gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
<scp>DNA</scp> purification from crude samples for human identification using gradient elution isotachophoresis (2013)

Gradient elution isotachophoresis (GEITP) was demonstrated for DNA purification, concentration, and quantification from crude samples, represented here by soiled buccal swabs, with minimal sample preparation prior to human identification using STR analysis. During GEITP, an electric field applied across leading and trailing electrolyte solutions resulted in isotachophoretic focusing of DNA at the interface between these solutions, while a pressure-driven counterflow controlled the movement of the interface from the sample reservoir into a microfluidic capillary. This counterflow also prevented particulates from fouling or clogging the capillary and reduced or eliminated contamination of the delivered DNA by PCR inhibitors. On-line DNA quantification using laser-induced fluorescence compared favorably with quantitative PCR measurements and potentially eliminates the need for quantitative PCR prior to STR analysis. GEITP promises to address the need for a rapid and robust method to deliver DNA from crude samples to aid the forensic community in human identification.
Treatment outcome of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma involving the head and neck (2017)

This study was performed to analyze the treatment outcome for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) involving the head and neck and to evaluate the role of radiotherapy in the rituximab era. Fifty-six patients diagnosed with DLBCL involving the head and neck were assessed. All patients were treated with 6 cycles of rituximab, cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, vincristine, and prednisolone (R-CHOP). After chemotherapy, radiation was delivered to the head and neck area in a median dose of 36 Gy. Radiation was delivered using 3-dimensional radiotherapy (n = 25) or intensity-modulated radiotherapy (n = 31). Primary endpoints were relapse-free survival (RFS), overall survival (OS), and local control rate. After median follow-up time of 45 months, the 5-year RFS and OS rates were 72% and 61%, respectively. Fourteen (25%) of 56 patients relapsed; 1 had a local relapse, 11 had distant relapses, and 2 had both local and distant relapses. The final local control rate after radiotherapy was 94%. Age, performance status, international prognostic index score, and radiotherapy response were significant prognostic factors for both RFS and OS in the multivariate analysis. Incidence of acute grade 3 and 4 hematologic toxicity was 9% and 4%, respectively. Grade 3 nonhematologic toxicity occurred in 2 (4%) patients, and there was no grade 4 nonhematologic toxicity for the irradiated patients. Excellent local control and survival rates can be achieved with R-CHOP followed by radiotherapy in patients with DLBCL involving the head and neck. Treatment-related toxicity after the introduction of modern radiotherapy was acceptable and limited.
Clinical Use of Tissue Compliance Meter for Documentation of Soft Tissue Pathology (1987)

This article describes the tissue compliance meter (TCM), a simple handheld instrument for objective quantitative documentation of soft tissue consistency (firmness or softness). A rubber disc with 1 cm2 surface attached to a force gauge is pressed into the examined tissue. The tissue compliance is expressed in mm of depth of penetration of the rubber disc in relation to the force employed. The depth of penetration is indicated by a ring sliding on the shaft of the force gauge. TCM can be employed as part of the physical examination and can be performed in 1–2 min. The TCM can document soft tissue pathology such as tumors, scars, edema, inflammation, spasm, spasticity, rigidity, flaccidity, taut bands of myofascial trigger points, lumps, and tumors. In addition to documenting existing pathology, the TCM provides an objective and convenient method of evaluating the natural course of the condition, improvement or impairment. The immediate as well as long-term effect of therapeutic interventions including injections, medications, physical therapy, and manipulation can be documented objectively and quantitatively.
Knockout of the ASIC2 channel in mice does not impair cutaneous mechanosensation, visceral mechanonociception and hearing (2004)

Mechanosensitive cation channels are thought to be crucial for different aspects of mechanoperception, such as hearing and touch sensation. In the nematode C. elegans, the degenerins MEC-4 and MEC-10 are involved in mechanosensation and were proposed to form mechanosensitive cation channels. Mammalian degenerin homologues, the H(+)-gated ASIC channels, are expressed in sensory neurones and are therefore interesting candidates for mammalian mechanosensors. We investigated the effect of an ASIC2 gene knockout in mice on hearing and on cutaneous mechanosensation and visceral mechanonociception. However, our data do not support a role of ASIC2 in those facets of mechanoperception.
Working With Offenders (2013)

