gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
The role of <scp>IL</scp>‐23 and the <scp>IL</scp>‐23/<scp>T<sub>H</sub></scp>17 immune axis in the pathogenesis and treatment of psoriasis (2017)

Psoriasis is a chronic, immune-mediated disease affecting more than 100 million people worldwide and up to 2.2% of the UK population. The aetiology of psoriasis is thought to originate from an interplay of genetic, environmental, infectious and lifestyle factors. The manner in which genetic and environmental factors interact to contribute to the molecular disease mechanisms has remained elusive. However, the interleukin 23 (IL-23)/T-helper 17 (T<sub>H</sub> 17) immune axis has been identified as a major immune pathway in psoriasis disease pathogenesis. Central to this pathway is the cytokine IL-23, a heterodimer composed of a p40 subunit also found in IL-12 and a p19 subunit exclusive to IL-23. IL-23 is important for maintaining T<sub>H</sub> 17 responses, and levels of IL-23 are elevated in psoriatic skin compared with non-lesional skin. A number of agents that specifically inhibit IL-23p19 are currently in development for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, with recent clinical trials demonstrating efficacy with a good safety and tolerability profile. These data support the role of this cytokine in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. A better understanding of the IL-23/T<sub>H</sub> 17 immune axis is vital and will promote the development of additional targets for psoriasis and other inflammatory diseases that share similar genetic aetiology and pathogenetic pathways.
Long-range transport of Asian dust and air pollutants to Taiwan: observed evidence and model simulation (2007)

Abstract. Long-range transport of Asian dust and air pollutants are major environmental concerns of Taiwan during the winter monsoon season when northeasterly winds prevail following passages of cold fronts. Based on hourly measurements of Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (TEPA) air quality monitoring stations, Lidar and in-situ IC, a significant long-range transport dust and air pollutants event on 18 March 2005 has been identified. During this episode, drastically elevated concentrations of PM10, CO and SO2 along with the strong northeasterly on 18 March were observed over background Wanli station, with peaks of about 170 μgm−3, 1.0 ppm and 14 ppb, respectively. We have found that air masses of air pollutants and Asian dust are transported separately. Although the mixing takes place on the way to Taiwan, it mixes slightly when they arrived in Taiwan. The major component of the first PM10 peak were air pollutants, evidenced by the consistent peaks of SO42− and NO3
<i>Semele</i>: A Killer-Male, Rescue-Female System for Suppression and Replacement of Insect Disease Vector Populations (2010)

Two strategies to control mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, are reducing mosquito population sizes or replacing populations with disease-refractory varieties. We propose a genetic system, Semele, which may be used for both. Semele consists of two components: a toxin expressed in transgenic males that either kills or renders infertile wild-type female recipients and an antidote expressed in females that protects them from the effects of the toxin. An all-male release results in population suppression because wild-type females that mate with transgenic males produce no offspring. A release that includes transgenic females results in gene drive since females carrying the allele are favored at high population frequencies. We use simple population genetic models to explore the utility of the Semele system. We find that Semele can spread under a wide range of conditions, all of which require a high introduction frequency. This feature is desirable since transgenic insects released accidentally are unlikely to persist, transgenic insects released intentionally can be spatially confined, and the element can be removed from a population through sustained release of wild-type insects. We examine potential barriers to Semele gene drive and suggest molecular tools that could be used to build the Semele system.
Dynamics of TCP traffic over ATM networks (1995)

Investigates the performance of transport control protocol (TCP) connections over ATM networks without ATM-level congestion control and compares it to the performance of TCP over packet-based networks. For simulations of congested networks, the effective throughput of TCP over ATM can be quite low when cells are dropped at the congested ATM switch. The low throughput is due to wasted bandwidth as the congested link transmits cells from "corrupted" packets, i.e., packets in which at least one cell is dropped by the switch. The authors investigate two packet-discard strategies that alleviate the effects of fragmentation. Partial packet discard, in which remaining cells are discarded after one cell has been dropped from a packet, somewhat improves throughput. They introduce early packet discard, a strategy in which the switch drops whole packets prior to buffer overflow. This mechanism prevents fragmentation and restores throughput to maximal levels.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>
Development of a droplet digital PCR method for detection of Streptococcus agalactiae (2020)

