gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Zero-Shot Image Classification Using Coupled Dictionary Embedding (2019)

Zero-shot learning (ZSL) is a framework to classify images belonging to unseen classes based on solely semantic information about these unseen classes. In this paper, we propose a new ZSL algorithm using coupled dictionary learning. The core idea is that the visual features and the semantic attributes of an image can share the same sparse representation in an intermediate space. We use images from seen classes and semantic attributes from seen and unseen classes to learn two dictionaries that can represent sparsely the visual and semantic feature vectors of an image. In the ZSL testing stage and in the absence of labeled data, images from unseen classes can be mapped into the attribute space by finding the joint sparse representation using solely the visual data. The image is then classified in the attribute space given semantic descriptions of unseen classes. We also provide an attribute-aware formulation to tackle domain shift and hubness problems in ZSL. Extensive experiments are provided to demonstrate the superior performance of our approach against the state of the art ZSL algorithms on benchmark ZSL datasets.
Therapeutic antibody targeting microtubule-binding domain prevents neuronal internalization of extracellular tau via masking neuron surface proteoglycans (2019)

Pathologically altered tau protein is a common denominator of neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other tauopathies. Therefore, promising immunotherapeutic approaches target and eliminate extracellular pathogenic tau species, which are thought to be responsible for seeding and propagation of tau pathology. Tau isoforms in misfolded states can propagate disease pathology in a template-dependent manner, proposed to be mediated by the release and internalization of extracellular tau. Monoclonal antibody DC8E8, binding four highly homologous and independent epitopes in microtubule-binding domain (MTBD) of diseased tau, inhibits tau-tau interaction, discriminates between healthy and pathologically truncated tau and reduces tau pathology in animal model in vivo. Here, we show that DC8E8 antibody acts via extracellular mechanism and does not influence viability and physiological functions of neurons. Importantly, in vitro functional assays showed that DC8E8 recognises pathogenic tau proteins of different size and origin, and potently blocks their entry into neurons. Next, we examined the mechanisms by which mouse antibody DC8E8 and its humanized version AX004 effectively block the neuronal internalization of extracellular AD tau species. We determined a novel mode of action of a therapeutic candidate antibody, which potently inhibits neuronal internalization of AD tau species by masking of epitopes present in MTBD important for interaction with neuron surface Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans (HSPGs). We show that interference of tau-heparane sulfate interaction with DC8E8 antibody via steric hindrance represents an efficient and important therapeutic approach halting tau propagation.
Autoantibodies against thrombospondin type 1 domain–containing 7A induce membranous nephropathy (2016)

Membranous nephropathy (MN) is the most common cause of nephrotic syndrome in adults, and one-third of patients develop end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Circulating autoantibodies against the podocyte surface antigens phospholipase A2 receptor 1 (PLA2R1) and the recently identified thrombospondin type 1 domain-containing 7A (THSD7A) are assumed to cause the disease in the majority of patients. The pathogenicity of these antibodies, however, has not been directly proven. Here, we have reported the analysis and characterization of a male patient with THSD7A-associated MN who progressed to ESRD and subsequently underwent renal transplantation. MN rapidly recurred after transplantation. Enhanced staining for THSD7A was observed in the kidney allograft, and detectable anti-THSD7A antibodies were present in the serum before and after transplantation, suggesting that these antibodies induced a recurrence of MN in the renal transplant. In contrast to PLA2R1, THSD7A was expressed on both human and murine podocytes, enabling the evaluation of whether anti-THSD7A antibodies cause MN in mice. We demonstrated that human anti-THSD7A antibodies specifically bind to murine THSD7A on podocyte foot processes, induce proteinuria, and initiate a histopathological pattern that is typical of MN. Furthermore, anti-THSD7A antibodies induced marked cytoskeletal rearrangement in primary murine glomerular epithelial cells as well as in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. Our findings support a causative role of anti-THSD7A antibodies in the development of MN.
The Effects of Composition and Annealing on the Stability of Columbium (Niobium)- Treated Low-Carbon Steels Conditions (1972)

