gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Detection of Asymmetric PCR Products in Homogeneous Solution by Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (1998)

The yield of the double-stranded DNA product (500 bp) of asymmetric PCR with a rhodamine-labeled primer (Rho-primer) was determined in a homogeneous solution using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). FCS provides the average number of molecules in a focused volume and the diffusion constant that relates the molecular weight. Since FCS measures the fluctuation of fluorescence intensity in a very small sample volume, the reaction mixture was directly placed on the FCS optical field without any purification procedure after amplification. The result of changing the initial number of templates suggested that elongation of the Rho-primer could be detected by FCS in a PCR mixture containing a single copy of the target gene in the initial condition. Possible scientific applications and perspectives of the proposed approach are discussed.
The Complexity of External Acoustic Detection of Defects in Björk‐Shiley Convexoconcave Heart Valves (2001)

Abstract: Fractures in Björk‐Shiley convexoconcave (BScc) heart valves have raised questions about the feasibility of early diagnosis of technical defects by means of acoustic assessment. Three laboratory tests were conducted. To establish acoustic fingerprints, 66 valves with a defect, such as single‐leg fracture (SLF) or single‐leg separation (SLS), or without a defect were connected with a contact sensor and excited by dropping a small metal ball onto the outlet strut. In the second test, we simulated the valve sound propagation within the thorax. In the third test, intact, SLF, and SLS valves were placed in a mock heart immersed in a large water tank. We observed a resonance frequency corresponding with valve size and presence of defects. The second test showed that both the chest wall and the lungs created numerous reflections. This led to a substantial overlap of the original pulse frequencies and the frequencies measured. The third test confirmed that submersion of the chest in water can significantly reduce chest wall reflections. Reliable noninvasive assessment of BScc valve clicks for the presence of defects of the outlet strut is hampered by complex sound propagation within the thorax and variability of valve excitation. Acoustic fingerprints to diagnose mechanical defects should be integrated in valve design.
On partial optimality in multi-label MRFs (2008)

We consider the problem of optimizing multilabel MRFs, which is in general NP-hard and ubiquitous in low-level computer vision. One approach for its solution is to formulate it as an integer linear programming and relax the integrality constraints. The approach we consider in this paper is to first convert the multi-label MRF into an equivalent binary-label MRF and then to relax it. The resulting relaxation can be efficiently solved using a maximum flow algorithm. Its solution provides us with a partially optimal labelling of the binary variables. This partial labelling is then easily transferred to the multi-label problem. We study the theoretical properties of the new relaxation and compare it with the standard one. Specifically, we compare tightness, and characterize a subclass of problems where the two relaxations coincide. We propose several combined algorithms based on the technique and demonstrate their performance on challenging computer vision problems.
Efficacy of Aerosol MP-376, a Levofloxacin Inhalation Solution, in Models of Mouse Lung Infection Due to<i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> (2009)

Progressive respiratory failure due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis. The pulmonary delivery of antimicrobial agents provides high concentrations of drug directly to the site of infection and attains pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic indices exceeding those which can be achieved with systemic dosing. MP-376 is a new formulation of levofloxacin that enables the safe aerosol delivery of high concentrations of drug to pulmonary tissues. In vivo studies were conducted to demonstrate the efficacy of MP-376 in models of mouse pulmonary infection. The superiority of aerosol dosing over systemic dosing was demonstrated in models of both acute and chronic lung infection. In a model of acute lung infection, aerosol treatment with MP-376 once or twice daily reduced the lung bacterial load to a greater extent than aerosol tobramycin or aztreonam did when they were administered at similar or higher doses. The bacterial killing by aerosol MP-376 observed in the lung in the model of acute pulmonary infection translated to improved survival (P < 0.05). In a model of chronic pulmonary infection, aerosol MP-376 had antimicrobial effects superior to those of aztreonam (P < 0.05) and effects similar to those of tobramycin (P > 0.05). In summary, these data show that aerosol MP-376 has in vivo activity when it is used to treat acute and chronic lung infections caused by P. aeruginosa.
<i>Chlamydia trachomatis</i> polymorphic membrane protein D is a species-common pan-neutralizing antigen (2006)

