gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Pneumococcal carriage among children aged 4 – 12 years in Angola 4 years after the introduction of a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (2020)

Children in Angola are affected by a high burden of disease caused by pneumococcal infections. The 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) was introduced in the childhood immunization programme in 2013 but the serotype distribution of Streptococcus pneumoniae and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns are unknown. We did a cross-sectional nasopharyngeal carriage study in Luanda and Saurimo, Angola (PCV13 3rd dose coverage 67% and 84%, respectively) during November to December 2017 comprising 940 children aged 4-12 years. The main objective was to assess vaccine serotype coverage and antimicrobial susceptibility rates for S. pneumoniae. Our secondary aim was to characterize colonizinig strains of Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis. Pneumococcal colonization was found in 35% (95% CI 32-39%) of children (n = 332), with 41% of serotypes covered by PCV13. The most common serotypes were 3 (8%), 18C (6%), 23F (6%), 11A (6%), 34 (6%), 19F (5%) and 16 (5%). Carriage of H. influenzae and M. catarrhalis was detected in 13% (95% CI 11-15%) and 15% (95% CI 13-17%) of children, respectively. Non-susceptibility to penicillin was common among pneumococci (40%), particularly among PCV13-included serotypes (50% vs. 33%; p = 0.003), although the median minimal inhibitory concentration was low (0.19 µg/mL, IQR 0.13-0.25 µg/mL). Most pneumococci and H. influenzae were susceptible to amoxicillin (99% and 88%, respectively). Furthermore, resistance to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole was>70% among all three species. Multidrug-resistant pneumococci (non-susceptible to ≥ 3 antibiotics; 7% [n = 24]) were further studied with whole genome sequencing to investigate clonality as an underlying cause for this phenotype. No clearly dominating clone(s) were, however, detected. The results indicate that continued use of PCV13 may have positive direct and herd effects on pneumococcal infections in Angola as carriage of vaccine serotypes was common in the non-vaccinated age group. Finally, amoxicillin is assessed to be a feasible empirical treatment of respiratory tract infections in Angola.
Addition of Ammonia to AlH3and BH3. Why Does Only Aluminum Form 2:1 Adducts? (1999)

The electronic structures of the mono- and bisammonia adducts EH3NH3 and EH3(NH3)2, E = B and Al, have been investigated using ab initio electronic structure methods. Geometries were optimized at the MP2/cc-pVTZ level. Higher-level correlated methods (MP4(SDTQ), QCISD(T), CCSD(T)), as well as the G2 and CBS-Q methods, were used to obtain accurate bond dissociation energies. The E-N bond dissociation energy (De) is computed near 33 kcal/mol (E = B) and 31 kca/mol (E = Al), respectively. Whereas the Al-N bond energy pertaining to the second ammonia molecule in AlH3(NH3)2 is 11-12 kcal/mol, only a transition-state structure may be located for the species BH3(NH3)2. We analyze factors which may distinguish Al from B with respect to the formation of stable bisamine adducts. The most significant difference relates to electronegativity and hence the propensity of boron to engage in predominantly covalent bonding, as compared with the bonding of aluminum with ammonia, which shows substantial electrostatic character. Neither steric factors nor the participation of d-orbitals is found to play an important role in differentiating aluminum from boron. The lesser electronegativity of third-row elements appears to be the critical common feature allowing the formation of hypercoordinate complexes of these elements in contrast to their second-row analogues. Consideration of some group 14 analogues and hard/soft acid/base effects supports this view.
Preliminary Study of Shape-Memory Alloy Torsional Tubes as Thermal Management Actuators under Non-Ideal Conditions (2022)