R. E. HOOK and J. A. ELIAS The effects of composition and annealing conditions on the yielding behavior of vacuum melted, columbium(niobiu m)-treated, low-carbon steels were investigated. Additions of columbium were found to result in stabilization, i.e. freedom from inhomogeneous yielding or Liider's strain in the as-recrystallize d condition. Stabilization is accounted for by considering the role of columbium as a carbide former, thereby reducing the carbon content in solution to a very low level. The nitrogen present is preferentially removed from solid solution by the formation of A1N. The results were used to estimate the solubility product of columbium carbide in ferrite. The amount of columbium required to provide stability is a function of total carbon content and annealing temperature.
Phase 2 clinical trial of VAL-083 as first-line treatment in newly-diagnosed MGMT-unmethylated glioblastoma multiforme (GBM): Halfway report (2019)

<b>Background and Aim:</b> Approximately 60% of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients possess an unmethylated O-6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (<i>MGMT</i>) gene, which confers a limited response to standard-of-care treatment with temozolomide (TMZ), resulting in a lower survival. Dianhydrogalactitol (VAL-083) is a novel bi-functional DNA-targeting agent that induces interstrand cross-links at N7-guanine, leading to DNA double-strand breaks and ultimately cell death. VAL-083 circumvents <i>MGMT</i>-mediated repair of the O6 guanine alkylator TMZ. A Phase 2 study has been initiated for VAL-083 in newly diagnosed MGMT unmethylated GBM. <b>Subjects and Methods:</b> The study has two parts: part 1 is a dose–escalation and induction format to enroll up to ten patients in which they received VAL-083 at 20, 30, or 40 mg/m<sup>2</sup> per day for 3 days every 21 days concurrently with standard radiation treatment and VAL-083 for up to eight additional cycles. Part 2 comprises an expansion phase to enroll up to twenty additional patients. This study was performed with approval by the Institutional Review Board of Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (B2016-058-01) on January 13, 2017, and registered with the ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03050736) on February 13, 2017. <b>Results:</b> After completion of dose escalation, VAL-083, 30 mg/m<sup>2</sup> per day, in combination with radiation therapy, was generally safe and well tolerated. At the cutoff date, 23 patients had been enrolled, 14 of whom had been treated in the expansion phase. Consistent with prior studies, myelosuppression was the most common adverse event. Pharmacokinetic assessment indicated that the levels of VAL-083 were as high in the cerebrospinal fluid as in plasma, 2 h postinfusion. Of the 22 patients who had reached their four precycle magnetic resonance imaging assessments, 12 were assessed with disease progression, with a median progression-free survival of 9.9 (95% confidence interval 7.3–12.0) months for all the patients studied. <b>Conclusion:</b> These preliminary data support VAL-083 as a potentially valuable treatment option for newly diagnosed GBM.<br>
Improving the indoor sound quality by using cymatic shapes (2013)

Acoustic diffusers are important components in enhancing the quality of room acoustics. This paper investigates a new type of 2D diffusers obtained by the Cymatics phenomena. Cymatics is the study of sound and vibration made visible, typically on the surface of a plate, diaphragm, or membrane. Four shapes of the diffusers were designed by the Cymatic shapes and modeled by using a quadratic residue sequence. The polar response of the diffusers was measured using DIRAC software. Polar response results were generally consistent with expectations. This type of diffusers can generate a uniform polar response over the frequency range we are interested in (400–4000 Hz). It is found that this type of acoustic diffusers can be used to maintain the acoustic energy in a room and at the same time can treat unwanted echoes and reflections by scattering sound waves in many directions.
Quantitative analysis of transmural gradients in myocardial perfusion magnetic resonance images (2011)

