gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Dendritic cells as a pharmacological target of traditional Chinese medicine. (2006)

Dendritic cells (DCs) represent a heterogeneous population of professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) that play a central role in the initiation and regulation of immune responses. There is considerable evidence that DCs can be used as therapeutic targets for pharmacological modulation of immune responses. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long-standing history of using herbal medicine in the treatment of variety of human diseases. Many of the clinical effects of TCM have reportedly been attributed to the up- or down-regulation of immune responses. Accumulating evidence indicates that TCM and its components can interfere with immune responses at the earliest stage by targeting key functions of DCs. Here, we review those published studies of TCM with respect to their effects on immunobiological functions of DCs. Investigations based on both chemical entities derived from TCM as well as TCM herbal mixtures are presented. These studies suggest that various TCM herbal medicines have the capacity to inhibit or promote major functions of DCs, such as differentiation, maturation, cytokine production, survival, antigen uptake and presentation as well as trafficking. These studies have revealed novel biological effects of TCM and documented the utility of this approach to discover novel biological modifier of DC functions derived from natural sources.
ChemInform Abstract: SYNTHESIS AND CARBON‐13 NMR CHARACTERIZATION OF SOME Π‐EXCESSIVE HETEROPOLYAROMATIC COMPOUNDS (1985)

Abstract Die Darstellung der Bisarylverbindungen (III) bzw. (V) und der Terarylverbindungen (VII) und (VIII), die über n‐Elektronenüberschuß verfügen, wird beschrieben.
Speech recognizer-based microphone array processing for robust hands-free speech recognition (2002)

We present a new array processing algorithm for microphone array speech recognition. Conventionally, the goal of array processing is to take distorted signals captured by the array and generate a cleaner output waveform. However, speech recognition systems operate on a set of features derived from the waveform, rather than the waveform itself. The goal of an array processor used in conjunction with a recognition system is to generate a waveform which produces a set of recognition features which maximize die likelihood for the words that are spoken, rather than to minimize the waveform distortion. We propose a new array processing algorithm which maximizes the likelihood of the recognition features. This is accomplished through the use of a new objective function which utilizes information from the recognition system itself, obtained in an unsupervised manner, to optimize the parameters of a filter-and-sum array processor. Using the proposed method, improvements in word error rate of up to 36% over conventional methods are achieved on real microphone array tasks in a wide range of environments.
Obesity management in Prader&ndash;Willi syndrome: current perspectives (2018)

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a complex multisystem disorder due to the absent expression of the paternally active genes in the PWS critical region on chromosome 15 (15q11.2-q13). The syndrome is considered the most common genetic cause of obesity, occurring in 1:10,000-1:30,000 live births. Its main characteristics include neonatal hypotonia, poor feeding, and lack of appetite in infancy, followed by weight gain, lack of satiety, and uncontrolled appetite, frequently after the age of 2-3 years. The clinical picture includes short stature, multiple endocrine abnormalities (hypogonadism, growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis dysfunction, hypothyroidism, central adrenal insufficiency), dysmorphic features, scoliosis, osteoporosis, mental retardation, and behavioral and psychiatric problems. Subjects with PWS will become severely obese unless their food intake is strictly controlled. Constant and obsessive food seeking behavior can make life very difficult for both the family and caretakers. Prevention of obesity is mandatory in these patients from the first years of life, because once obesity develops it is difficult to maintain the control of food intake. In fact, PWS subjects die prematurely from complications conventionally related to obesity, including diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, sleep apnea, respiratory insufficiency, and cardiovascular disease. The mechanisms underlying hyperphagia in PWS are not completely known, and to date no drugs have proven their efficacy in controlling appetite. Consequently, dietary restriction, physical activity, and behavior management are fundamental in the prevention and management of obesity in PWS. In spite of all available therapeutic tools, however, successful weight loss and maintenance are hardly accomplished. In this context, clinical trials with new drugs have been initiated in order to find new possibilities of a therapy for obesity in these patients. The preliminary results of these studies seem to be encouraging. On the other hand, until well-proven medical treatments are available, bariatric surgery can be taken into consideration, especially in PWS patients with life-threatening comorbidities.
2-Hydroxypropyl-β-Cyclodextrin Aggregates: Identification and Development of Analytical Techniques (2018)