This book provides a theoretically informed guide to the practice of working with offenders in different settings and for different purposes. It deals with topics such as offender rehabilitation, case management, worker-offender relationships, working with difficult clients and situations, collaboration, addressing complex needs, and processes of integration. The book offers a unique perspective on working with offenders in that it incorporates three key elements. As part of the latter, it provides different types of data, including descriptions of programs and selected statistics from each jurisdiction, and presents this information in easy-to-read formats. The chapters are structured around a dual focus of workers and their environments on the one hand, and the nature of the offenders with whom they work on the other. The condition and situation of workers is thus considered in the context of the condition and situation of offenders, and the relationship between the two. The book is intended to be relevant and familiar to those already working in the field, as well as to introduce contemporary principles and practices to those wishing to do so in the future. Each chapter concludes with two key features. The first, Further Reading, is oriented toward concepts and the 'why' questions of practice. The second, Key Resources, alerts readers to appropriate manuals and handbooks, and the 'how' questions of practice. This includes reference to evidence-based examples of good practice and specific intervention models.
Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging using parallel transmission at 7T (2011)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2011.
Identification of human plasma cells with a lamprey monoclonal antibody (2016)

Ab-producing plasma cells (PCs) serve as key participants in countering pathogenic challenges as well as being contributors to autoimmune and malignant disorders. Thus far, only a limited number of PC-specific markers have been identified. The characterization of the unique variable lymphocyte receptor (VLR) Abs that are made by evolutionarily distant jawless vertebrates prompted us to investigate whether VLR Abs could detect novel PC antigens that have not been recognized by conventional Abs. Here, we describe a monoclonal lamprey Ab, VLRB MM3, that was raised against primary multiple myeloma cells. VLRB MM3 recognizes a unique epitope of the CD38 ectoenzyme that is present on plasmablasts and PCs from healthy individuals and on most, but not all, multiple myelomas. Binding by the VLRB MM3 Ab coincides with CD38 dimerization and NAD glycohydrolase activity. Our data demonstrate that the lamprey VLRB MM3 Ab is a unique reagent for the identification of plasmablasts and PCs, with potential applications in the diagnosis and therapeutic intervention of PC or autoimmune disorders.
Self-propelled particles that transport cargo through flowing blood and halt hemorrhage (2015)

Simple, water-reactive particles can carry enzymes upstream through aqueous solutions and into wounds to halt severe bleeding.
Thermal boundary layer limitations on the performance of micromachined microphones (2018)

This work examines the extent to which thermal boundary layer effects limit the performance of micromachined microphones. The acoustic impedance of the cavity formed by the microphone enclosure is calculated using both analytical and finite-element methods. A thermal correction to the cavity impedance is included to account for the transition of compression and expansion within the enclosure from adiabatic to isothermal when the thermal boundary layer that forms at the walls of the enclosure becomes large compared to the enclosure dimensions. The thermal correction to the cavity impedance contains a resistive term that results from thermal relaxation losses and contributes thermal-acoustic noise to the system. A lumped-element network model for the microphone response which includes the thermally corrected enclosure impedance is presented and compared to measured results for a case study device. The relative noise power contribution of each noise source considered in the model is calculated. It is shown that the noise due to the resistive term of the enclosure cavity impedance becomes significant when the enclosure volume is small. This sets a theoretical limit on the noise floor that can be achieved by a micromachined microphone with given enclosure dimensions.
Leveraging Contextual Cues for Generating Basketball Highlights (2016)

The massive growth of sports videos has resulted in a need for automatic generation of sports highlights that are comparable in quality to the hand-edited highlights produced by broadcasters such as ESPN. Unlike previous works that mostly use audio-visual cues derived from the video, we propose an approach that additionally leverages contextual cues derived from the environment that the game is being played in. The contextual cues provide information about the excitement levels in the game, which can be ranked and selected to automatically produce high-quality basketball highlights. We introduce a new dataset of 25 NCAA games along with their play-by-play stats and the ground-truth excitement data for each basket. We explore the informativeness of five different cues derived from the video and from the environment through user studies. Our experiments show that for our study participants, the highlights produced by our system are comparable to the ones produced by ESPN for the same games.
Automating GDPR Compliance using Policy Integrated Blockchain (2020)

Data Protection regulations, like GDPR, mandate security controls to secure Personal Identifiable Information (PII) of the users which they share with service providers. With the volume of shared data reaching exascale proportions, it is challenging to ensure GDPR compliance in real time. We propose a novel approach that integrates GDPR Ontology with Blockchain to facilitate real time automated data compliance. Our framework ensures data operation is allowed only when validated by data privacy policies in compliance with privacy rules in GDPR. When a valid transaction takes place the PII data is automatically stored off-chain in a database. Our system, built using Semantic Web and Ethereum Blockchain, includes an access-control system that enforces data privacy policy when data is shared with third parties.
High-quality Prussian blue crystals as superior cathode materials for room-temperature sodium-ion batteries (2014)

High-quality Prussian blue crystals with a small number of vacancies and a low water content show high specific capacity and remarkable cycle stability as cathode materials for Na-ion batteries.
OS-level power minimization under tight performance constraints in general purpose systems (2011)

