gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Turning renewable resources into value-added polymer: development of lignin-based thermoplastic (2012)

Productive uses of lignin, the third most abundant natural polymer, have been sought for decades. One especially attractive possibility is that of developing value-added products including thermoplastics based on lignin. This possibility warrants special attention due to growth of the modern biofuel industries. However, the polydisperse molecular weight and hyper-branched structure of lignin has hindered the creation of high-performance biopolymers. Here, we report the preparation and characterization of novel lignin-based, partially carbon-neutral thermoplastics. We first altered the molecular weight of lignin, either by fractionation with methanol, or by formaldehyde crosslinking. Crosslinking of lignin increases the molecular weight, exhibiting Mn = 31 000 g mol−1, whereas that of as-received lignin is 1840 g mol−1. Tuning the molecular weight of lignin enabled successful preparation of novel lignin-derived thermoplastics, when coupled with telechelic polybutadiene soft-segments at proper feed ratios. Characteristic to thermoplastic rubbers, free-standing films of the resulting copolymers exhibit two-phase morphology and associated relaxations in the dynamic mechanical loss spectrum. To the best of our knowledge this article is the first report to demonstrate phase immiscibility, melt-processibility, and biphasic morphology of soft and hard segments in a lignin-based copolymer for all feed ratios of two macromolecular components. The use of higher molecular weight lignin enhanced the resulting shear modulus due to efficient network formation of telechelic polybutadiene bridges. The storage modulus in the rubbery plateau region increased with increasing lignin content. The successful synthesis of novel lignin-based thermoplastics will open a new pathway to biomass utilization and will help conserve petrochemicals.
Adaptive Thermal Conductivity Metamaterials: Enabling Active and Passive Thermal Control (2018)

The novel adaptive thermal metamaterial developed in this paper provides a unique thermal management capability that can address the needs of future spacecraft. While advances in metamaterials have provided the ability to generate materials with a broad range of material properties, relatively little advancement has been made in the development of adaptive metamaterials. This metamaterial concept enables the development of materials with a highly nonlinear thermal conductivity as a function of temperature. Through enabling active or passive control of the metamaterials bulk effective thermal conductivity, this metamaterial that can improve the spacecraft's thermal management systems performance. This variable thermal conductivity is achieved through induced contact that results in changes in the F path length and the conductive path area. The contact can be generated internally using thermal strain from shape memory alloys, bimetal springs, and mismatches in coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) or it can be generated externally using applied mechanical loading. The metamaterial can actively control the temperature of an interface by dynamically changing the bulk thermal conductivity controlling the instantaneous heat flux through the metamaterial. The design of thermal stability regions (regions of constant thermal conductivity versus temperature) into the nonlinear thermal conductivity as a function of temperature can provide passive thermal control. While this concept can be used in a wide range of applications, this paper focuses on the development of a metamaterial that achieves highly nonlinear thermal conductivity as a function of temperature to enable passive thermal control of spacecraft systems on orbit.
An Organic Sensitizer with a Fused Dithienothiophene Unit for Efficient and Stable Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (2008)

We report a high molar extinction coefficient organic sensitizer for high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells. In combination with a solvent-free ionic liquid electrolyte, we have demonstrated a approximately 7% cell showing an excellent stability measured under the thermal and light soaking dual stress. This is expected to have an important practical consequence on the production of flexible, low-cost, and lightweight DSC based on plastic matrix.
Image compression for quality 3D reconstruction (2020)

A 3D mesh can be reconstructed from multiple viewpoint images or from a single structured light image. Lossy compression of such images by standard techniques such as JPEG at high compression ratios lead to 3D reconstruction being adversely affected by artifacts and missing vertices. In this paper we demonstrate an improved algorithm capable of high compression ratios without adversely affecting 3D reconstruction and with minimum data loss. The compression algorithm starts by applying block DCT over the input image, and the transformed data being quantized using an optimized quantization matrix. The quantized coefficients of each block are arranged as a 1D array and saved with other block’s data in a larger matrix of coefficients. The DC coefficients are subject to a first order difference whose values are referred to as residual array. The AC coefficients are reduced by eliminating zeros and saving the non-zero values in a reduced coefficients array using a mask of 0 (for a block of zeros) and 1 (for a block of non-zeros). Finally, arithmetic coding is applied to both coefficients and residual arrays. At decompression stage, the coefficients matrix is regenerated by scanning the coefficients array and examining the headers to substitute zero and non-zero data. This matrix is then added to the residual array to obtain the original DC values. The IDCT is then applied to obtain the original image. The proposed algorithm has been tested with images of varying sizes in the context of 3D reconstruction. Results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm is superior to traditional JPEG at higher compression ratios with high perceptual quality of images and the ability to reconstruct the 3D models more effectively, both for structured light images and for sequences of multiple viewpoint images.
Elimination of infectious retroviruses during preparation of immunoglobulins (1986)