It is extremely important for pharmaceutical formulators to have analytical methodology that provides efficient detection and quantification of HPβCD aggregates. Five different methods were then evaluated for their potential to detect these aggregates and to determine critical aggregation concentration (cac): osmometry, viscometry, tensiometry, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and permeability studies. Overall, tensiometry was an inadequate method with which to study HPβCD aggregation, since the addition of HPβCD to water resulted in only minor changes in surface tension. Osmolality and viscosity studies have shown that for HPβCD, solute⁻solvent interactions are the main contributors for the observed deviation from ideality. These deviations might be related to the presence of aggregates. The DLS method proved to be an effective method with which to detect HPβCD aggregates and estimate their hydrodynamic diameter, although it presented some limitations concerning their quantification. In terms of the assessed methods, permeation studies were shown to be the best to study HPβCD aggregation phenomena, since they were the only method where the detection of aggregates and the determination of apparent cac values was possible. Also, it was the least invasive for the HPβCD samples and the method that provided more conclusive data. Results suggested that HPβCD, as expected, has less tendency to form aggregates than βCD.
Frequency allocation in non-coherent joint transmission CoMP networks (2014)

In this paper, we study the problem of joint transmission (JT) in coordinated multipoint (CoMP) networks from a new point of view where the system performance is optimized via frequency allocation for 5G small cells. Moreover, we investigate the implementation of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), as an efficient scheme facing the feedback load problem in CoMP setups. The results are obtained for the cases with slow and fast fading conditions. Considering the channel state information (CSI) only at the receiver, we show that at low and medium signal to noise ratios (SNRs) sharing the frequency resources between users outperforms the case when the frequency resources are dedicated under non-coherent JT-CoMP setting. We find that the maximum long term throughput is achieved by either sharing the entire frequency resources between the users or allocating each user in a disjoint dedicated frequency resource. These extreme cases show the best performance in the SNR region of interest. Finally, as demonstrated analytically and numerically, HARQ feedback increases the long term throughput and reduces the outage probability substantially, with an affordable average delay.
Impaired survival and proliferation in IL-7 receptor-deficient peripheral T cells (1996)

Mice genetically deficient in IL-7R(alpha) are highly lymphopenic in the peripheral lymphoid organs. The functional competence of T cells that have developed in the absence of an IL-7R signal was investigated. Three important observations were made using several in vitro activation regimens. First, stimulation of T cells from IL-7R -/- mice at limiting dilution with immobilized Abs to CD3, CD4 or CD8, and CD18 revealed a six- to sevenfold reduction in the frequency of clonogenic T cells compared with T cells from IL-7R +/+ mice. IL-7R -/- T cells were also significantly less responsive to alloantigen as well as to receptor-independent stimuli such as PMA and ionomycin. Furthermore, the average clone size of single IL-7R -/- T cells was 50% smaller than that of IL-7R +/+ T cells. These data suggest that the reduced clonogenicity was predominantly due to intrinsic deficiencies in the ability of IL-7R -/- T cells to proliferate upon stimulation. Second, analysis of the kinetics of cell growth of IL-7R -/- T cells revealed that a significant proportion of T cells failed to proliferate within the first 72 h of in vitro stimulation, with the majority undergoing programmed cell death. Third, both clonogenic IL-7 -/- T cells and IL-7R +/+ T cells showed a similar proliferative response in the presence of IL-2 and similar survival kinetics, indicating that a subpopulation of IL-7R -/- T cells is functionally mature. We propose that an absence of IL-7R signaling not only affects T cell development in the thymus, but also results in the accumulation of functionally inactive T cells in the periphery.
Explicit exception handling variability in component-based product line architectures (2008)

Separation of concerns is one of the overarching goals of exception handling in order to keep separate normal and exceptional behaviour of a software system. In the context of a software product line (SPL), this separation of concerns is also important for designing software variabilities related to different exception handling strategies, such as the choice of different handlers depending on the set of selected features. This paper presents a method for refactoring object-oriented product line architecture in order to separate explicitly their normal and exceptional behaviour into different software components. The new component-based software architecture includes variation points related to different choices of exception handlers that can be selected during product instantiations, thus facilitating the evolution of the exceptional behaviour. The feasibility of the proposed approach is assessed through a SPL of mobile applications.
Cellular and molecular basis for the regulation of inflammation by TGF-  (2010)

Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) has been shown to play an essential role in the suppression of inflammation, yet recent studies have revealed the positive roles of TGF-beta in inflammatory responses. For example, TGF-beta induces Foxp3-positive regulatory T cells (iTregs) in the presence of interleukin-2 (IL-2), while in the presence of IL-6, it induces pathogenic IL-17 producing Th17 cells. TGF-beta inhibits the proliferation of immune cells as well as cytokine production via Foxp3-dependent and -independent mechanisms. Little is known about molecular mechanisms involved in immune suppression via TGF-beta; however, Smad2/3 have been shown to play essential roles in Foxp3 induction as well as in IL-2 and IFN-gamma suppression, whereas Th17 differentiation is promoted via the Smad-independent pathway. Interaction between TGF-beta and other cytokine signaling is important in establishing the balance of immunity and tolerance.
Lightweight authentication of linear algebraic queries on data streams (2013)