We propose a new DVFS algorithm for enterprise systems that elevates performance as a first order control parameter and manages frequency and voltage as a function of performance requirements. We implement our algorithm on real Intel Westmere platform in Linux and demonstrate its ability to reduce the standard deviation from target performance by more than 90% over state of the art policies while reducing average power by 17%.
Proposal of analysis method focusing on nonlinear dynamics of human EEG with chaos (2018)

Electroencephalogram (EEG) which has a chaotic fluctuation is difficult to analyze. However, quantitative analysis is sufficiently possible since EEG behavior is deterministic dynamics. Our method identifies EEG model parameters experimentally in consideration of chaotic dynamics of EEG. The purpose of this study is to examine the specific characteristics of model parameters. Validation of the method and investigation of characteristics of model parameters were conducted based on alpha frequency EEG data in the relax state and stress state. The results of the parameter identification with the time sliding window for 1 second, the nonlinear mathematical model is shown to produce outputs that can closely match the complicated experimental EEG data. Further, the results showed that the existence of nonlinear term in the EEG analysis is important and the linearity parameter shows a certain tendency as the nonlinearity increases. Furthermore, the activities of EEG become linear on the mathematical model when suddenly changing from the relax state to the stress state. Therefore, it is the effective analysis method that can calculate the degree of concentrate from the dynamics of EEG signal directly. The results suggest that our method may provide useful information in various field including the quantification of human mental or psychological state, diagnosis of brain disease such as epilepsy and design of brain machine interface.
Incorporation of Oxygen Donors in AlGaN (2004)

The chemistry of oxygen atoms at the surface of an AlGaN layer for Al0.35Ga0.65N/GaN heterostructures was investigated by scanning photoemission microscopy (SPEM) using synchrotron radiation. SPEM imaging and space-resolved photoemission spectroscopy showed that the oxygen atoms were preferentially incorporated into AlGaN rather than GaN due to the high reactivity of Al with oxygen. In situ annealing at 1000 degreesC could lead to the outdiffusion of oxygen impurities from the bulk AlGaN, resulting in a significant increase in the intensity of Al-O bonds at the AlGaN surface. Therefore, it is suggested that the unintentional doping of oxygen impurities in AlGaN could yield a heavily doped n-type AlGaN layer, resulting in a drastic reduction in effective Schottky barrier heights of metal contacts on AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. (C) 2004 The Electrochemical Society.
Effect of the neuropeptide substance P on the rat bone marrow-derived osteogenic cells in vitro (2001)

Substance P containing, thin, sensory nerve fibres have been demonstrated in bone and bone marrow. However the role of substance P in bone tissue is not fully understood. We investigated the effects of substance P on the growth and development of rat bone marrow-derived osteogenic cells in vitro. To examine this, the marrow-derived osteogenic cells were treated from 3rd to 6th day of subculture with substance P at concentrations 10(-10), 10(-9) and 10(-8)M. [(3)H]-thymidine, L-2,3-[(3)H]-proline incorporation, protein accumulation, alkaline phosphatase activity, and calcium deposition were measured in cultures. Substance P slightly stimulated [(3)H]-thymidine incorporation at 10(-10) M. Protein accumulation and L-2,3-[(3)H]-proline incorporation were enhanced in a dose dependent manner. Simultaneous application of spantide, a substance P receptor antagonist, could not block substance P-induced L-2,3-[(3)H]-proline incorporation probably because of statistically significant effect of spantide itself. Calcium deposits were significantly lower (about 30%) in cultures treated with SP. This effect was probably due in part by the fall in alkaline phosphatase activity which in substance P treated cultures was decreased about 17%. Our results indicate that substance P could be one of the factors modulating bone metabolism.
Investigation of thiol‐ene addition reaction on poly(isoprene) under UV irradiation: Synthesis of graft copolymers with “V”‐shaped side chains (2010)

Abstract Poly(isoprene) (PI) with pendant functional groups was successfully synthesized by thiol‐ene addition reaction under 365 nm UV irradiation, and the functionalized PI was further modified and used to prepare graft copolymers with “V”‐shaped side chains. First, the pendant SCH 2 CH(OH)CH 2 OH groups were introduced to PI by thiol‐ene addition reaction between 1‐thioglycerol and double bonds, and the results showed that the addition reaction carried out only on double bonds of 1,2‐addition isoprene units. After the esterification of hydroxyl groups by 2‐bromoisobutyryl bromide, the forming macroinitiator was used to initiate the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of styrene (St) and tert ‐butyl acrylate ( t BA), and the graft copolymers PI‐ g ‐PS 2 and PI‐ g ‐P t BA 2 or PI‐ g ‐PAA 2 (by hydrolysis of PI‐ g ‐P t BA 2 ) were obtained, respectively. It was confirmed that the graft density of side chains on PI main chains could be easily controlled by variation of the contents of modified 1,2‐addition isoprene units on PI. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 3797–3806, 2010
Addressing Function Approximation Error in Actor-Critic Methods (2018)