In our study, ddPCR was performed as a rapid detection of S.agalactiae with high sensitivity and specificity. This technique can promote the accuracy of the diagnosis of GBS infection and provide a scientific basis for clinical treatment.
A chaotic self-oscillating sunlight-driven polymer actuator (2016)

Nature provides much inspiration for the design of materials capable of motion upon exposure to external stimuli, and many examples of such active systems have been created in the laboratory. However, to achieve continuous motion driven by an unchanging, constant stimulus has proven extremely challenging. Here we describe a liquid crystalline polymer film doped with a visible light responsive fluorinated azobenzene capable of continuous chaotic oscillatory motion when exposed to ambient sunlight in air. The presence of simultaneous illumination by blue and green light is necessary for the oscillating behaviour to occur, suggesting that the dynamics of continuous forward and backward switching are causing the observed effect. Our work constitutes an important step towards the realization of autonomous, persistently self-propelling machines and self-cleaning surfaces powered by sunlight.
THE PHARMACOLOGY UNDERLYING PHARMACOTHERAPY FOR TOBACCO DEPENDENCE: A FOCUS ON BUPROPION (2001)

Tobacco dependence remains the major preventable cause of early mortality and morbidity in the developed world. The primary reinforcer of the dependence is the nicotine present in tobacco smoke and, for many smokers, successful treatment depends upon breaking this dependence. Until recently, the only specific pharmacotherapy available for tobacco dependence was nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). Although this approach does significantly increase long-term cessation rates, it is by no means a panacea for the many smokers who require help to quit. Recently, a new drug, bupropion (Zyban), has been licensed as an additional pharmacological aid for smoking cessation. This commentary discusses the mechanisms that may account for its efficacy in this indication and considers the impact its introduction may have on the approach of healthcare systems to the treatment of tobacco dependence.
Whole Genome Amplification on DNA from Filter Paper Blood Spot Samples: An Evaluation of Selected Systems (2007)

As the number of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) screening and other mutation scanning studies have increased explosively, following the development of high-throughput instrumentation, it becomes even more important to have sufficient template DNA. The source of DNA is often limited, especially in epidemiological studies, which require many samples as well as enough DNA to perform numerous SNP screenings or mutation scannings. Therefore, the aim is to solve the problem of stock DNA limitation. This need has been an important reason for the development of whole genome amplification (WGA) methods. Several systems are based on Phi29 polymerase multiple displacement amplification (MDA) or on DNA fragmentation (OmniPlex). Using TaqMan SNP genotyping assays, we have tested four WGA systems -- AmpliQ Genomic Amplifier Kit, GenomiPhi, Repli-g, and GenomePlex -- on DNA extracted from Guthrie cards to evaluate the amplification bias, concordance- and call rates, cost efficiency, and flexibility. All systems successfully amplified picograms of DNA from Guthrie cards to micrograms of product without loss of heterozygosity and with minimal allelic bias. A modified AmpliQ set up was chosen for further evaluation. In all, 2,000 SNP genotyping results from amplified and nonamplified samples were compared and the concordance rates between the samples were 99.7%. The call rate using the TaqMan system was 99.8%. DNA extracted from Guthrie cards and amplified with one of the four evaluated WGA systems is applicable in epidemiological genetic screenings. System choice should be based on requirements for system flexibility, product yield, and use in subsequent analysis.
Mouse models of inflammatory bowel disease. (2006)

The past decade has seen an abundance of new mouse models that mimic the human inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. These mouse models of IBD have provided great insight into the potential mechanisms that drive homeostatic dysregulation in the intestine, which manifests as mucosal inflammation. Within this review, the different animal models that have been employed to gain a greater understanding of the pathogenesis of IBD are discussed and some of the new biological drugs that have emerged as potential therapeutics as a result of these mouse modeling studies are reviewed.
Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of <i>N</i>-Trifluoroacetyl Doxorubicin-14-Valerate (Valrubicin) (2005)