We consider a stream outsourcing setting, where a data owner delegates the management of a set of disjoint data streams to an untrusted server. The owner authenticates his streams via signatures. The server processes continuous queries on the union of the streams for clients trusted by the owner. Along with the results, the server sends proofs of result correctness derived from the owner's signatures, which are easily verifiable by the clients. We design novel constructions for a collection of fundamental problems over streams represented as linear algebraic queries. In particular, our basic schemes authenticate dynamic vector sums and dot products, as well as dynamic matrix products. These techniques can be adapted for authenticating a wide range of important operations in streaming environments, including group by queries, joins, in-network aggregation, similarity matching, and event processing. All our schemes are very lightweight, and offer strong cryptographic guarantees derived from formal definitions and proofs. We experimentally confirm the practicality of our schemes.
Development and test of tunable mechanical monolithic horizontal accelerometer for low frequency seismic noise measurement (2008)

This thesis describes a mechanical horizontal monolithic sensor for geophysical applications. The instrument is basically a monolithic tunable folded pendulum, shaped with precision machining and electric-discharge-machining, that can be used both as seismometer and, in a force-feedback configuration, as accelerometer. It is a very compact instrument, very sensitive in the low-frequency seismic noise band, with a very good immunity to environmental noises, whose main characteristics are the tunability of the resonance frequency and the integrated laser optical readout, consisting of an optical lever and an interferometer. The theoretical sensitivity curves are in a very good agreement with the measurements. A direct comparison of its performances with the STS-2 ones shows that better performances have been reached with the interferometric readout, about 10e-12 m/sqrt(Hz) in the band [0.01,10] Hz as seismometer. The first results as accelerometer (force feed-back configuration) are also presented and discussed.
Uptake by cells of nucleic acids promoted by compounds sharing the pleiotropic effects of poly(ethylene glycol) (1986)

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is a member of a group of membrane active compounds that have pleiotropic effects on cells, eg, promotion of cell fusion, induction of erythroleukemia cell differentiation, and protection of cells from freezing damage. Since PEG has recently been shown to be an efficient promoter of genetic transformation in bacteria, yeast, and mammalian cells, studies were carried out to determine whether other PEG-related compounds could also promote genetic transformation. In this study, 24 compounds, which behave like PEG in other biological systems, are shown to promote transfection of human cells with isolated poliovirus RNA. That PEG and other commercially important compounds promote transfection indicates that such compounds may represent a biohazard to man.
Restoration of APC gene function in colorectal cancer cells by aminoglycoside- and macrolide-induced read-through of premature termination codons (2009)

Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) is a multifunctional tumour suppressor protein that negatively regulates the Wnt signalling pathway. The APC gene is ubiquitously expressed in tissues and organs, including the large intestine and central nervous system. The majority of patients with sporadic and hereditary colorectal cancer have mutations in the gene encoding APC. Approximately 30% of these mutations are single nucleotide changes that result in premature stop codons (nonsense mutations). A potential therapeutic approach for treatment of this subset of patients is the use of aminoglycosides and macrolides that induce nonsense mutation read-through and restore levels of full-length protein. We have used reporter plasmids and colorectal cancer cell lines to demonstrate that several aminoglycosides and tylosin, a member of the macrolide family, induced read-through of nonsense mutations in the APC gene. In xenograft experiments and in the Apc(Min/+) mouse model, these compounds ameliorated the tumorigenic clinical symptoms caused by nonsense mutations in the APC gene.
Cell cultures vs. whole plants for measuring phytotoxicity II. Correlations between phytotoxicity in seedlings and calli (1977)

The effects of a broad range of compounds were assessed using both seedlings and callus cultures of five species. An experimentally justified ranking procedure was used to facilitate the comparison of the inhibitory characteristics at multiple concentrations. When the effects on seedlings of Lycopersicon esculentum, Solanum nigrum, Chrysanthemum segetum and Cirsium arvense were compared to those on white calli of the same species, some positive correlations were obtained; photosynthesis inhibitors affected seedlings much more than calli and some compounds affected calli much more than seedlings. Better correlations were obtained between the effects on Rumex obtusifolius seedlings and on green Rumex calli; the only exceptions being those compounds affecting mainly the calli. Thus callus cultures, especially green ones, have a potential for use to assess possible phytotoxicity as well as to detect potential toxicity of compounds not penetrating into or being translocated in whole plants.
Making Activity Recognition Robust against Deceptive Behavior (2015)