In value-based reinforcement learning methods such as deep Q-learning, function approximation errors are known to lead to overestimated value estimates and suboptimal policies. We show that this problem persists in an actor-critic setting and propose novel mechanisms to minimize its effects on both the actor and the critic. Our algorithm builds on Double Q-learning, by taking the minimum value between a pair of critics to limit overestimation. We draw the connection between target networks and overestimation bias, and suggest delaying policy updates to reduce per-update error and further improve performance. We evaluate our method on the suite of OpenAI gym tasks, outperforming the state of the art in every environment tested.
Protruding organic surfaces triggered by in-plane electric fields (2017)

Coatings with a dynamic surface topography are of interest for applications in haptics, soft robotics, cell growth in biology, hydro- and air dynamics and tribology. Here we propose a design for creating oscillating surface topographies in thin liquid crystal polymer network coatings under an electric field. By applying an alternating electric field, the coating surface deforms, and pre-designed local corrugations appear. The continuous AC electric field further initiates oscillations superimposed on the formed topographies. This effect is based on microscopic free volume creation. By exciting the liquid crystal network at its resonance frequency, maximum free volume is generated and large surface topographies are formed. Molecular simulation is used to examine this behaviour in microscopic detail as a function of oscillation frequency. Surface topography formation is fast and reversible. Excess free volume is energetically unfavourable, thus the surface topographies disappear within seconds once the electric field is removed.
High-Yield Synthesis of Large Single-Crystalline Gold Nanoplates through a Polyamine Process (2005)

A polyamine process has been demonstrated for the high-yield preparation of single-crystalline gold nanoplates with several 10 microm in size, carried out by heating a concentrated aqueous solution of linear polyethylenimine and HAuCl4 at 100 degrees C. It suggests that the concentration of reactants is crucial to the formation of nanoplates.
p53- and PAI-1-mediated induction of C-X-C chemokines and CXCR2: importance in pulmonary inflammation due to cigarette smoke exposure (2016)

We previously demonstrated that tumor suppressor protein p53 augments plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) expression in alveolar epithelial cells (AECs) during chronic cigarette smoke (CS) exposure-induced lung injury. Chronic lung inflammation with elevated p53 and PAI-1 expression in AECs and increased susceptibility to and exacerbation of respiratory infections are all associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We recently demonstrated that preventing p53 from binding to the endogenous PAI-1 mRNA in AECs by either suppressing p53 expression or blockading p53 interactions with the PAI-1 mRNA mitigates apoptosis and lung injury. Within this context, we now show increased expression of the C-X-C chemokines (CXCL1 and CXCL2) and their receptor CXCR2, and the intercellular cellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), in the lung tissues of patients with COPD. We also found a similar increase in lung tissues and AECs from wild-type (WT) mice exposed to passive CS for 20 wk and in primary AECs treated with CS extract in vitro. Interestingly, passive CS exposure of mice lacking either p53 or PAI-1 expression resisted an increase in CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCR2, and ICAM-1. Furthermore, inhibition of p53-mediated induction of PAI-1 expression by treatment of WT mice exposed to passive CS with caveolin-1 scaffolding domain peptide reduced CXCL1, CXCL2, and CXCR2 levels and lung inflammation. Our study reveals that p53-mediated induction of PAI-1 expression due to chronic CS exposure exacerbates lung inflammation through elaboration of CXCL1, CXCL2, and CXCR2. We further provide evidence that targeting this pathway mitigates lung injury associated with chronic CS exposure.
Image analysis by local 2-D spectral signatures (1985)

No summary was available at press time.
Differential Expression of Cytokine Genes in Fibroblasts Derived from Skin Biopsies of Patients who Developed Minimal or Severe Normal Tissue Damage after Radiotherapy (2002)

Curative radiotherapy for cancer patients requires the use of radiation doses that are limited by the tolerance of the surrounding normal tissues. Unfortunately, these tolerance doses vary not only between tissues but also between individuals. In a small proportion of sensitive patients, exposure to radiation can lead to severe irreversible morbidity and even death several months to years after treatment. At present these radiosensitive patients can be identified only retrospectively. Here we describe a cytokine microarray technique that was used to identify differentially expressed gene transcripts in fibroblasts obtained from a small group of patients who suffered either negligible or severe normal damage to tissues after radiotherapy. If our preliminary findings can be confirmed, the availability of such markers may eventually allow the prediction of outcome prior to commencement of radiotherapy, and thus allow modification of radiotherapy protocols to minimize adverse late effects, without compromising tumor control.