Conventional quantitative assessments of myocardial perfusion analyze the temporal relation between the arterial input function and the myocardial signal intensity curves, thereby neglecting the important spatial relation between the myocardial signal intensity curves. The new method presented in this article enables characterization of sub-endocardial to sub-epicardial gradients in myocardial perfusion based on a two dimensional, "gradientogram" representation, which displays the evolution of the transmural gradient in myocardial contrast uptake over time in all circumferential positions of the acquired images. Moreover, based on segmentation in these gradientograms, several new measurements that characterize transmural myocardial perfusion distribution over time are defined. In application to clinical image data, the new two-dimensional representations, as well as the newly defined measurements revealed a clear distinction between normal perfusion and inducible ischaemia. Thus, the new measurements may serve as diagnostic markers for the detection and characterization of epicardial coronary and microvascular disease.
Rapid and Quiet Drill (2007)

This describes aspects of the rapid and quiet drill (RAQD), which is a prototype apparatus for drilling concrete or bricks. The design and basic principle of operation of the RAQD overlap, in several respects, with those of ultrasonic/ sonic drilling and coring apparatuses described in a number of previous NASA Tech Briefs articles. The main difference is that whereas the actuation scheme of the prior apparatuses is partly ultrasonic and partly sonic, the actuation scheme of the RAQD is purely ultrasonic. Hence, even though the RAQD generates considerable sound, it is characterized as quiet because most or all of the sound is above the frequency range of human hearing.
Auth-Lite: Lightweight M2MAuthentication reinforcing DTLS for CoAP (2014)

The resource constrained characteristic of M2M systems has made secure channel establishment for sensor data communication a challenging task. While the proposed Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) from Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) enables lightweight application layer for sensor devices and gateways, lightweight security protocol on DTLS-secured CoAP (CoAPs) is still not optimally achieved. CoAPs proposes different modes of security starting from pre-shared key to certificate mode. This paper investigates the performance of the payload embedded novel authentication and key management mechanism proposed by the authors, which is robust in nature, compared to pre-shared key mode CoAPs, as well as lightweight. The proposed scheme can be integrated in future with pre-shared key mode of DTLS to reinforce DTLS for mutual authentication. We prove efficacy of our proposed scheme based on comparative analysis with pre-shared key mode of CoAPs.
Building block of a programmable neuromorphic substrate: A digital neurosynaptic core (2012)

The grand challenge of neuromorphic computation is to develop a flexible brain-inspired architecture capable of a wide array of real-time applications, while striving towards the ultra-low power consumption and compact size of biological neural systems. Toward this end, we fabricated a building block of a modular neuromorphic architecture, a neurosynaptic core. Our implementation consists of 256 integrate-and-fire neurons and a 1,024×256 SRAM crossbar memory for synapses that fits in 4.2mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> using a 45nm SOI process and consumes just 45pJ per spike. The core is fully configurable in terms of neuron parameters, axon types, and synapse states and its fully digital implementation achieves one-to-one correspondence with software simulation models. One-to-one correspondence allows us to introduce an abstract neural programming model for our chip, a contract guaranteeing that any application developed in software functions identically in hardware. This contract allows us to rapidly test and map applications from control, machine vision, and classification. To demonstrate, we present four test cases (i) a robot driving in a virtual environment, (ii) the classic game of pong, (iii) visual digit recognition and (iv) an autoassociative memory.
A novel method for the synthesis of DNA and its analogs by the use of BH3 as a protecting group for phosphonic acid (2005)

Recently, we have developed a novel reaction for the transformation of boranophosphate diesters to the corresponding H-phosphonate diesters in the presence of trityl cation under acidic conditions. In this study, DNA and backbone-modified DNA analogs were synthesized in good yields upon applying this reaction. We report the transformation of boranophosphate DNAs, fully protected with 2-azidomethylbenzoyl groups, to various backbone-modified DNA analogs via the H-phosphonate intermediates in solution and on a solid support.
Efficient coding by neuro-fuzzy clustering in vector quantization of wavelet decomposed signals (2002)