Infections caused by the obligate intracellular pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis have a marked impact on human health. C. trachomatis serovariants are the leading cause of bacterial sexually transmitted disease and infectious preventable blindness. Despite decades of effort, there is no practical vaccine against C. trachomatis diseases. Here we report that all C. trachomatis reference serotypes responsible for sexually transmitted disease and blinding trachoma synthesize a highly conserved surface-exposed antigen termed polymorphic membrane protein D (PmpD). We show that Ab specific to PmpD are neutralizing in vitro. We also present evidence that Ab against serovariable-neutralizing targets, such as the major outer membrane protein, block PmpD neutralization. This finding suggests that a decoy-like immune evasion strategy may be active in vivo whereby immunodominant type-specific surface antigens block the neutralizing ability of species-common PmpD Ab. Collectively, these results show that PmpD is a previously uncharacterized C. trachomatis species-common pan-neutralizing target. Moreover, a vaccine protocol using recombinant PmpD to elicit neutralizing Ab in the absence of immunodominant type-specific Ab might be highly efficacious and surpass the level of protection achieved through natural immunity.
Adaptive Iterative Learning Control for Subway Trains Using Multiple-Point-Mass Dynamic Model Under Speed Constraint (2020)

In this paper, a new adaptive iterative learning control method (AILC) is presented for speed and position tracking of a subway train using multiple-point-mass dynamic model. A composite energy function technique is utilized to obtain the asymptotic convergence of tracking error in the iteration axis for the proposed controller for subway trains. Then a speed constraint adaptive iterative learning control algorithm (CAILC) is designed to avoid over speed, derailment and collision of the subway train for the subway train over-speed protection. Finally, two simulation examples are given for the subway train system to show the effectiveness of theoretical studies.
Improving the working environment for workers in children’s welfare agencies (2001)

The working environment and workplace ecology of children’s welfare agencies is important to the quality of their service provision. In the past, restructuring and professional development and training have been standard responses to changing needs and demands on children’s services but have generally failed to improve the working environment. This research argues that concrete strategies can be developed from a detailed understanding of significant factors impacting on workers’ satisfaction and morale. The specific stresses and rewards impacting on workers in three children’s welfare services in Australia were investigated over a 12‐month period to obtain preliminary information for the formulation of strategies likely to improve satisfaction and morale. The participating organizations were of different size, organizational structure, responsibilities and philosophy. Most factors identified in the study applied across the different organizations. Using a combination of journal writing, recording of critical incidents, relationship mapping and workshops, child welfare workers documented their day‐to‐day work experiences, outstanding events and networking activities. The narrative data were analysed using force field analysis and quasi‐stationary equilibrium analysis based on a categorical framework of individual, team, organizational and political factors. Job satisfaction was strongly linked to intrinsic aspects of the work itself, that is, achieving outcomes for clients. Dissatisfaction with the job was strongly linked to organizational constraints, and strong team identification counterbalanced constraints. Largely unmentioned were political issues, professional practices and ideological and religious beliefs that undoubtedly impacted on practice. This research suggests some concrete steps to enhancing the quality of workplaces in children’s welfare services.
Reinforcement Learning and Dynamic Programming Using Function Approximators (2010)

From household appliances to applications in robotics, engineered systems involving complex dynamics can only be as effective as the algorithms that control them. While Dynamic Programming (DP) has provided researchers with a way to optimally solve decision and control problems involving complex dynamic systems, its practical value was limited by algorithms that lacked the capacity to scale up to realistic problems.  However, in recent years, dramatic developments in Reinforcement Learning (RL), the model-free counterpart of DP, changed our understanding of what is possible. Those developments led to the creation of reliable methods that can be applied even when a mathematical model of the system is unavailable, allowing researchers to solve challenging control problems in engineering, as well as in a variety of other disciplines, including economics, medicine, and artificial intelligence. Reinforcement Learning and Dynamic Programming Using Function Approximators provides a comprehensive and unparalleled exploration of the field of RL and DP. With a focus on continuous-variable problems, this seminal text details essential developments that have substantially altered the field over the past decade. In its pages, pioneering experts provide a concise introduction to classical RL and DP, followed by an extensive presentation of the state-of-the-art and novel methods in RL and DP with approximation. Combining algorithm development with theoretical guarantees, they elaborate on their work with illustrative examples and insightful comparisons. Three individual chapters are dedicated to representative algorithms from each of the major classes of techniques: value iteration, policy iteration, and policy search. The features and performance of these algorithms are highlighted in extensive experimental studies on a range of control applications. The recent development of applications involving complex systems has led to a surge of interest in RL and DP methods and the subsequent need for a quality resource on the subject. For graduate students and others new to the field, this book offers a thorough introduction to both the basics and emerging methods. And for those researchers and practitioners working in the fields of optimal and adaptive control, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and operations research, this resource offers a combination of practical algorithms, theoretical analysis, and comprehensive examples that they will be able to adapt and apply to their own work. Access the authors' website at www.dcsc.tudelft.nl/rlbook/ for additional material, including computer code used in the studies and information concerning new developments.
Neurotensin stimulates growth of small intestine in rats (1988)

