gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Functional Outcomes and Complications of Intramedullary Fixation Devices for Midshaft Clavicle Fractures: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. (2020)

Abstract Background: An alternative to the current gold standard in operative treatment of displaced midshaft clavicle fractures using plate osteosynthesis, is internal fixation by means of an intramedullary fixation device. These devices differ considerably in their specifications and characteristics and an adequate evaluation of their clinical results is warranted. Methods: A systematic review was conducted to identify all papers reporting functional outcomes, union rates and/or complications using an intramedullary fixation device for the management of midshaft clavicle fractures. Multiple databases and trial registries were searched from inception until February 2020. Meta-analysis was conducted based on functional outcomes and type of complication per type of intramedullary fixation device. Pooled estimates of functional outcomes scores and incidence of complications were calculated using a random effects model. Risk of bias and quality was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias and ROBINS-I tools. The confidence in estimates were rated and described according to the recommendations of the GRADE working group. Results: Sixty-seven studies were included in this systematic review. The majority of studies report on the use of Titanium Elastic Nails (TEN). At 12 months follow up the Titanium Elastic Nail and Sonoma CRx report an average Constant-Murley score of 94.4 (95%CI 93-95) and 94.0 (95%CI 92-95) respectively. The most common reported complications after intramedullary fixation are implant-related and implant-specific. For the TEN, hardware irritation and protrusion, telescoping or migration, with a reported pooled incidence 20% (95%CI 14-26) and 12% (95%CI 8-18), are major contributors to the total complication rate. For the Rockwood/Hagie Pin, hardware irritation is identified as the most common complication with 22% (95%CI 13-35). The most common complication for the Sonoma CRx was cosmetic dissatisfaction in 6% (95%CI 2-17) of cases. Conclusion: Although most studies were of low quality, in general, good functional results and union rates irrespective of the type of device are found in the reviewed literature. However, there are clear device-related and device-specific complications for each. The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis can help guide surgeons in choosing the appropriate operative strategy, implant and informing their patient. Level of Evidence IV
A Passive RFID Tag Embedded Temperature Sensor With Improved Process Spreads Immunity for a $-{\hbox {30}}^{\circ}{\hbox {C}}$ to 60$^{\circ}{\hbox {C}}$ Sensing Range (2013)

We present an ultra-low power temperature sensor embedded in the passive RFID tag using the TSMC 1P6M 0.18 μm standard CMOS process. Substrate parasitic NPN bipolar pair is exploited to generate the temperature dependent current signals for thermal sensing. A time-domain readout scheme which has high immunity to the on-chip resistor, capacitor and clock frequency process-voltage-temperature (PVT) spreads is further proposed. Measurement results of the embedded sensor within the tag system shows a sensing accuracy of ±1.5 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> C (3σ) from -30 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> C to 60 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> C after one-point calibration at 20 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> C, with a sensing resolution of 0.3 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> C and a sampling rate of 68 samples per second. The embedded sensor draws 0.35 μA from a 1 V supply at room temperature and occupies a chip area of 0.14 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> .
Specific Serodiagnosis of Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis Using <i>Leishmania</i> Species Ribosomal Protein Extracts (2009)

In the present work, we have analyzed the antigenicity of Leishmania species ribosomal proteins (LRPs). To accomplish this, Leishmania infantum ribosomes were biochemically purified from promastigote cytosolic extracts, and their reactivities were analyzed by using the sera from dogs naturally infected with L. infantum. Since antibodies reacting against different ribosomal proteins were observed in all the serum samples obtained from dogs with symptomatic visceral leishmaniasis tested, we have analyzed the potential usefulness of the LRP extracts in the development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the serodiagnosis of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) in an area of Brazil where visceral leishmaniasis is endemic due to infection by Leishmania chagasi. A comparative ELISA with crude soluble Leishmania chagasi antigen (SLA) and L. infantum LRPs was performed. LRP- and SLA-based ELISAs gave similar sensitivities for the diagnosis of symptomatic CVL, but the LRP extract provided a very high sensitivity for the detection of oligosymptomatic and asymptomatic dogs. In addition, an LRP-based ELISA showed a higher specificity when the sera from dogs harboring other infections were included in the analysis. The LRP antigen displayed no cross-reactivity with sera from dogs that had any of the other diseases tested, notably, Chagas' disease. Our findings suggest that LRPs are a potential tool for the diagnosis of CVL and will be particularly useful for the diagnosis of asymptomatic CVL.
Nicotinamide mononucleotide synthetase is the key enzyme for an alternative route of NAD biosynthesis in <i>Francisella tularensis</i> (2009)