Multiresolution representation of wavelets in image decomposition and coding shows potential of developing an efficient image compression technique with minimum distortion when vector quantization (VQ) is used. This paper presents a multiresolution and adaptive approach to VQ codebook generation by employing a fuzzy distortion measure embedded in a self-organizing neural network ensuring fast convergence and minimum distortion. Multiresolution codebooks are generated for the wavelet decomposed images using neuro-fuzzy clustering algorithms resulting in significant improvement in the coding process. The signal transformation and vector quantization stages together yield at least, 64:1 bit rate reduction with good visual quality and acceptable peak signal to noise ratio and mean square error. The performance of this new VQ coding technique has been compared to that of the well-known Linde, Buzo, and Gray-VQ for a variety of image classes. In each case, the new VQ technique demonstrated superior ability for fast convergence with minimum distortion at similar bit rate reduction than the existing VQ techniques.
Computer-aided system for measuring the mandibular cortical width on panoramic radiographs in osteoporosis diagnosis (2005)

Osteoporotic fractures are associated with substantial morbidity, increased medical cost and high mortality risk. Several equipments of bone assessment have been developed to identify individuals, especially postmenopausal women, with high risk of osteoporotic fracture; however, a large segment of women with low skeletal bone mineral density (BMD), namely women with high risk of osteoporotic fractures, cannot be identified sufficiently because osteoporosis is asymptomatic. Recent studies have been demonstrating that mandibular inferior cortical width manually measured on panoramic radiographs may be useful for the identification of women with low BMD. Automatic measurement of cortical width may enable us to identify a large number of asymptomatic women with low BMD. The purpose of this study was to develop a computer-aided system for measuring the mandibular cortical width on panoramic radiographs. Initially, oral radiologists determined the region of interest based on the position of mental foramen. Some enhancing image techniques were applied so as to measure the cortical width at the best point. Panoramic radiographs of 100 women who had BMD assessments of the lumbar spine and femoral neck were used to confirm the efficacy of our new system. Cortical width measured with our system was compared with skeletal BMD. There were significant correlation between cortical width measured with our system and skeletal BMD. These correlations were similar with those between cortical width manually measured by the dentist and skeletal BMD. Our results suggest that our new system may be useful for mass screening of osteoporosis.
Spherical harmonic beamforming for room acoustic analysis. (2009)

We describe the potential of using a spherical beamforming microphone array to investigate the spatial correlation of sound fields in rooms. We are building spherical microphone arrays consisting of many acoustic pressure sensors mounted appropriately on the surface of a rigid sphere. Our associated spherical eigenbeamformer decomposes the sound-field into spatially orthonormal spherical harmonics up to third-order. We refer to the signals from the eigenbeamformer as eigenbeams. All eigenbeams have phase centers at the physical center of the array. Due to the orthonormal property of the eigenbeamformer, a diffuse field ideally results in zero correlation between the eigenbeams. Therefore, by measuring the cross-correlation between the eigenbeam signals, one can investigate the proximity to the isotropy (or “diffuseness”) of the sound-field. Simultaneously, the underlying eigen-beam patterns can be steered without effecting the orthonormality property. How the cross-correlation function changes with general orientation of the eigenbeams is another potential measure for sound field diffuseness in rooms. We will show some real room measurements demonstrating the potential usefulness of this approach.
SkinAid: A Wirelessly Powered Smart Dressing Solution for Continuous Wound-Tracking Using Textile-Based Frequency Modulation (2023)