An efficient two-step, chemoenzymatic synthesis of N-trifluoroacetyl doxorubicin-14-valerate (Valrubicin) from doxorubicin hydrochloride salt is reported. The key step is a lipase-catalyzed regioselective esterification of N-trifluoroacetyl doxorubicin using commercially available valeric acid as the acyl donor. The overall yield for the process is 79%.
Design, Synthesis, and <i>In Vitro</i> Evaluation of Novel 3, 7‐Disubstituted Coumarin Derivatives as Potent Anticancer Agents (2015)

Twenty-seven 3, 7-disubstituted coumarin derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated in vitro as anticancer agents. Most of the compounds showed moderate-to-potent antiproliferative activity against K562 cells. Compounds 7b and 7d were chosen to evaluate the concentration of 50% growth inhibition (GI50 ) against SN12C, OVCAR, BxPC-3, KATO-III, T24, SNU-1, WiDr, HeLa, K562, and AGS cell lines. The most potent compound 7d was selected for further cell cycle arrest assay in the AGS cell line. The in vitro data indicated that methylation of benzimidazole moiety at the 3-position of coumarin exhibited significant enhancement of anticancer activity. This study should provide important information for further modification and optimization of coumarin derivatives as anticancer agents.
Trading in markets with noisy information: an evolutionary analysis (2015)

We analyse the value of information in a stock market where information can be noisy and costly, using techniques from empirical game theory. Previous work has shown that the value of information follows a J-curve, where averagely informed traders perform below market average, and only insiders prevail. Here we show that both noise and cost can change this picture, in several cases leading to opposite results where insiders perform below market average, and averagely informed traders prevail. Moreover, we investigate the effect of random explorative actions on the market dynamics, showing how these lead to a mix of traders being sustained in equilibrium. These results provide insight into the complexity of real marketplaces, and show under which conditions a broad mix of different trading strategies might be sustainable.
Nanostructuring organo-silicas: combination of intermolecular interactions and molecular recognition properties to generate self-assembled hybrids with phenylene or adenine⋯thymine bridging units (2005)

Owing to hydrophobic interactions, silyl linkers containing long alkylene chains allowed the synthesis of self-organised hybrids. Lamellar organo-silicas with phenylene or a hydrogen-bonded adenine⋯thymine complex as the bridging units are reported.
Counterfactual Multi-Agent Policy Gradients (2017)

Cooperative multi-agent systems can be naturally used to model many real world problems, such as network packet routing and the coordination of autonomous vehicles. There is a great need for new reinforcement learning methods that can efficiently learn decentralised policies for such systems. To this end, we propose a new multi-agent actor-critic method called counterfactual multi-agent (COMA) policy gradients. COMA uses a centralised critic to estimate the Q-function and decentralised actors to optimise the agents' policies. In addition, to address the challenges of multi-agent credit assignment, it uses a counterfactual baseline that marginalises out a single agent's action, while keeping the other agents' actions fixed. COMA also uses a critic representation that allows the counterfactual baseline to be computed efficiently in a single forward pass. We evaluate COMA in the testbed of StarCraft unit micromanagement, using a decentralised variant with significant partial observability. COMA significantly improves average performance over other multi-agent actor-critic methods in this setting, and the best performing agents are competitive with state-of-the-art centralised controllers that get access to the full state.
Antitumor Activities of IKP‐104, a 4(1<i>H</i>)‐Pyrizinone Derivative, on Cultured and Implanted Tumors (1990)