Enzymes involved in the last 2 steps of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) cofactor biosynthesis, which catalyze the adenylylation of the nicotinic acid mononucleotide (NaMN) precursor to nicotinic acid dinucleotide (NaAD) followed by its amidation to NAD, constitute promising drug targets for the development of new antibiotics. These enzymes, NaMN adenylyltransferase (gene nadD) and NAD synthetase (gene nadE), respectively, are indispensable and conserved in nearly all bacterial pathogens. However, a comparative genome analysis of Francisella tularensis allowed us to predict the existence of an alternative route of NAD synthesis in this category A priority pathogen, the causative agent of tularaemia. In this route, the amidation of NaMN to nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) occurs before the adenylylation reaction, which converts this alternative intermediate to the NAD cofactor. The first step is catalyzed by NMN synthetase, which was identified and characterized in this study. A crystal structure of this enzyme, a divergent member of the NadE family, was solved at 1.9-A resolution in complex with reaction products, providing a rationale for its unusual substrate preference for NaMN over NaAD. The second step is performed by NMN adenylyltransferase of the NadM family. Here, we report validation of the predicted route (NaMN --> NMN --> NAD) in F. tularensis including mathematical modeling, in vitro reconstitution, and in vivo metabolite analysis in comparison with a canonical route (NaMN --> NaAD --> NAD) of NAD biosynthesis as represented by another deadly bacterial pathogen, Bacillus anthracis.
Temporal Link Signature Measurements for Location Distinction (2010)

We investigate location distinction, the ability of a receiver to determine when a transmitter has changed location, which has application for energy conservation in wireless sensor networks, for physical security of radio-tagged objects, and for wireless network security in detection of replication attacks. In this paper, we investigate using a measured temporal link signature to uniquely identify the link between a transmitter (TX) and a receiver (RX). When the TX changes location, or if an attacker at a different location assumes the identity of the TX, the proposed location distinction algorithm reliably detects the change in the physical channel. This detection can be performed at a single RX or collaboratively by multiple receivers. We use 9,000 link signatures recorded at different locations and over time to demonstrate that our method significantly increases the detection rate and reduces the false alarm rate, in comparison to existing methods. We present a procedure to estimate the mutual information in link and link signature using the Edgeworth approximation. For the measured data set, we show that approximately 66 bits of link information is contained in each measured link signature.
Estimating Motion and size of moving non-line-of-sight objects in cluttered environments (2011)

We present a technique for motion and size estimation of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) moving objects in cluttered environments using a time of flight camera and multipath analysis. We exploit relative times of arrival after reflection from a grid of points on a diffuse surface and create a virtual phased-array. By subtracting space-time impulse responses for successive frames, we separate responses of NLOS moving objects from those resulting from the cluttered environment. After reconstructing the line-of-sight scene geometry, we analyze the space of wavefronts using the phased array and solve a constrained least squares problem to recover the NLOS target location. Importantly, we can recover target's motion vector even in presence of uncalibrated time and pose bias common in time of flight systems. In addition, we compute the upper bound on the size of the target by backprojecting the extremas of the time profiles. Ability to track targets inside rooms despite opaque occluders and multipath responses has numerous applications in search and rescue, medicine and defense. We show centimeter accurate results by making appropriate modifications to a time of flight system.
The Sequence‐Specific Cellular Uptake of Spherical Nucleic Acid Nanoparticle Conjugates (2015)

The sequence-dependent cellular uptake of spherical nucleic acid nanoparticle conjugates (SNAs) is investigated. This process occurs by interaction with class A scavenger receptors (SR-A) and caveolae-mediated endocytosis. It is known that linear poly(guanine) (poly G) is a natural ligand for SR-A, and it has been proposed that interaction of poly G with SR-A is dependent on the formation of G-quadruplexes. Since G-rich oligonucleotides are known to interact strongly with SR-A, it is hypothesized that SNAs with higher G contents would be able to enter cells in larger amounts than SNAs composed of other nucleotides, and as such, cellular internalization of SNAs is measured as a function of constituent oligonucleotide sequence. Indeed, SNAs with enriched G content show the highest cellular uptake. Using this hypothesis, a small molecule (camptothecin) is chemically conjugated with SNAs to create drug-SNA conjugates and it is observed that poly G SNAs deliver the most camptothecin to cells and have the highest cytotoxicity in cancer cells. Our data elucidate important design considerations for enhancing the intracellular delivery of spherical nucleic acids.
Phase I clinical trial of multi-antigen peptide vaccines therapy using cancer-testis antigens for patients with advanced or recurrent breast cancer. (2012)

