2 cytokines may hamper the antimicrobial activity of the epithelium. However, the presence of Th2 cytokines also affects the composition of the epithelial layer which may alter its function. Therefore, we investigated whether exposure of human primary bronchial epithelial cells (PBEC) to Th2 cytokines during mucociliary differentiation affects expression of the human cathelicidin antimicrobial protein (hCAP18)/LL-37 and human beta defensins (hBD), and antimicrobial activity.PBEC were cultured at an air-liquid interface (ALI) for two weeks in the presence of various concentrations of IL-4 or IL-13. Changes in differentiation and in expression of various AMPs and the antimicrobial proteinase inhibitors secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) and elafin were investigated as well as antimicrobial activity.IL-4 and IL-13 increased mRNA expression of hCAP18/LL-37 and hBD-2. Dot blot analysis also showed an increase in hCAP18/LL-37 protein in apical washes of IL-4-treated ALI cultures, whereas Western Blot analysis showed expression of a protein of approximately 4.5 kDa in basal medium of IL-4-treated cultures. Using sandwich ELISA we found that also hBD-2 in apical washes was increased by both IL-4 and IL-13. SLPI and elafin levels were not affected by IL-4 or IL-13 at the mRNA or protein level. Apical wash obtained from IL-4- and IL-13-treated cultures displayed increased antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa compared to medium-treated cultures. In addition, differentiation in the presence of Th2 cytokines resulted in increased MUC5AC production as has been shown previously.These data suggest that prolonged exposure to Th2 cytokines during mucociliary differentiation contributes to antimicrobial defence by increasing the expression and release of selected antimicrobial peptides and mucus.
Iterative Classification in Relational Data (2000)

Relational data offer a unique opportunity for improving the classification accuracy of statistical models. If two objects are related, inferring something about one object can aid inferences about the other. We present an iterative classification procedure that exploits this characteristic of relational data. This approach uses simple Bayesian classifiers in an iterative fashion, dynamically updating the attributes of some objects as inferences are made about related objects. Inferences made with high confidence in initial iterations are fed back into the data and are used to inform subsequent inferences about related objects. We evaluate the performance of this approach on a binary classification task. Experiments indicate that iterative classification significantly increases accuracy when compared to a single-pass approach.
Regulation of expression of a sheep metallothionein 1a-sheep growth hormone fusion gene in transgenic mice. (1989)

Transgenic mice containing a sheep metallothionein 1a-sheep growth hormone fusion gene exhibited low, tissue-specific basal levels of transgene mRNA expression, resulting in slightly elevated levels of circulating growth hormone that did not lead to a detectable increase in growth. After zinc stimulation, high levels of transgene mRNA expression were induced in a number of tissues; these levels correlated with increased levels of circulating growth hormone, resulting in growth increases of up to 1.5 times the levels of controls and unstimulated transgenic mice. After removal of the zinc stimulus, transgene expression and circulating growth hormone concentrations returned to basal levels. Additional evidence from the pattern of developmental expression of the transgene suggests that zinc is the main regulator of this promoter in mice. The demonstrated regulation and low basal level of expression of the sheep metallothionein 1a promoter make it a candidate for use in other mouse transgenic studies and for use in transgenic livestock, in which regulation of expression is essential.
Čerenkov Radiation in Inhomogeneous Periodic Media (1965)

The formal exact solution to the problem of the radiation of a charged particle traveling with a constant velocity in a periodically inhomogeneous medium is obtained. As a specific example, the case with a sinusoidally varying dielectric profile is treated in detail. Results of the computation are summarized in two graphs from which information concerning threshold velocity for a particular mode, the emission angles for various radiating modes, and the cutoff frequency for a certain mode can be found. Unlike the case of Cerenkov radiation in a homogeneous medium, there exist radiating modes in this inhomogeneous-dielectric case even when the velocity of the charged particle is below the threshold \ifmmode \check{C}\else \v{C}\fi{}erenkov velocity. A formal expression for the radiation spectrum is also given. Approximate expressions for the radiated fields and for the radiation spectrum are obtained when the variation of the permittivity is small. Results are discussed and interpreted.
Looking at Large Networks: Coding vs. Queueing (2006)