View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-3372.vid Shape-memory alloys (SMAs) have been used in many engineering applications because of their shape-memory effect and pseudoelasticity. SMA behavior is well understood under steady and constant temperature and loading conditions, whereas transient and non-ideal conditions effects should be further investigated. In this research, SMA torque tubes are studied for use in thermal management applications as self-regulated actuators responding to a process fluid with changes in temperature, with the goal of improved system efficiency by keeping components at an optimal temperature. When utilized in a thermal management configuration, it is likely that the SMA’s thermal environment will be different than that to which it was trained for, leading to challenges from a modeling standpoint. Process fluid transients lead to temperature fluctuations in the SMA, which may not be negligible in a self-regulated system. Similarly, without perfect insulation of the SMA, a temperature gradient (potentially both along the length and along the thickness) will occur when the SMA is subject to a different boundary condition than what they were trained for (steady isothermal). Empirical efforts have shown that this leads to deviations from expected behavior, challenging the modeling of an open-loop system. This study looks at Nitinol (Nickel-Titanium alloy) rotational actuator tubes, with the goal further understanding the non-ideal conditions for a future model system. The SMA tube was subjected to both insulated and natural convection boundary conditions, with low and high mass flow rates for both heating and cooling cases. The one-dimensional model was compared to experiments as well as a modified thermal model to help improve modeling efforts. Experimental efforts show that a convection boundary leads to temperature gradients, especially at high temperatures and low flow rates. Thermal modeling showed no significant variation along the thickness, mostly due to the small thickness of the tube.
Regulation of Transcription of Nucleotide-Binding Leucine-Rich Repeat-Encoding Genes SNC1 and RPP4 via H3K4 Trimethylation (2013)

Plant nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) proteins serve as intracellular sensors to detect pathogen effectors and trigger immune responses. Transcription of the NB-LRR-encoding Resistance (R) genes needs to be tightly controlled to avoid inappropriate defense activation. How the expression of the NB-LRR R genes is regulated is poorly understood. The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) suppressor of npr1-1, constitutive 1 (snc1) mutant carries a gain-of-function mutation in a Toll/Interleukin1 receptor-like (TIR)-NB-LRR-encoding gene, resulting in the constitutive activation of plant defense responses. A snc1 suppressor screen identified modifier of snc1,9 (mos9), which partially suppresses the autoimmune phenotypes of snc1. Positional cloning revealed that MOS9 encodes a plant-specific protein of unknown function. Expression analysis showed that MOS9 is required for the full expression of TIR-NB-LRR protein-encoding RECOGNITION OF PERONOSPORA PARASITICA 4 (RPP4) and SNC1, both of which reside in the RPP4 cluster. Coimmunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry analyses revealed that MOS9 associates with the Set1 class lysine 4 of histone 3 (H3K4) methyltransferase Arabidopsis Trithorax-Related7 (ATXR7). Like MOS9, ATXR7 is also required for the full expression of SNC1 and the autoimmune phenotypes in the snc1 mutant. In atxr7 mutant plants, the expression of RPP4 is similarly reduced, and resistance against Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis Emwa1 is compromised. Consistent with the attenuated expression of SNC1 and RPP4, trimethylated H3K4 marks are reduced around the promoters of SNC1 and RPP4 in mos9 plants. Our data suggest that MOS9 functions together with ATXR7 to regulate the expression of SNC1 and RPP4 through H3K4 methylation, which plays an important role in fine-tuning their transcription levels and functions in plant defense.
Author response: Neural retina-specific Aldh1a1 controls dorsal choroidal vascular development via Sox9 expression in retinal pigment epithelial cells (2018)