ABSTRACT: Safety concerns for immunoglobulin preparations have led us to study partition/inactivation of two prototype retroviruses, mouse xenotropic type C and lymphadenopathy‐associated virus (LAV) of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), during manufacture and storage of immunoglobulins. Reduction of infectious retrovirus titers were 10 5 to 10 8 ‐fold through Cohn‐Oncley cold ethanol fractionation from plasma to fraction II, 10 3 to 10 5 ‐fold through incubation at pH 4.0 and another 10 4 ‐fold through incubation of the purified liquid immunoglobulin preparations at 27°C or 45°C. The results support the clinical and epidemiological evidence that therapeutic immunoglobulin preparations do not transmit AIDS virus.
On Synergy Between a High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor and a LNG Vaporization Plant (2004)

The Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) chain of processes consumes the equivalent of 10% of initial natural gas flow for liquefaction, transportation and regasification of the natural gas. It is possible with the right process to recover some of this lost investment during the regasification process. The High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR) nuclear power plant appears to possess the characteristics needed to accomplish this recovery. This synergy of processes and fluid properties between an LNG regasification plant and an HTGR provides an opportunity to enhance an already efficient nuclear power generation scheme. Boiling LNG (112 K) provides an ideal cold side heat sink for the helium based Brayton cycle of the HTGR. Helium remains in the gas phase at these low temperatures. The resulting large temperature difference (1000 K) between the high temperature and low temperature sides of a thermal cycle means Carnot efficiencies approach 90%. Achievable efficiencies approach 77%, an increase from 48% for current ambient temperature cooled HTGR designs. Thus a LNG/HTGR plant can deliver half again more power for similar capital investments and operating costs. In addition, boiling LNG with helium saves fuel gas costs for the regasification plant. This paper will show that this combination is feasible and economic. Since both processes are designed to run at maximum capacity, duty cycles and plant availability criteria match. For coastal locations, both processes possess similar site selection criteria. Finally, combining the processes will impose no unmanageable safety constraints on either system and in fact could make safe operation easier to attain. This paper will provide general overviews of an HTGR power plant and of the LNG-to-market sequence, concentrating on regasification plants. The paper will then describe a process that combines an HTGR power plant with an LNG regasification facility to the advantage of both. At full load, the economic benefit for a dual installation supporting what would be a 1.1 GWe power plant before improvement would be approximately $423 million per year.
Upscaling Method for Obtaining Primary Drainage Capillary Pressure and Resistivity Index with Digital Rock Physics (2020)

Direct numerical simulation at the pore scale on three-dimensional (3D) digital volumes obtained by high-resolution x-ray computed tomography (CT) images is a powerful tool for helping predict petrophysical properties. However, obtaining sufficiently high resolution and large field-of-view 3D CT images that capture multiscale heterogeneities in a single image is often not possible. Thus, methods for integrating and upscaling properties from multiple scales at various resolutions to plug scale are necessary. The methodology and results for upscaling capillary-dominated, two-phase flow in rocks based on multiscale CT images using trends are presented and discussed in this paper.
Nano Additives and Plateau Burning Rates in Composite Solid Propellants (2008)

Plateau propellants exhibit burning rate curves that do not follow the typical linear relationship between burning rate and pressure when plotted on a log-log scale, and because of this deviation their burning behavior is classified as anomalous burning. This paper contains a literature review chronicling the last half-century of research to better understand the mechanisms that govern anomalous burning and to shed light on current research into plateau and related propellants. In addition to the review, a series of experiments investigating the use of nanoscale TiO2-based additives in AP-HTPB composite propellants was performed. The baseline propellant consisted of either 70% or 80% monomodal AP (223 μm) and 30% or 20% binder composed of IPDI-cured HTPB with Tepanol. Propellants were tested using a strand bomb between 500 and 2500 psi (34.0-170.1 atm). Analysis of the burning rate data shows that the crystal phase and synthesis method of the TiO2 additive are influential to plateau tailoring and to the apparent effectiveness of the additive in altering the burning rate of the composite propellant. Some of the discrepancy in the literature regarding the effectiveness of TiO 2 as a tailoring additive may be due to differences in how the additive was produced. Doping the TiO2 with small amounts of metallic elements (Al, Fe, or Gd) showed additional effects on the burning rate that depend on the doping material and the amount of the dopant. This work provides the first published propellant mixtures and burning rate results for composite propellants employing metal-doped nanoparticle additives.
New routes for imaging the optical near-fields of plasmonic nanostructures (2005)