Traditionally, network buffer resources have been used at routers to queue transient packets to prevent packet drops. In contrast, we propose a scheme for large multi-hop networks where intermediate routers have no buffers for queueing transient packets. In the proposed scheme, network storage resources (memory) are used only at source and destination nodes to encode/decode packets using random linear coding over time. Our scheme utilizes the observation that for large networks with many flows through each router, if packet loss occurs in a flow path, it will very likely occur only at only one link in the path. Unfortunately, the location of this congested link varies with time, hence, preventing static buffer allocation strategies from exploiting this observation. We propose network coding as a means of “sharing” memory across links along a flow path. We call this spatial buffer multiplexing – where buffering and coding implemented at the source compensates for packet loss at any downstream bufferless link. In this paper, we consider large spatial multi-hop networks with N nodes and Θ(N) flows, where the number of flows through each link scales as Ω(N) for some α ∈ (0, 1). Using many-sources large deviations analysis, we show that to obtain comparable packet drop probabilities (QoS), spatial buffer multiplexing provides an order-wise buffer gain of Ω(N) per node over traditional queueing.
Estimating weak ratiometric signals in imaging data. I. Dual-channel data (2007)

Ratiometric fluorescent indicators are becoming increasingly prevalent in many areas of biology. They are used for making quantitative measurements of intracellular free calcium both in vitro and in vivo, as well as measuring membrane potentials, pH, and other important physiological variables of interest to researchers in many subfields. Often, functional changes in the fluorescent yield of ratiometric indicators are small, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is of order unity or less. In particular, variability in the denominator of the ratio can lead to very poor ratio estimates. We present a statistical optimization method for objectively detecting and estimating ratiometric signals in dual-wavelength measurements of fluorescent, ratiometric indicators that improves on standard methods. With the use of an appropriate statistical model for ratiometric signals and by taking the pixel-pixel covariance of an imaging dataset into account, we are able to extract user-independent spatiotemporal information that retains high resolution in both space and time.
Two-Minute Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping From Three-Dimensional Echo-Planar Imaging (2020)

Faster QSM from 3D-EPI demonstrated excellent accuracy, reliability, and CMB detection performance.
Combinatorial Synthesis and in Vitro Evaluation of a Biaryl Hydroxyketone Library as Antivirulence Agents against MRSA (2013)

Antibiotic resistance coupled with decreased development of new antibiotics necessitates the search for novel antibacterial agents. Antivirulence agents offer an alternative to conventional antibiotics. In this work, we report on a family of small-molecule antivirulence agents against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the most widespread bacterial pathogen. Structure-activity relationship studies led to the development of a concise synthesis of a 148-member biarylhydroxyketone library. An acylation bond-forming process afforded resorcinols (1) and aryloxy acetonitriles (2) as synthons. A Lewis-acid-activated Friedel-Crafts' acylation step involving a nitrile functionality of 2 by ZnCl2, followed by nucleophilic attack by 1 was executed to obtain biaryl hydroxyketones in excellent yields. A large number of products crystallized. This strategy affords a range of biarylhydroxyketones in a single step. This is the first collective synthetic study documenting access to this class of compounds through a single synthetic operation. In vitro efficacy of compounds in this library was evaluated by a rabbit erythrocyte hemolysis assay. The most efficacious compound, 4f-12, inhibits hemolysis by 98.1 ± 0.1% compared to control in the absence of the compound.
Dual-agonist Optical Stimulation of Platelets Results in Increased and Reliable Activation (2020)

Activation of blood platelets is the main process in normal hemostasis. Unfortunately, it also makes a great contribution to the development of cardiovascular diseases. In this work, we study activation dynamics using cytosolic calcium probe. To increase the accuracy of dynamic measurements, we present a method for optical activation of single platelets in suspension. It is achieved by the use of photolabile "caged" activation agonists. In our earlier works, the use of such compounds resulted in precise measurement of early activation dynamics. However, relatively large irradiation dose was needed to achieve the activation of significant fraction of cells. Here we show that dual-agonist stimulation dramatically increases the activation probability, resulting in increased and reliable activation with 10-to-50-times less irradiation dose as compared to our previous report.
A Design for Aerobatic Human Powered Airship (2003)

Since airships are an environmentally-friendly, safe and energy-saving vehicle, they are the most suitable vehicles to meet the modern social needs. If small airships with highly enhanced maneuverability can be realized, they will satisfy people's desire to fly freely in the air without anxiety. However, conventional propulsive systems have little possibilities to improve maneuverability. Hence, we try to adopt cycloidal propellers on airship as a new propulsive system. Cycloidal propeller is a type of propulsion system to generate thrust by controlling attack angles of blades rotating constantly. By adjusting the vehicle's gravity center and the buoyancy center as close as possible, we can perform somersault around the center of gravity of the airship.
Blood-aqueous barrier in prostaglandin EP2 receptor knockout mice (2002)