The retina is the part at the back of our eyes that detects light and sends this information to our brain. Within the retina is a layered structure containing the light-sensitive cells, known as the neural retina, and another protective layer of cells called the retinal pigment epithelium. A surrounding network of blood vessels, the choroid, keeps the retina healthy by supplying oxygen and nutrients. When the choroid does not work properly, eye disease can result. A common example is age-related macular degeneration, where blood vessels in the choroid either break down or start growing uncontrollably in the wrong places. In both cases, light-sensitive cells are damaged and eventually die. This causes vision loss that worsens over time. The choroid forms early in life, within the developing embryo. The retinal pigment epithelium helps the choroid to develop properly by producing a protein, VEGF, which supports the growth of blood vessels. However, it was not clear what signals tell this tissue to start making VEGF in the first place and then to keep making it. To address this, Goto et al. looked at eye development in mutant mice that lack an enzyme called Aldh1a1. This enzyme’s role is to make a molecule called retinoic acid, which is known to be vital for many biological processes including the growth and development of embryos. Aldh1a1 is not made in the choroid of normal mice, just in the neural retina. Yet the choroid in the mutant mice without Aldh1a1 still grew fewer blood vessels than normal. Their retinal pigment epithelium also produced less VEGF and had lower levels of a protein called Sox9, which is known to make the gene for VEGF more active. Goto et al. went on to show that simply removing retinoic acid from the diet of normal mice produced the same choroid defect as in the mutant mice with no Aldh1a1. Genetically manipulating otherwise normal mice to decrease the levels of Sox9 in the retinal pigment epithelium had a similar effect. In contrast, giving Aldh1a1-deficient mice extra retinoic acid or artificially increasing their levels Sox9 was enough to make the choroid develop normally. These experiments showed that retinoic acid produced in the neural retina directs choroid development by making Sox9 more active, which in turn encourages the retinal pigment epithelium to produce VEGF. These findings bring new insights into the molecular signals that control choroid development. In the future, they may also help scientists to better understand why blood vessels in the choroid become abnormal in eye diseases like age-related macular degeneration.
Music processing above and below the fundamental frequency (2004)

Because of the centrality of pitch to music, most music signal processing has been focused on pitch-related timescales, e.g., short-time analysis over 30–50-ms windows. But there is, of course, important information at other scales as well. By looking at ways to model and extract very fine time-scale information one can extract attributes that lead to the perception of ‘‘texture’’ in unpitched instruments such as maracas. At the other extreme, interesting effects can be revealed by investigating the effect of ‘‘modulation-domain’’ processing, such as filtering subband energy envelopes in the 0.1–10-Hz range. A single representation, frequency-domain linear prediction, gives convenient access to both these scales: its use in music analysis/synthesis will be illustrated by examples.
Pharmacokinetics of phenobarbital in horses after single and repeated oral administration of the drug (1992)

Six healthy mature horses were orally administered a single dose of phenobarbital (26 mg/kg of body weight), then multiple doses (13 mg/kg) orally for 42 consecutive days. Seventeen venous blood samples were collected from each horse after the single dose study and again after the last dose on day 42. Plasma phenobarbital concentration was determined by use of a fluorescence assay validated for horses. Additional blood samples (n = 11) were collected on days 8 and 25 to determine peak and trough concentrations, as well as total body clearance. Phenobarbital disposition followed a one-compartment model. Mean kinetic variables after single and repeated orally administered doses (42 days) were: elimination half-life = 24.2 +/- 4.7 and 11.2 +/- 2.3 hours, volume of distribution = 0.960 +/- 0.060 and 0.914 +/- 0.119 L/kg, and clearance = 28.2 +/- 5.1 and 57.3 +/- 9.6 ml/h/kg, respectively. Results indicated that significant (P less than 0.05) difference in half-life and oral clearance existed between single and repeated dosing. The significant decrease in half-life after repeated dosing with phenobarbital may be indicative of enzyme induction. Significant difference was not observed between baseline serum enzyme concentration and concentration measured on day 42, except for gamma-glutamyltransferase activity, which was significantly increased on day 42 in 3 of the 6 horses. On the basis of increases in oral clearance observed over 42 days, dose adjustments may be required.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Low-temperature NOx removal for flue gas cleanup (1996)

A wide range of NO{sub x} control processes for electric utilities are under investigation to compete with the current processes such as selective catalytic reduction (SCR). Although SCR using NH{sub 3} is effective for NO reduction, the process suffers from many disadvantages. In addition, current SCR processes must be located at places within the flue gas treatment process where temperatures are near 400{degrees}C. Retrofitting SCR into these locations in the plant is costly because space and access in many power plants are extremely limited. Therefore, there is a need to develop NO{sub x} control technologies that can be located downstream of the particulate control device, near the stack, where temperatures are around 150{degrees}C. This study investigates the low-temperature selective reduction of NO with hydrocarbons under simulated flue gas conditions over carbon and carbon-supported catalysts. NO oxidation to NO{sub 2} was also investigated as a way of making NO more reactive with hydrocarbons or easier to be removed by absorption at these temperatures.
<title>Conoscopic holography</title> (2005)