Antitumor activities of IKP-104, a 4(1H)-pyrizinone derivative, were investigated with cultured tumor cell lines and implanted tumors in mice. IKP-104 inhibited the growth of cultured murine tumor cell lines (L1210 leukemia, Lewis lung carcinoma and B16 melanoma) and human tumor cell lines (K562 leukemia and HeLa cervical carcinoma). It also had antitumor effects on implanted murine ascitic tumors (L1210 leukemia and sarcoma 180) and a murine solid tumor (Lewis lung carcinoma). IKP-104 could be classified as a phase-dependent cytostatic drug based on the mode of growth inhibition of cultured B16 melanoma cells compared with those of several other antitumor agents. The effect of IKP-104 on the cell cycle traverse of cultured B16 melanoma cells was estimated by morphological and flow cytometric analyses. Cells accumulated in the mitotic phase, and abortive mitosis or polyploidy or multinucleation was induced from 6 h after exposure to IKP-104. Based on these results, IKP-104 is expected to be useful for the treatment of tumors, and its mode of action seemed to be similar to that of metaphase arrestants such as colchicine or vinca alkaloids.
Clogging Prevention of Slurry–Earth Pressure Balance Dual-Mode Shield in Composed Strata with Medium–Coarse Sand and Argillaceous Siltstone (2023)

The slurry–earth pressure balance dual-mode shield has an earth pressure balance (EPB) and slurry shield functions. Based on a shield tunnel project of Guangzhou Metro Line 12 in China, this study investigates the clogging prevention of a slurry–earth pressure balance dual-mode shield in a composed stratum with medium–coarse sand and argillaceous siltstone. The results show that the slurry mode was not applicable to the composed stratum with medium–coarse sand and argillaceous siltstone. The excavated soil accumulated easily in the slurry chamber, causing shield clogging. The total thrust force of the shield increased significantly, the tunneling speed gradually decreased to 0, and the torque of the cutterhead increased slightly after the slurry shield was clogged. The fluctuation in the total thrust force, the cutterhead torque, and the tunneling speed also increased significantly. The EPB mode is recommended for composed strata with medium–coarse sand and argillaceous siltstone. The dispersible foam agent and water needed to be used for soil conditioning. The injection amount of foam and water was determined according to the status of the mud discharged by the screw conveyor. Water absorption can be used to characterize the water absorption capacity of particles larger than 0.15 mm. The ideal soil state was that the consistency index of the particles smaller than 0.15 mm was less than 0.5 to prevent the EPB shield from clogging. The water absorption of soil with a particle larger than 0.15 mm should be removed when calculating the consistency index.
Articulation of Extreme Formant Patterns for Emphasized Vowels (2002)

This study examined formant, jaw and tongue dorsum measurements from X-ray microbeam recordings of American English speakers producing emphasized vs. unemphasized words containing high-front, mid-front and low vowels. For emphasized vowels, the jaw position, regardless of vowel height, was lower, while the tongue dorsum had a more extreme articulation in the direction of the phonological specification of the vowel. For emphasized low vowels, the tongue dorsum position was lower with the acoustic consequence of F1 and F2 bunched closer together. For emphasized high and mid-front vowels, the tongue was more forward with the acoustic consequence of F1 and F2 spread more apart. These findings are interpreted within acoustic models of speech production. They also provide empirical data which have application to the C/D model hypothesis that both increased lowering of jaw and enhanced tongue gesture are consequences of a magnitude increase in the syllable pulse due to emphasis.
Absolute quantitation of viremia in human immunodeficiency virus infection by competitive reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (1992)

A competitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay for the quantitative detection of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) viremia was developed and optimized. This method consists of the reverse transcription and subsequent amplification in the same tube of two similar RNA templates, the wild-type template to be quantified and a known amount of the internally deleted synthetic template, both with identical primer recognition sites. The same strategy also proved to be useful in the quantitative assay of HIV-1-specific cellular transcripts and proviral DNA sequences from peripheral blood mononuclear cells by using competitor DNA. The method might be of interest in the study of the precise level of HIV-1 activity during the different clinical phases of the infection and in the simple, fast, and methodologically correct molecular investigation of patients treated with specific antiviral compounds.
Phase I dose escalation study of telatinib (BAY 57-9352) in patients with advanced solid tumours (2008)