The role of prostaglandin EP(2) receptors in the disruption of the blood-aqueous barrier was examined using EP(2) receptor-deficient mice. Eyes were topically treated with EP receptor agonists or subjected to paracentesis. Fluorescein angiography was performed after topical treatment with 2.0 icrog butaprost. The results show that EP receptor agonists, PGE( 2) and the EP(2) receptor-selective agonist butaprost, increased aqueous humor protein in EP(2) +/+ wild-type mice to 18.0 mg/ml and 12.0 mg/ml, respectively, from the control value of 2.7 mg/ml. The increase in aqueous humor protein concentration in response to these EP receptor agonists was reduced significantly in EP(2) receptor-deficient mice. Fluorescein leakage into the anterior chamber, two minutes after its injection, was significantly greater in butaprost-treated wild-type mice than in butaprost-treated knockout mice. Protein concentration, 15 min after paracentesis, increased from 2.2 mg/ml to 25.0 mg/ml in the aqueous humor of the eyes of wild-type mice, while the increase in knockout mice was 10.6 mg/ml. These results suggest that EP( 2) and EP(4) receptors mediate the disruption of the blood-aqueous barrier induced by EP receptor agonists and paracentesis.
Improving SC-FDMA Performance by Turbo Equalization in UTRA LTE Uplink (2008)

Turbo equalization is known as an advanced iterative equalization and decoding technique that allows to enhance the performance of the data transmission over a frequency selective fading channel. The turbo equalizer will result in extra receiver complexity, but isolated to the base-station, which does not have stringent power constraints. In this paper, a turbo equalization technique to improve Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) performance is proposed. A new adaptive coefficients solution for frequency domain equalization is considered. The work is in the context of UTRA Long Term Evolution (LTE) Uplink. The performance is evaluated for 1x2 Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) antenna configuration in a 6 paths Typical Urban (TU-06) channel profile. For assessment purpose, the results are compared with SC-FDMA MMSE and OFDMA schemes. Simulation results show that the turbo equalizer can improve the BLER performance around 1 dB with only a few iterations, and improve the SC-FDMA performance over OFDM, especially at high coding rate.
The Impact of Aspect Ratio on the Biodistribution and Tumor Homing of Rigid Soft‐Matter Nanorods (2015)

The size and shape of nanocarriers can affect their fate in vivo, but little is known about the effect of nanocarrier aspect ratio on biodistribution in the setting of cancer imaging and drug delivery. The production of nanoscale anisotropic materials is a technical challenge. A unique biotemplating approach based on of rod-shaped nucleoprotein nanoparticles with predetermined aspect ratios (AR 3.5, 7, and 16.5) is used. These rigid, soft-matter nanoassemblies are derived from tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) components. The role of nanoparticle aspect ratio is investigated, while keeping the surface chemistries constant, using either PEGylated stealth nanoparticles or receptor-targeted RGD-displaying formulations. Aspect ratio has a profound impact on the behavior of the nanoparticles in vivo and in vitro. PEGylated nanorods with the lowest aspect ratio (AR 3.5) achieve the most efficient passive tumor-homing behavior because they can diffuse most easily, whereas RGD-labeled particles with a medium aspect ratio (AR 7) are more efficient at tumor targeting because this requires a balance between infusibility and ligand-receptor interactions. The in vivo behavior of nanoparticles can therefore be tailored to control biodistribution, longevity, and tumor penetration by modulating a single parameter: the aspect ratio of the nanocarrier.
Beneficial effects of diltiazem and propranolol, alone and in combination, in patients with stable angina pectoris. (1985)

The antianginal effects of diltiazem 180 mg/day and propranolol 240 mg/day, alone and in combination, were investigated in 15 patients with effort related angina in a double blind placebo controlled crossover trial, with each period of treatment lasting four weeks. Patients performed a symptom limited treadmill exercise test at the end of each period of treatment. Mean (SEM) time to onset of angina was increased from 293(32) s when receiving placebo to 347(38) s when receiving diltiazem alone, to 350(30) s when receiving propranolol alone, and further to 421(34) s when receiving diltiazem and propranolol combined. Similar changes occurred in the duration of exercise testing and time to 1 mm ST segment depression. The sum of ST segment depression at peak exercise was reduced by both diltiazem and propranolol alone compared with placebo, and combination treatment produced a further significant improvement. Rate pressure product was significantly reduced at rest and at peak exercise after propranolol alone and combination treatment. The study clearly showed the superior value of diltiazem and propranolol combined in effort related angina when compared with either drug used alone.
High Performance Pulsating Heat Pipe for Electronics Cooling (2022)