The surface plasmons of metal films and nanostructures are increasingly well-known for applications in sensor technologies and photonics applications. Their potential is largely due to the plasmons' characteristic as an interface phenomenon and the generation of an optical near-field at the interface. In many cases, the spatial dimensions of the near-field lie significantly below the diffraction limit of conventional optics in at least one dimension. This requires novel methods means for imaging their spatial profile and propagation properties. We present recent methods ongoing in our laboratory for imaging plasmonic features of metal nanostructures
Cardiovascular safety of low-dose fenfluramine in Dravet syndrome: a review of its benefit-risk profile in a new patient population (2017)

A different benefit-risk relationship appears to be emerging when fenfluramine is used at low doses for extended periods in young patients with DS. Continued cardiac assessments during ongoing Phase 3 clinical trials will provide additional safety information for this potential new and effective treatment.
TouchMover (2013)

This paper presents the design and development of a novel visual+haptic device that co-locates 3D stereo visualization, direct touch and touch force sensing with a robotically actuated display. Our actuated immersive 3D display, called TouchMover, is capable of providing 1D movement (up to 36cm) and force feedback (up to 230N) in a single dimension, perpendicular to the screen plane. In addition to describing the details of our design, we showcase how TouchMover allows the user to: 1) interact with 3D objects by pushing them on the screen with realistic force feedback, 2) touch and feel the contour of a 3D object, 3) explore and annotate volumetric medical images (e.g., MRI brain scans) and 4) experience different activation forces and stiffness when interacting with common 2D on-screen elements (e.g., buttons). We also contribute the results of an experiment which demonstrates the effectiveness of the haptic output of our device. Our results show that people are capable of disambiguating between 10 different 3D shapes with the same 2D footprint by touching alone and without any visual feedback (85% recognition rate, 12 participants).
The Biology and Chemistry of Epstein-Barr Virus (1982)

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the human prototype of a family of closely related herpesviruses of Old World primates. These agents probably evolved and spread among the Old World primates since the divergence of apes from monkeys about 30 million years ago. Although the DNAs of the EBV family have no sequence homology to other herpesviruses, there are some features in common with other herpesviral genomes. EBV DNA is unusual in having five tandem direct repeat elements which divide the genome into five unique sequence domains. The tandem direct repeats at the ends of the linear virion DNA probably mediate circularization of the viral DNA to form the circular episomal viral DNA which is characteristic of EBV-infected cells. In latent transforming infection, messenger RNAs are encoded by three widely separate regions of the EBV genome. The remainder of the viral genome encodes many RNAs and proteins which are expressed in productive infection. Early and late viral genes are intermixed along the full length of EBV DNA.
Clio (2001)

We consider the integration requirements of modern data intensive applications including data warehousing, global information systems and electronic commerce. At the heart of these requirements lies the schema mapping problem in which a source (legacy) database must be mapped into a different, but xed, target schema. The goal of schema mapping is the discovery of a query or set of queries to map source databases into the new structure. We demonstrate Clio, a new semi-automated tool for creating schema mappings. Clio employs a mapping-by-example paradigm that relies on the use of value correspondences describing how a value of a target attribute can be created from a set of values of source attributes. A typical session with Clio starts with the user loading a source and a target schema into the system. These schemas are read from either an underlying Object-Relational database or from an XML le with an associated XML Schema. Users can then draw value correspondences mapping source attributes into target attributes. Clio's mapping engine incrementally produces the SQL queries that realize the mappings implied by the correspondences. Clio provides schema and data browsers and other feedback to allow users to understand the mapping produced. Entering and manipulating value correspondences can be done in two modes. In the Schema View mode, users see a representation of the source and target schema and create value correspondences by selecting schema objects from the source and mapping them to a target attribute. The alternative Data View mode o ers a WYSIWYG interface for the mapping process that displays example data for both the source and target tables [3]. Users may add and delete value correspondences from this view and immediately see the changes re ected in the resulting target tuples. Also, the Data View mode helps users navigate through alternative mappings, understanding the often subtle di erences between them. For example, in some cases, changing a join from an inner join to an outer join may dramatically change the resulting table. In other cases, the same change may have no e ect due to constraints that hold on the source
Time-frequency characterization of atrial arrhythmias using principal decomposition (2005)

A new noninvasive technique for atrial arrhythmia analysis is presented which, based on time-frequency analysis and principal decomposition, produces trends of the atrial signal characteristics using the surface ECG. New homogeneity measures are introduced in order to continuously measure how well the decomposed functions represent the atrial signals. A database containing signals from 20 patients with different atrial arrhythmias (mainly atrial fibrillation) was analyzed. It was found that the method is very well-suited for characterizing the signals and it is expected that the resulting functions may be useful for separating different arrhythmias.
Markov Models for Automated ECG Interval Analysis (2003)