Based on crystal optics, Conoscopy is a unique implementation of polarized light interference process,. In the basic interference set-up a light beam is projected onto a diffusive object. The beam creates a light point on a target, which via reflection disperses the light in all directions. A complete solid angle of the diffused light is analyzed.. The measurement process corresponds to the retrieval of a distance of the light point from a fmed reference plane. Three dimensional measurement systems based on Conoscopic Holography are steadily gaining ground against conventional techniques. Conoscopic system have evolved from an exotic solution to the fist choice for all measurement problems not covered by triangulation techniques. Currently, they can be utilized on many applications such as quality control measurements, digitizing, reverse engineering and in-process inspection. A review of Conoscopic Holography principle will be presented in the first part of the paper. The exclusivity of Conoscopic Holography and its distinction from commonly used techniques will be reviewed.
Optimizing combination dabrafenib and trametinib therapy in BRAF mutation‐positive advanced melanoma patients: Guidelines from Australian melanoma medical oncologists (2016)

BRAF mutations occur commonly in metastatic melanomas and inhibition of mutant BRAF and the downstream kinase MEK results in rapid tumor regression and prolonged survival in patients. Combined therapy with BRAF and MEK inhibition improves response rate, progression free survival and overall survival compared with single agent BRAF inhibition, and reduces the skin toxicity that is seen with BRAF inhibitor monotherapy. However, this combination is associated with an increase in other toxicities, particularly drug-related pyrexia, which affects approximately 50% of patients treated with dabrafenib and trametinib (CombiDT). We provide guidance on managing adverse events likely to arise during treatment with combination BRAF and MEK inhibition with CombiDT: pyrexia, skin conditions, fatigue; and discuss management of CombiDT during surgery and radiotherapy. By improving tolerability and in particular preventing unnecessary treatment cessations or reduction in drug exposure, best outcomes can be achieved for patients undergoing CombiDT therapy.
MRI zero: Fully automated invention of MRI sequences using supervised learning (2019)

Purpose/Introduction: We present a supervised learning approach to automatically generate MR sequences and corresponding reconstruction from scratch without providing sequence programming rules. New framework is tested in human brain measurement at 3T. Subjects and Methods: The entire scanning and reconstruction process is simulated end-to-end as a fully differentiable concatenated sequence of tensor operations. Each tensor operation from the stack implements: RF events (RFE) (i.e. flip angles and phases), gradient moment events (GME) in x and y, delay times, and a weighting for an ADC, acting on the input model spin system (given in terms of PD, T1 and T2, and DB0). At the sequence learning step, we use Adam[1] optimizer to find the sequence parameters given the loss function specified with respect to data fidelity and SAR cost terms. Task and target We evaluate the proposed method on a simple task: match a target GRE-derived image by optimizing the gradients and flip angles and putting a penalty on SAR. Target sequence details: transient RF- and gradient-spoiled gradient echo readout with linear phase encoding, 24 9 24/48 9 48, TR/TE/FA = 20 ms/3 ms/5. Low FA decreases image blurring. As task sequences we used the same timing pattern and ADC as the target sequence, where for gradients and flip angles we approached four different tasks: Task 1: clone target GME and RFE, optimize only RFE with SAR penalty Task 2: clone target RFE, set GME to 0, optimize GME only Task 3: set RFE and GME to 0, optimize both RFE and GME Task 4: set RFE and GME to 0, optimize both RFE and GME with SAR penalty Results: The result of task 1 displayed in Fig. 1a–e shows that the optimizer prefers to lower flip angles in the outer k-space lines to reduce SAR by 40% keeping a small image error. Figure 1f–j shows how spatial encoding is learned from scratch (Task 2). Figure 2a–c shows that when learning both RFE and GME, too high flip angles are chosen (Task 3). This can be mitigated by putting an additional penalty on SAR. Figure 3c–e shows the full potential of MRI zero: the invention of a complete MRI sequence (Task 4) that is applicable to image acquisition at a real system (3T Siemens, Prisma) in phantoms and in vivo (Fig. 3). Discussion/Conclusion: We have developed a fully automated MRI sequence generator based on the Bloch equation simulations and supervised learning. While we focus on basic image generation herein, having such a tool at hand paves the way to a novel way of generating optimal MR sequence and reconstruction solely governed by the target provided, which could be a certain MR image, but the possibilities for targets are limitless, e.g. quantification, activation, segmentation or contrasts of other image modalities.
Synthesis, Characterization and Electrical Conductivity of Polyaniline-MnZnFeO Nano-composites (2016)