Healthcare services increasingly use the activity recognition technology to track the daily activities of individuals. In some cases, this is used to provide incentives. For example, some health insurance companies offer discount to customers who are physically active, based on the data collected from their activity tracking devices. Therefore, there is an increasing motivation for individuals to cheat, by making activity trackers detect activities that increase their benefits rather than the ones they actually do. In this study, we used a novel method to make activity recognition robust against deceptive behavior. We asked 14 subjects to attempt to trick our smartphone-based activity classifier by making it detect an activity other than the one they actually performed, for example by shaking the phone while seated to make the classifier detect walking. If they succeeded, we used their motion data to retrain the classifier, and asked them to try to trick it again. The experiment ended when subjects could no longer cheat. We found that some subjects were not able to trick the classifier at all, while others required five rounds of retraining. While classifiers trained on normal activity data predicted true activity with ~38% accuracy, training on the data gathered during the deceptive behavior increased their accuracy to ~84%. We conclude that learning the deceptive behavior of one individual helps to detect the deceptive behavior of others. Thus, we can make current activity recognition robust to deception by including deceptive activity data from a few individuals.
All-Digital PLL with Ultra Fast Acquisition (2005)

A fully-digital frequency synthesizer for RF wireless applications has recently been proposed. At its foundation lies a digitally-controlled oscillator that deliberately avoids any analog tuning controls. The conventional phase/frequency detector, charge pump and RC loop filter are replaced by a time-to-digital converter and a simple digital loop filter. When implemented in a digital deep-submicron CMOS process, the proposed architecture is more advantageous over conventional charge-pump-based PLL's since it exploits signal processing capabilities of digital circuits and avoids relying on the fine voltage resolution of analog circuits. In this paper, we present novel techniques used in the all-digital PLL to achieve an ultra-fast frequency acquisition of les50 mus while maintaining excellent phase noise and spurious performance during transmission and reception. This approach has been validated and incorporated in a commercial single-chip Bluetooth radio realized in 130-nm CMOS
N-Linked Glycosylation at an Appropriate Position in the Pre-S2 Domain Is Critical for Cellular and Humoral Immunity against Middle HBV Surface Antigen (2015)

Infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) remains a worldwide health problem, and DNA-based vaccines against HBV have been tested for therapeutic applications. HBV possesses three envelope lipoproteins that are translated from a single reading-frame: large, middle, and small HBV surface antigens. Among these envelope proteins, the middle HBV surface antigen (MHBs) contains a constitutive N-linked glycosylation site at position 4 (Asn4) in the amino-terminal portion (MQWNSTTFHQ) of pre-S2 domain. Asn4 (shown in bold) is essential for secretion of viral particles and conserved among all serotypes of HBV, but its influence on the immunogenicity of MHBs remains unknown. Here, we constructed four MHBs genes carrying mutations, underlined, in the amino-terminal portion of pre-S2 domain. One mutant protein contains Q at position 4 (MQWQSTTFHQ). In addition, each of three mutant MHBs proteins contains a N-linked glycosylation site (N-X-S/T), relocated to position 5 (MQWQNTTFHQ), 6 (MQWQSNTSHQ) or 7 (MQWQSTNFTQ) in pre-S2 domain. The expression and immunogenic properties of mutant DNA vaccines were examined in 293T human renal epithelial cells and in BALB/c mice, respectively. We showed that Asn4 was critical for secretion and immunogenicity of MHBs. Moreover, the MHBs protein that carries a N-linked glycosylation site at position 5 or 7 retained the properties similar to wild-type MHBs. In contrast, the secretion-defective mutant protein carrying Asn at position 6 induced only marginal humoral and cellular immune responses in mice, despite the N-linked glycosylation. In conclusion, N-linked glycosylation at an appropriate position in pre-S2 domain is an essential requirement for DNA vaccine expressing MHBs.
Influence of substitutional metallic impurities on the performances of p-type crystalline silicon solar cells: The case of gold (2006)

The influence of a gold bulk contamination on the performances of boron doped p-type crystalline silicon solar cells is investigated for different base doping levels and different kinds of materials, such as float zone Si, Czochralski Si, and multicrystalline Si. Solar cells are made from intentionally contaminated silicon wafers. By monitoring the evolution of the electrically active substitutional gold concentration by means of bulk lifetime and minority carrier diffusion length measurements, this paper highlights the eventual gettering or hydrogenation effects occurring throughout the whole process but also of the danger of such an impurity in materials containing large densities of extended defects generating recombination centers by means of the impurity-defect interaction.
Potential of breath and skin analysis for monitoring blood glucose concentration in diabetes (2011)

The ability to monitor blood glucose noninvasively has long been a goal of those with diabetes, due to the pain and inconvenience of current blood glucose monitoring devices. This article investigates the potential for monitoring compounds in breath and emitted through skin for inferring blood glucose concentration. Potential markers and an assessment of their suitability for noninvasive monitoring are discussed. The varying technologies developed for monitoring volatile organic compounds in breath and from the skin of diabetics and their suitability for development as a hand-held device is reviewed. The potential exists for the use of breath and skin monitoring as an alternative to blood glucose, but it may take years to collect sufficient clinical data for robust correlations to be possible.