e13037 Background: Cancer-testis (CT) antigens are proteins that are normally expressed only in the human germline, but are also present in a significant subset of malignant tumors. The practical importance of these proteins is that, due to their restricted expression pattern, they are frequently recognized by the immune system of cancer patients. Moreover, this antigenicity has raised the possibility of their use as vaccines to stimulate immune responses in order to combat tumor growth. As a result, many aspects of CT antigens have been examined in studies performed worldwide. Here we report the results of a phase I clinical trial combining five kinds of CT peptide (CDCA1,URLC10,KIF20A,DEPDC1,MPHOSPH1) vaccination. Methods: The subjects of the trial were HLA-A24-positive patients with metastatic and advanced breast cancer. The mixture of peptides was subcutaneously injected weekly with dose-escalation (doses of 0.5, 1, and 2 mg of each peptide/body, three patients/cohort). Safety, efficacy and immunological parameters were assessed. Results: No adverse events were observed in any patients. Of the 9 patients who completed at least one cycle of the treatment, 4 (44%) developed immunological reactions at the injection site. Specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) reacting to any peptide were induced in 7 (78%) of the 9 patients. Of the 7 patients who completed at least two cycles of the treatment, tumor regression compatible with stable disease (SD) was noted in 4 patients. The remaining patients had progressive disease (PD). The vaccine therapy was tolerable and safe at all doses. Conclusions: Combination therapy with CT antigens has therapeutic potential for patients with breast cancer. Peptide-specific CTLs against peptides in the vaccine were induced at a high rate, even in heavily pretreated patients. From an immunological perspective, the optimal dose for further clinical trials is ≥1 mg/body.
STRETCHABLE MICRO-ELECTRODE ARRAY (2002)

This paper focuses on the design consideration, fabrication processes and preliminary testing of the stretchable micro-electrode array. We are developing an implantable, stretchable micro-electrode array using polymer-based microfabrication techniques. The device will serve as the interface between an electronic imaging system and the human eye, directly stimulating retinal neurons via thin film conducting traces and electroplated electrodes. The metal features are embedded within a thin ({approx}50 micron) substrate fabricated using poly (dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), a biocompatible elastomeric material that has very low water permeability. The conformable nature of PDMS is critical for ensuring uniform contact with the curved surface of the retina. To fabricate the device, we developed unique processes for metalizing PDMS to produce robust traces capable of maintaining conductivity when stretched (5%, SD 1.5), and for selectively passivating the conductive elements. An in situ measurement of residual strain in the PDMS during curing reveals a tensile strain of 10%, explaining the stretchable nature of the thin metalized devices.
Contryphan Is a D-Tryptophan-containing Conus Peptide (1996)

In this report, we document for the first time the occurrence of D-tryptophan in a normally translated polypeptide, contryphan. The peptide, isolated from the venom of the fish-hunting marine snail Conus radiatus, produces the "stiff-tail" syndrome in mice. Characterization of the octapeptide gave the following sequence, Gly-Cys-Hyp-D-Trp-Glu-Pro-Trp-Cys-NH2 where Hyp = 4-trans-hydroxyproline. The presence of D-tryptophan in position 4 of contryphan was confirmed by chemical synthesis. The post-translational epimerization in all other D-amino acid-containing small peptides characterized previously from vertebrates and molluscan systems is in position 2.
Effects of Spectacle Intervention on the Progression of Myopia in Children (1999)

The literature on myopigenesis suggests an active emmetropization mechanism regulated by optical defocus. The strongest evidence comes from compensatory ocular growth in response to lens-induced defocus in different species of animals. Based on these results, it has been suggested that, however useful, spectacle intervention for the optical correction of human myopia would lead to its exacerbation. The present study seeks to evaluate the progression of juvenile-onset myopia in children differentiated by their lens wear patterns. Data from 43 myopes from our longitudinal study of refraction were evaluated, with myopia defined as a spherical equivalent of at least -0.50 D. Refractions were obtained in the laboratory by noncycloplegic retinoscopy performed by one experienced optometrist at regular intervals. Information regarding the subjects' prescription lens-wearing history was obtained from the subjects and their eye care providers. Based on their wearing patterns, subjects were divided into four categories: (1) full-time wearers; (2) myopes who switched from distance to full-time wear; (3) distance wearers; and (4) nonwearers. Exponential functions were fit to the individual refraction data. The age of onset of myopia, the mean myopia at onset of spectacle wear, and the refractive shift over a period of at least 3 years were derived from these fits. Results show that the 3-year refractive shifts are not significantly different among the four groups. A comparison of the extreme conditions, i.e., full-time vs. nonwear categories, also revealed no significant difference when the data were corrected for age effects despite the fact that the nonwearers exhibited an age-adjusted 3-year progression approximately one-half that of the full-time wearers. In summary, the present study failed to demonstrate any overall effects of spectacle intervention on the progression of human myopia. Further investigation using a larger sample is warranted.
Multi-domain clock skew scheduling (2003)