In this article, SkinAid, a battery-free, low-cost, robust, and user-friendly smart bandage for electrochemical monitoring and sensing of chronic wounds is proposed. The working principle of the bandage is based on direct frequency modulation of a tri-electrode electrochemical sensing of wound data. The electronics and biotelemetry links were realized using low-cost manufacturing process of textile embroidery onto fabric substrate. The transmitter was represented by a bedsheet with novel corrugated crossed-dipole made of Elektrisola-7 embroidered onto gauze fabric. An input RF signal of 1 W was transmitted at 462 MHz from the bedsheet to the all-textile bandage featuring a rectifying circuit, a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), an electrochemical sensor, and a 915-MHz dipole for re-transmission of the modulated wound data. We demonstrate that for wound fluid emulated by various uric acid concentrations from 0.2 mM to 1.2 mM, corresponding modulated frequency varies from 1090 MHz to 1145 MHz for signals captured at 25 cm away from the bandage. For pH modulation ranging from 2 to 10, the corresponding modulated frequency was between 800 MHz and 830 MHz for signals received at more than 6 feet away from the bandage. For quick and reliable assessment, two empirical models were developed for the direct frequency modulation as a function of uric acid and pH. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time an all-textile (fabric-integrated), battery-free and wirelessly powered smart bandage have been proposed for wound monitoring. This result can be used as a first step in developing RFID-type, battery-free, and low-cost 5G/6G smart bandages using millimeterwave and terahertz frequencies where the bedsheet can be host to a MIMO-aided beamforming.
Retroviral Vectors (1999)

When retroviruses infect a cell, their RNA genome is transcribed into DNA which then integrates into the host genome and is transmitted to all progeny of that cell. This makes retroviruses, such as murine leukaemia virus, ideal candidates for gene delivery vehicles. Retroviral vector systems comprise a vector construct that carries the target gene and packaging cells which provide the viral proteins required to produce the recombinant virus. Two safety concerns are the danger of homologous recombination between the vector provirus and the provirus in the packaging cells producing an infectious retrovirus and the broad infection spectrum of retroviruses. Packaging cells are being extensively modified to minimise these risks. Other modifications include the use of tissue-specific or inducible promoters and attempts to increase the viral titre. Another development is the use of lentiviruses, which are able to infect non-dividing cells but these have the disadvantage of being associated with immunodeficiency.
Modular amphiphilic copolymer-grafted nanoparticles: “nanoparticle micelle” behavior enhances utility as dispersants (2015)

Nanoparticles with amphiphilic polymer grafts exhibit increased stability as dispersants relative to traditional small molecule amphiphiles.
Double-Hashing Operation Mode for Encryption (2017)

Block ciphers, hash-based encryption, and public-key ciphers are examples of data encryption techniques with different desired features. Strong block ciphers, like AES, must run in some mode of operation to encrypt data larger than the block size. Public-key ciphers, like RSA, are costly and usually used for key-sharing rather than encrypting the data itself. Generic single-hash ciphers are less secure than block ciphers and vulnerable to some cryptanalysis techniques. In this paper, we review some cryptanalysis techniques on AES and some hash-based cryptosystems. We propose a new encryption scheme capable of encrypting big data and supporting both symmetric and asymmetric-key handling. We discuss its security strength against known cryptanalysis attacks. Unlike existing hash-based ciphers, the proposed scheme uses double hashing instead of a single hash function. With double hashing, the proposed scheme totally eliminates the threat of known cryptanalysis attacks and provides a highly secure stream ciphering scheme by its new design.
Algorithm for <i>in vitro</i> Sun Protection Factor Based on Transmission Spectrum Measurement with Concomitant Evaluation of Photostability (2008)

In the in vitro evaluation of Sun Protection Factor (SPF), the photostability of the ultraviolet (UV) filters can have a major impact, especially for high-SPF formulations, but is generally not taken into consideration. In this study, we present a UV transmission spectrum measurement system utilizing a high-sensitivity UV photomultiplier tube with concomitant evaluation of photostability. We have developed an algorithm to estimate SPF in vitro by converting the amount of UV light transmission through the sunscreen layer into cumulative relative erythema effectiveness to obtain one minimal erythema dose. Thus, the algorithm uses the same endpoint as in vivo SPF methods, but with a photomultiplier tube as the detector instead of skin. The values obtained showed an excellent correlation with in vivo SPF values, even for high-SPF sunscreens exceeding SPF 50. This method should be suitable as an in vitro SPF testing method for regulatory purposes.