Neurotensin has many actions on digestive tract motility and secretion and stimulates pancreatic growth. We examined effects of chronic administration of neurotensin on growth of small intestine and colon. Four groups of 10 rats were injected with saline or neurotensin (33, 100, or 300 micrograms/kg) every 8 h for 5 days. The small intestine was divided into four segments of equal length, weighed, and assayed for DNA, protein, and brush-border digestive enzymes. The colon was weighed and assayed for DNA and protein. Neurotensin caused dose-related increases in growth of small intestine; at the highest dose, similar increases in weight (12-20%), DNA (23-35%), and protein content (33-39%) occurred in each segment of small intestine. Maltase, sucrase, and leucine aminopeptidase (but not lactase) contents were also significantly increased after neurotensin, but the largest effects were seen in the proximal small intestine. Neurotensin had no effect on weight, DNA, or protein content of the colon. These results suggest a role for neurotensin in regulating growth of small intestine.
Adhesion issues in flip-chip on organic modules (1999)

Flip chip attach on organic carriers is a novel electronic packaging assembly method which provides advantages of high input/output (I/O) counts, electrical performance and thermal dissipation. In this structure, the flip chip device is attached to organic laminate with predeposited eutectic solder. Mechanical coupling of the chip and the laminate is done via underfill encapsulant materials. As the chip size increases, the thermal mismatch between silicon and its organic carrier becomes greater. Adhesion becomes an important factor since the C4 joints fail quickly if delamination of the underfill from either chip or the solder mask interface occurs. Newly developed underfills have been studied to examine their properties, including interfacial adhesion strength, flow characteristics, void formation and cure kinetics. This paper will describe basic investigations into the properties of these underfills and also how these properties related to the overall development process. In addition, experiments were performed to determine the effects on adhesion degradation of flip chip assembly processes and materials such as IR reflow profile, flux quantity and residues. Surface treatment of both the chip and the laminate prior to encapsulation were studied to enhance underfill adhesion. Accelerated thermal cycling and highly accelerated stress testing (HAST) were conducted to compare various underfill properties and reliability responses.
Small valence-band offset of In0.17Al0.83N/GaN heterostructure grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (2010)

The valence-band offset of a lattice-matched In0.17Al0.83N/GaN heterostructure grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) was investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Atomic force microscopy and angle-resolved XPS indicated that a thin In0.17Al0.83N (2.5 nm) layer was successfully grown by MOVPE on GaN. The XPS result showed that the valence band offset was 0.2±0.3 eV. This result indicates that the conduction-band offset at the In0.17Al0.83N/GaN interface is large, i.e., 0.9 to 1.0 eV, and occupies a large part of the entire band discontinuity.
Leakage Current Test at Household Refrigerator Type Urg-129 Base Standard Nasional Indonesia (Sni) 04-6292.2.24-2001 For Safety Equipment (2014)

Leakage current testing is one of the types of electrical safety test, where test is intended to determine the level of security of an electronic product in this refrigerator URG 129. Testing is done by giving some different behavior to the test specimen, ranging from varying the loading rate and the value of the input voltage be changed. To then measured the value of electric current leaking from the installation of ground or body surface of the test specimen. From the analysis of the leakage current values obtained under full load with input voltage of 245 Volts PLN, for earth leakage line ( normal ) ( 2458 ± 0335 ) mA, earth leakage line ( single fault) ( 4.0983 ± 0338 ) mA, Touch Chassis ( single fault ) ( 2.485 ± 0.334 ) am. Based on the value of leakage current, then the refrigerator Uchida URG - 129 is expressed not meet the requirements as specified in ISO 04-6292.2.24-2001.
An Edge Computing Based Smart Healthcare Framework for Resource Management (2018)

The revolution in information technologies, and the spread of the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart city industrial systems, have fostered widespread use of smart systems. As a complex, 24/7 service, healthcare requires efficient and reliable follow-up on daily operations, service and resources. Cloud and edge computing are essential for smart and efficient healthcare systems in smart cities. Emergency departments (ED) are real-time systems with complex dynamic behavior, and they require tailored techniques to model, simulate and optimize system resources and service flow. ED issues are mainly due to resource shortage and resource assignment efficiency. In this paper, we propose a resource preservation net (RPN) framework using Petri net, integrated with custom cloud and edge computing suitable for ED systems. The proposed framework is designed to model non-consumable resources and is theoretically described and validated. RPN is applicable to a real-life scenario where key performance indicators such as patient length of stay (LoS), resource utilization rate and average patient waiting time are modeled and optimized. As the system must be reliable, efficient and secure, the use of cloud and edge computing is critical. The proposed framework is simulated, which highlights significant improvements in LoS, resource utilization and patient waiting time.
Interaction design of automatic steering for collision avoidance: challenges and potentials of driver decoupling (2014)