Telatinib (BAY 57-9352) is an orally available, small-molecule inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptors 2 and 3 (VEGFR-2/-3) and platelet-derived growth factor receptor β tyrosine kinases. In this multicentre phase I dose escalation study, 71 patients with refractory solid tumours were enroled into 14 days on/7 days off (noncontinuous dosing) or continuous dosing groups to receive telatinib two times daily (BID). Hypertension (23%) and diarrhoea (7%) were the most frequent study drug-related adverse events of CTC grade 3. The maximum-tolerated dose was not reached up to a dose of 1500 mg BID continuous dosing. Telatinib was rapidly absorbed with median tmax of 3 hours or less. Geometric mean Cmax and AUC0−12 increased in a less than dose-proportional manner and plateaued in the 900–1500 mg BID dose range. Two renal cell carcinoma patients reached a partial response. Tumour blood flow measured by contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging and sVEGFR-2 plasma levels decreased with increasing AUC0−12 of telatinib. Telatinib is safe and well tolerated up to a dose of 1500 mg BID continuous dosing. Based on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic criteria, 900 mg telatinib BID continuously administered was selected as the recommended phase II dose.
Frequency translation of light waves by propagation around an optical ring circuit containing a frequency shifter: l Experiment (1993)

A technique for the external frequency translation of light waves is reported. The technique permits the stepwise sweeping of an optical frequency over a wide range with high linearity with respect to time. The frequency translator is composed of an optical pulse modulator and an optical ring circuit containing an acousto-optic frequency shifter and an optical amplifier. The pulse launched into the ring circuit undergoes a constant frequency shift for each circulation around the circuit and the frequency can be translated to a considerable degree from that of the original input pulse. We report a stepwise frequency translation over approximately 68 GHz for a 1.5-µm light wave with a strictly constant frequency-sweep rate and an approximately constant intensity.
Frequency of microsatellite sequences in rice (<i>Oryza sativa</i>L.) (1995)

This study was undertaken to estimate the relative frequencies of 13 microsatellite motifs in the rice genome as a basis for efficient development of a microsatellite map. Two dinucleotide, seven trinucleotide, and four tetranucleotide repeat motifs were end labelled and used as hybridization probes to screen genomic and cDNA libraries of rice, cv. IR36. Optimal washing temperatures for identification of clones containing specific microsatellite motifs were estimated based on washing temperatures near Td (dissociation temperature; Td = Tm - 7.6 degrees C). Sequencing of 20 putatively positive clones corresponding to each of 4 microsatellite motifs suggested that while Td provides a useful predictor of washing stringency for most of the repeats studied, those with a very high GC or AT content were most prone to error. The results from screening the rice genomic library suggest that there are an estimated 1360 poly(GA)n and 1230 poly(GT)n microsatellites in the rice genome, and that the relative frequency of different repeats decreased with increasing size of the motif. The most frequently observed microsatellites in the cDNA library were the same as for genomic library, but no poly(CGG)n, poly(ATC)n, or tetranucleotide motifs were observed among cDNA in this study.
A New End-Hall Ion Source with Improved Performance (2006)

End-Hall ion sources have been used for almost 20 years in the optical coating industry for ion assisted deposition (IAD) and substrate pre-clean. In these applications, end-Hall ion sources have several desirable performance characteristics. They produce a large current of low energy ions, and they distribute the ions uniformly over a large coverage area. The sources can operate on either argon or oxygen, and maintenance requirements are typically lower than for gridded ion sources. The trends toward higher production volumes and reduced cost of ownership in the optical coatings industry require ion sources with higher output, modular integration, and more effective maintenance features. This paper presents a new end-Hall ion source that has improvements in performance, form factor, and required maintenance over the current industry-leading end-Hall ion source. Ion production rates, beam uniformity, and thermal characteristics are presented at discharge powers up to 3 kW.