The application of general clock skew scheduling is practically limited due to the difficulties in implementing a wide spectrum of dedicated clock delays in a reliable manner. This results in a significant limitation of the optimization potential. As an alternative, the application of multiple clocking domains with dedicated phase shifts that are implemented by reliable, possibly expensive design structures can overcome these limitations and substantially increase the implementable optimization potential of clock adjustments. In this paper we present an algorithm for constrained clock skew scheduling which computes for a given number of clocking domains the optimal phase shifts for the domains and the assignment of the individual registers to the domains. For the within-domain latency values, the algorithm can assume a zero-skew clock delivery or apply a user-provided upper bound. Our experiments demonstrate that a constrained clock skew schedule using a few clocking domains combined with small within-domain latency can reliably implement the full sequential optimization potential to date only possible with an unconstrained clock schedule.
Automatic pronunciation scoring for language instruction (2002)

This work is part of an effort aimed at developing computer-based systems for language instruction; we address the task of grading the pronunciation quality of the speech of a student of a foreign language. The automatic grading system uses SRI's Decipher/sup TM/ continuous speech recognition system to generate phonetic segmentations. Based on these segmentations and probabilistic models we produce pronunciation scores for individual or groups of sentences. Scores obtained from expert human listeners are used as the reference to evaluate the different machine scores and to provide targets when training some of the algorithms. In previous work we had found that duration-based scores outperformed HMM log-likelihood-based scores. In this paper we show that we can significantly improve HMM-based scores by using average phone segment posterior probabilities. Correlation between machine and human scores went up from r=0.50 with likelihood-based scores to r=0.88 with posterior-based scores. The new measures also outperformed duration-based scores in their ability to produce reliable scores from only a few sentences.
Acceleration techniques for dynamic vector compaction (1995)

We present several techniques for accelerating dynamic vector compaction for combinational and sequential circuits. A key feature of all our techniques is that they significantly improve the computation times without adversely affecting the quality of test sets that can be derived using state-of-the-art compaction methods. Our techniques are based on three key ideas: (1) identification of support sets, (2) target fault switching, and (3) use of dynamic equivalent and untestable fault analysis, All these techniques are useful in significantly reducing the number of faults that have to be considered by a test generator or a fault simulator in a dynamic vector compaction system. For fault simulation, support sets quickly identify a large subset of faults that are guaranteed to be undetectable by a given input sequence. For test generation, support sets identify a large subset of faults that are guaranteed to be undetectable by any extension of a partially specified test sequence. Experimental results on ISCAS 89 benchmark circuits and large production VLSI circuits are included. For full scan designs, our acceleration techniques reduce the overall computation times by a factor of 2 to 3 without adversely affecting the quality (size) of the computed test sets or their fault coverages. The improvement factors obtained are higher for larger circuits. The acceleration techniques enabled the computation of compact test sets for large production circuits that the base test generation system was unable to process in more than 2 CPU days on a Silicon Graphics MIPS 4400 workstation. Results for sequential circuits also show that our acceleration techniques significantly improve the computation times for dynamic vector compaction.
Improving the Robustness of Cell Nucleus Segmentation (1998)

A highly successful active contour implementation, for the automatic segmentation of cervical cell nuclei, is shown to lend itself well to a framework that further increases its success rate. The method is based upon measuring changes in the final contour as the one parameter that governs its behaviour is varied. Only one object of interest is contained in the image, but as artefacts often appear as well, the contour varies with the parameter as it finds different solutions. In contrast, simple images with no artefacts are very stable. Therefore a stability measure is calculated and each image is classified according to its degree of 'difficulty'. A system can then choose at which level to operate to ensure only high quality examples are processed after segmentation.
Rhenium(IV) Sulfide Nanotubes. (2002)

Abstract For Abstract see ChemInform Abstract in Full Text.
A cognitive radio reconfigurable &#x201C;filtenna&#x201D; (2012)

This paper presents a new technique to implement a frequency reconfigurable antenna system. The antenna reconfiguration is based on integrating a tunable band-pass filter within the feeding line of the antenna structure. The combination of the filter and the antenna together in the same substrate constitutes a system called “filtenna”. The tuning of the antenna operating frequency is achieved by changing the operating band of the filter via a varactor. A prototype antenna is fabricated and tested. A good agreement is found between the simulated and the measured data.