Studies concerning collision avoidance show that most drivers tend to brake, even if evasive manoeuvres were better. Automatic steering for collision avoidance would help here. Studies in the EU project interactIVe observed that drivers show a tendency to hold the steering wheel and disturb the automatic steering when kept in the control loop. A strategy of driver decoupling, for example, by means of steer‐by‐wire systems could improve the automatic steering performance. However, the major challenge of using steer‐by‐wire systems is to enable the driver to compensate false system activation, for example, evasion into oncoming traffic. A time‐dependent strategy of driver decoupling using steer‐by‐wire combined with override recognition by counter steering above a certain threshold was implemented in a research vehicle. The interaction strategy was tested with 45 participants on a test track in two different scenarios; a collision situation with justified evasion and a false alert scenario with unjustified system activation. In a between‐subject design the decoupling strategy (using steer‐by‐wire) was compared against automatic steering with fully coupled driver and force feedback on the steering wheel and against Manual Driving without automatic steering. When the driver was temporarily decoupled, the obstacle avoidance performance was better but the driver was less able to counteract a false avoidance manoeuvre. The analysis of driver behaviour revealed options to improve the interaction strategy.
Tissue Engineering of Ligament Healing (2000)

Ligaments are parallel fibered, dense connective tissue structures that play an important role in mediating normal joint mechanics. These tissues also share in the transmission of forces with other articular tissues in order to provide joint stability. Thus, the rupture of a ligament will upset normal mobility and stability, causing abnormal joint kinematics and clinical symptoms. In the knee, ligament injuries frequently result from a direct blow or an indirect twisting motion during strenuous or sports activities. Ruptures of the medial collateral ligament (MCL), anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), and posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) are common and often result in chronic knee instability and eventual joint degeneration. The MCL is one of the most frequently injured ligaments in the knee. Miyasaka, Daniel, Stone, and Hirshman (1991) studied the incidence of the acute knee ligament injury in the general population. Of these injuries, 48% were isolated ACL injuries, 29% were isolated MCL injuries, and 13% were combined ACL/MCL injuries. If grade I injuries were included, 55% involved MCL injuries.
High Throughput Virtual Screening to Discover Inhibitors of the Main Protease of the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (2020)

We use state-of-the-art computer-aided drug design (CADD) techniques to identify prospective inhibitors of the main protease enzyme, 3CLpro of the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19. From our screening of over one million compounds including approved drugs, investigational drugs, natural products, and organic compounds, and a rescreening protocol incorporating enzyme dynamics via ensemble docking, we have been able to identify a range of prospective 3CLpro inhibitors. Importantly, some of the identified compounds had previously been reported to exhibit inhibitory activities against the 3CLpro enzyme of the closely related SARS-CoV virus. The top- ranking compounds are characterized by the presence of multiple bi- and monocyclic rings, many of them being heterocycles and aromatic, which are flexibly linked allowing the ligands to adapt to the geometry of the 3CLpro substrate site and involve a high amount of functional groups enabling hydrogen bond formation with surrounding amino acid residues, including the catalytic dyad residues H41 and C145. Among the top binding compounds we identified several tyrosine kinase inhibitors, which include a bioflavonoid, the group of natural products that binds best to 3CLpro. Another class of compounds that decently binds to the SARS-CoV-2 main protease are steroid hormones, which thus may be endogenous inhibitors and might provide an explanation for the age-dependent severity of COVID-19. Many of the compounds identified by our work show a considerably stronger binding than found for reference compounds with in vitro demonstrated 3CLpro inhibition and anticoronavirus activity. The compounds determined in this work thus represent a good starting point for the design of inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 replication.
Combined two-photon microscopy and optical coherence tomography using individually optimized sources (2011)

The combination of two-photon microscopy (TPM) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) is useful in conducting in-vivo tissue studies, because they provide complementary information regarding tissues. In the present study, we developed a new combined system using separate light sources and scanners for individually optimal imaging conditions. TPM used a Ti-Sapphire laser and provided molecular and cellular information in microscopic tissue regions. Meanwhile, OCT used a wavelength-swept source centered at 1300 nm and provided structural information in larger tissue regions than TPM. The system was designed to do simultaneous imaging by combining light from both sources. TPM and OCT had the field of view values of 300 μm and 800 μm on one side respectively with a 20x objective. TPM had resolutions of 0.47 μm and 2.5 μm in the lateral and axial directions respectively, and an imaging speed of 40 frames/s. OCT had resolutions of 5 μm and 8 μm in lateral and axial directions respectively, a sensitivity of 97dB, and an imaging speed of 0.8 volumes per second. This combined system was tested with simple microsphere specimens, and was then applied to image small intestine and ear tissues of mouse models ex-vivo. Molecular, cellular, and structural information of the tissues were visualized using the proposed combined system.