The polyaniline/Mn0.8Zn0.2Fe2O4 (PANI/MZFO) nano-composites, with different ferrite contents (10, 20 and 30 wt%), were prepared via in situ polymerization technique using aniline and MZFO prepared using citrate auto-combustion route. The produced composites were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), thermogravimetry (TG), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. The effect of compositional variation on the electromagnetic properties of PANI was measured using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and ac-conductivity as a function of temperature. The results of XRD and FT-IR indicated an interfacial interaction between PANI and MZFO crystallites. TEM images showed that MZFO particles are embedded in the PANI matrix and formed core-shell structure. TG curves exhibited an increase in the thermal stability of PANI with the addition of MZFO. The hysteresis measurements indicate an improvement in the magnetic properties by the addition of ferrite. The conductivity measurements confirmed the interaction between PANI and MZFO and showed a change from metallic to semi-conducting properties by the addition of MZFO.
Work dealing (2002)

This paper introduces work-dealing, a new algorithm for "locality oriented" load distribution on small scale shared memory multi-processors. Its key feature is an unprecedented low overhead mechanism (only a couple of loads and stores per operation, and no costly compare-and-swaps) for dealing-out work to processors in a globally balanced way. We believe that for applications in which work-items have process affinity, especially applications running in dedicated mode ("stand alone"), work-dealing could prove a worthy alternative to the popular work-stealing paradigm.
Corrosion Resistance of Ni-Metal Matrix Composite Coatings: Effect of Microstructure (2017)

Abstract Metal matrix composite (MMC) and nanocomposite coatings are being proposed as alternatives to their monolithic counterparts to improve protection against wear in chemically-aggressive environments. Corrosion resistance of MMC coatings is strongly dependent on the coating microstructure, which is affected by the physical and chemical nature of the dispersed particles, as well as the particle concentration. In this paper, we present the results of our tests on the corrosion response of Ni-P MMC coatings with micro-crystalline and nano-crystalline diamond as the dispersed phase. Potentiodynamic and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests were performed to compare the corrosion of Ni-P composites and nanocomposites, and the results are analyzed in terms of their microstructures. The corrosion potential is primarily determined by the P content and the heat treatment carried out after deposition, and is weakly dependent on the particle content. In low-P coatings, the presence of micrometer-size particles has no significant impact on Ecorr and Icorr. Heat treatment increases Ecorr and decreases Icorr. Similar trends are observed in the high-P coatings. EIS results suggest self-healing behavior with some microstructures.
Compatible Single-Sideband Modulation for Optical Transmission of OFDM-Signals Using Direct Detection (2008)

Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing is a flexible modulation technique well known from wireless and wireline communications. Recently, it is also under discussion for optical communications. Beside transmission with coherent detection for optimum transmission quality also less complex schemes have been proposed applying direct detection. One promising approach called compatible single side-band modulation will be discussed in this paper.
How to beat the high pressure cost. (1989)

Low cost, enclosed, silicon wafer pressure transducers have recently been introduced on the market in physiological ranges. This paper describes one family of these devices and describes an electronic circuit to interface these devices to a chart recorder or other high-level recording device.