This thesis proposes a new approach for the automated analysis of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, based on the framework of probabilistic modelling. The approach makes use of a number of techniques from machine learning, speech recognition and time-frequency analysis. The problem is to estimate from an ECG signal a number of timing intervals which occur in every heartbeat. The accurate measurement and assessment of these intervals, and in particular the QT interval, is currently the gold standard for evaluating the cardiac safety of new drugs in clinical trials. The approach adopted in this thesis is to train a hidden Markov model (HMM) using a data set of ECG waveforms and the corresponding expert interval measurements. The trained model then serves two complementary purposes. Firstly, it enables the segmentation of test ECG signals through the use of the Viterbi algorithm. Secondly, it serves as a statistical description of ECG waveform normality. This allows the derivation of a confidence measure in the automated ECG interval values
Experimental evaluation of small intestinal submucosa as a microvascular graft material (1994)

The evaluation of porcine small intestine submucosa (SIS) in a microsurgical model was conducted using an interpositional graft in the rat femoral artery. The SIS grafts were fabricated from processed porcine material that was wrapped around a glass tube and oversewn longitudinally to produce a tubular structure. Of the 42 animals studied, 7 received grafts of untreated SIS (group I), 7 of the grafts were presoaked (PSH) in heparin (Group II), 7 animals were treated with systemic heparin prior to implantation of PSH-SIS (group III), 7 animals received SIS grafts crosslinked to heparin (group IV), 7 animals received SIS grafts crosslinked to urokinase (group V), and 7 animals received untreated autologous epigastric vein grafts (group VI). Patency was assessed postoperatively and selected grafts were evaluated by histology. All SIS grafts failed to maintain patency beyond the first postoperative hour. Histologic examination of the thrombosed graft surfaces revealed a smooth luminal surface with a thick layer of attached fibrin and platelets with a central occluding thrombus. The thickness of the induced fibrin layer appears to narrow intraluminal space significantly at the microvascular level. While having excellent success at vessel diameters greater than 3 mm, and in a variety of nonporcine animal models without xenographic rejection, SIS in this model was thrombogenic despite a favorable surface morphology as demonstrated by SEM. Even with use of heparin and urokinase SIS graft thrombosis occurred.
<title>Algorithms And Hardware Technology For Real-Time Classification And Target Detection Of Military Vehicles</title> (1981)

This paper addresses the problem of the surveillance and counter-surveillance classification of military vehicles using one-dimensional analysis of the target images. A two-dimensional image is digitized into a n by n pixel matrix which is summed along each row and column to produce a pair of n-component vectors which are invariant under image translation or rotation. The Fourier Transform of this one-dimensional image representation is analogous to the spectra which are produced by the Direct Electronic Fourier Transform (DEFT) acousto-optical real time devices. The digital pixel vector formalism simulates the DEFT device for the purpose of bandwidth extension and signal to noise improvement. Computer algorithms are presented to preprocess the image data for edge enhancement and feature extraction.. This data is further processed to extract a single number which identifies the vehicle image. Results are presented for several different types of the US Army vehicles in a number of distinct background scenarios.
Optical stimulation of neural tissue (2004)

A novel method of stimulation of the neural tissue using pulsed, low-energy laser light is presented. Optical stimulation elicits compound nerve and muscle action potentials, with resultant muscle contraction, similar to responses obtained with conventional bipolar, electrical stimulation of the nerve. IR pulsed laser in the range 3-7 /spl mu/m was explored for nerve stimulation in vivo using both frog and rat models. Our observations of conduction velocity, blocking of neuromuscular transmission and cessation of nerve conduction by severing the nerve show that optical stimulation 1) produces action potentials conducted in A-type nerve fibers, 2) results in neuromuscular transmission, and 3) is conducted within the nerve. Within the studied range, wavelengths around 4 /spl mu/m yielded the least energy required for threshold stimulation which also had higher threshold for ablation. These wavelengths correspond to a minimum in the water absorption spectrum. Threshold stimulation to produce action potentials was 0.7 J/cm/sup 2/ at 4.6 /spl mu/m. Histological study of the irradiated nerves reveal undetectable damage to the irradiated nerve. Several possible mechanisms exist by which low-energy, pulsed laser light stimulation generate action potentials. These can include, but are not limited to, microscopic photothermal effects, photomechanical micro-stress waves, or photochemical modulation of membrane channels. Regardless of the mechanisms involved, optical stimulation has the potential advantage as a precise tool for basic science studies as well as clinical diagnostics and therapeutics.