The purpose of this study was to explore the capabilities and limitations of additive manufacturing technology when it comes to printing a PHP system with an integrated water-cooled condenser. A flat plate PHP with an overall size of 80mm´38mm was designed to be heated on one side of the evaporator section by a resistor contacting a surface area of 899mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . At the opposite end, a water-cooled condenser was integrated onto both faces with a surface area of 2280mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . The PHP serpentine consisted of 48 rectangular channels with the following dimensions: 0.6mm wide and 1.7mm tall. Selective laser melting (SLM), a powder bed fusion technology, was used to manufacture the PHP. Some of the main challenges overcome in this study were powder evacuation from the serpentine, eliminating printing defects and respecting tolerances of the interface. An experimental investigation was then undertaken to analyze the performance characteristics of the printed PHPs by varying water inlet temperature, water flow rate, resistive power, and inclination angle. A leak-tight flat plate PHP was printed and successfully de-powdered and post-processed. An external wall thickness of 0.45mm and a channel spacing thickness of 0.15mm was achieved. The total thermal resistance of the device was about 0.15K/W in all orientations including inverted. The thermal resistance of the PHP was around 0.11K/W from a start-up power of 2W to a maximum of 440W. An overall heat flux of 49W/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> was achieved with a hot spot heat flux of 190W/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . The PHP demonstrated very good thermal performance to deal with high-power electronics and densely packed multi-core microprocessors.
A Summary of Construction Congress V (1998)

Construction Congress V, held October 5-7, 1997, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, identified critical issues facing the construction industry in the coming millennium. By all accounts, the 138 papers and nine plenary session speakers informed participants that now, more than ever, construction is a global enterprise. Wayne T. Day, president of the Mechanical Contractors Association of America, said the industry's future rests on three pillars: computerization, technical innovation, and employee training. Construction and engineering firms face challenges identical to those confronting other business sectors, including quality, timeliness, and cost-effectiveness. The keys to conquering these challenges will include the following: attention to computer and technological advances; supporting local, regional, and national programs to develop a future workforce; collaborative international relationships and affiliations; and tailored project delivery systems.
Glancing Angle Fluorescence XAFS Study on Metal Oxide Thin Films Obtained by Oxygen Gas Cluster Ion Beam Assisted Deposition Techniques (2005)

Glancing angle fluorescence XAFS analysis of Ta and Ti oxide thin films, which were obtained by oxygen gas cluster ion beam assisted deposition techniques (GCIB), was made to analyze the valence states and the structures of the 'amorphous' thin films at atomic level. Glancing angle XAFS measurement was made for Ta L3-edge of the Ta oxide thin films and Ti K-edge of the Ti oxide thin films with 200 nm thickness, respectively, using the detection method of electron yield by conversion with He flow gas counter (CEY) at the beam line BL01B1 in the SPring-8. The Ta L3-XANES results indicate that the assistance of the oxygen GCIB leads to the higher oxidation state of the Ta atom. The Ta L3 and Ti K EXAFS results suggest that these metal oxide films obtained by the oxygen GCIB assisted deposition techniques have amorphous-like structure.
In vitro bioaccessibility of proteins and lipids of pH-shift processed Nannochloropsis oculata microalga (2016)

The pH-shift process fractionates biomass into soluble proteins and insoluble fractions, followed by precipitation and recovery of the solubilized proteins. Nannochloropsis oculata in seawater was subjected to the pH-shift process, followed by digestion of various intermediates and product fractions of the process, using the Infogest in vitro digestion model (Minekus et al., 2014) with added gastric lipase. As measures for protein and lipid accessibility, degrees of protein hydrolysis and fatty acid liberation were assessed post-digestion and compared to the amounts of peptide bonds and total fatty acids present in the raw materials. Results showed that neither proteins nor lipids of intact Nannochloropsis cells were accessible to the mammalian digestive enzymes used in the digestion model. Cell disruption, and to a lesser extent, further pH-shift processing with protein solubilisation at pH 7 or pH 10, increased the accessibility of lipids. For proteins, differences amongst the pH-shift processed materials were non-significant, though pre-freezing the product prior to digestion increased the accessibility from 32% to 47%. For fatty acids, pH-shift process-products gave rise to 43% to 52% lipolysis, with higher lipolysis for products solubilised at pH 10 as opposed to pH 7. Our results indicate the importance of processing to produce an algal product that has beneficial nutritional properties when applied as food or feed.
Individual Survival Curves with Conditional Normalizing Flows (2021)

Survival analysis, or time-to-event modelling, is a classical statistical problem that has garnered a lot of interest for its practical use in epidemiology, demographics or actuarial sciences. Recent advances on the subject from the point of view of machine learning have been concerned with precise per-individual predictions instead of population studies, driven by the rise of individualized medicine. We introduce here a conditional normalizing flow based estimate of the time-to-event density as a way to model highly flexible and individualized conditional survival distributions. We use a novel hierarchical formulation of normalizing flows to enable efficient fitting of flexible conditional distributions without overfitting and show how the normalizing flow formulation can be efficiently adapted to the censored setting. We experimentally validate the proposed approach on a synthetic dataset as well as four open medical datasets and an example of a common financial problem.