gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Self-Cleaning Membrane to Extend the Lifetime of an Implanted Glucose Biosensor (2013)

The lifetime and efficacy of a subcutaneously implanted glucose biosensor could be greatly improved by a self-cleaning membrane capable of periodic physical removal of adhered cells associated with the foreign body reaction. Previously, we reported a thermoresponsive double network nanocomposite (DNNC) membrane composed of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) and embedded polysiloxane nanoparticles. When the membrane was thermally cycled above and below its volume phase transition temperature (VPTT, ~33-35 °C), the associated deswelling and reswelling, respectively, led to in vitro cell release. Herein, this membrane design was tailored to meet the specific demands of a subcutaneously implanted glucose biosensor, and critical functional properties were assessed. First, N-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP) comonomer increased the VPTT to ~38 °C so that the membrane would be swollen and thus more permeable to glucose in the "off-state" (i.e., no heating) while residing in the subcutaneous tissue (~35 °C). Second, glucose diffusion kinetics though the DNNC membrane was experimentally measured in its deswollen and reswollen states. A cylindrical DNNC membrane with dimensions considered suitable for implantation (1.5 × 5 mm, diameter × length) was used to model the glucose diffusion lag time. In addition, the DNNC cylinder was used to observe dimensional changes associated with deswelling and reswelling. Noncytotoxicity was confirmed and self-cleaning was assessed in vitro in terms of thermally driven cell release to confirm the potential of the DNNC membrane to control biofouling.
A comprehensive system-level simulation paradigm for UWB systems (2010)

A comprehensive simulation paradigm for UWB systems has been outlined. Its use in accurately simulating the performance of actual experimental through wall imaging radar and indoor positioning systems has been presented. The accuracy of the simulation framework has been validated experimentally using our UWB imaging radar and indoor positioning prototypes. This general framework provides a robust solution for rapid prototyping and optimizing of mixed signal UWB systems and requires accurate channel modeling.
Process–structure–property relationship of melt spun poly(lactic acid) fibers produced in the spunbond process (2016)

ABSTRACT We report on the process–structure–property relationships for Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) filaments produced through the spunbond process. The influence of spinning speed, polymer throughput, and draw ratio on crystallinity and birefringence of fibers were evaluated. We established that increasing spinning speed increases crystallinity and birefringence of fibers. We also investigate the role of fiber structures on fiber tensile properties—breaking tensile strength, strain at break, initial modulus, and natural draw ratio. An increase in spinning speed leads to a higher breaking tensile strength, higher initial modulus and lower strain at break. We have shown an almost linear relationship between breaking tensile strength of PLA fibers and birefringence. This indicates that improved tensile properties at high spinning speeds can be attributed to enhanced molecular orientation. The dependency of fiber breaking tensile strength and strain at break on spun orientation were explained with natural draw ratio, as a measure of spun orientation. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133 , 44225.
Block copolymer directed synthesis of mesoporous TiO2for dye-sensitized solar cells (2008)

The morphology of TiO2 plays an important role in the operation of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells. By using polyisoprene-block-ethyleneoxide (PI-b-PEO) copolymers as structure directing agents for a sol-gel based synthesis of mesoporous TiO2, we demonstrate a strategy for the detailed control of the semiconductor morphology on the 10 nm length scale. The careful adjustment of polymer molecular weight and titania precursor content is used to systematically vary the material structure and its influence upon solar cell performance is investigated. Furthermore, the use of a partially sp2 hybridized structure directing polymer enables the crystallization of porous TiO2 networks at high temperatures without pore collapse, improving its performance in solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells.
Dose-dependent Toxicity of Humanized Renilla reniformis GFP (hrGFP) Limits Its Utility as a Reporter Gene in Mouse Muscle (2013)

Gene therapy has historically focused on delivering protein-coding genes to target cells or tissues using a variety of vectors. In recent years, the field has expanded to include gene-silencing strategies involving delivery of noncoding inhibitory RNAs, such as short hairpin RNAs or microRNAs (miRNAs). Often called RNA interference (RNAi) triggers, these small inhibitory RNAs are difficult or impossible to visualize in living cells or tissues. To circumvent this detection problem and ensure efficient delivery in preclinical studies, vectors can be engineered to coexpress a fluorescent reporter gene to serve as a marker of transduction. In this study, we set out to optimize adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors capable of delivering engineered miRNAs and green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter genes to skeletal muscle. Although the more broadly utilized enhanced GFP (eGFP) gene derived from the jellyfish, Aequorea victoria was a conventional choice, we were concerned about some previous studies suggesting this protein was myotoxic. We thus opted to test vectors carrying the humanized Renilla reniformis-derived GFP (hrGFP) gene, which has not seen as extensive usage as eGFP but was purported to be a safer and less cytotoxic alternative. Employing AAV6 vector dosages typically used in preclinical gene transfer studies (3×10(10) -1 × 10(11) particles), we found that hrGFP caused dose-dependent myopathy when delivered to wild-type (wt) mouse muscle, whereas identical titers of AAV6 carrying eGFP were relatively benign. Dose de-escalation at or below 8 × 10(9) AAV particles effectively reduced or eliminated hrGFP-associated myotoxicity, but also had dampening effects on green fluorescence and miRNA-mediated gene silencing in whole muscles. We conclude that hrGFP is impractical for use as a transduction marker in preclinical, AAV-based RNA interference therapy studies where adult mouse muscle is the target organ. Moreover, our data support that eGFP is superior to hrGFP as a reporter gene in mouse muscle. These results may impact the design of future preclinical gene therapy studies targeting muscles and non-muscle tissues alike.Molecular Therapy - Nucleic Acids (2013) 2, e86; doi:10.1038/mtna.2013.16; published online 16 April 2013.
Relationships between stressful life events, psychological distress and resilience among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adolescents (2014)

Objective(s): In order to shed light on the impacts of various stressful life events and resilience factors&#13;\nduring adolescence and across different cultural backgrounds, this study explored a variety of protective and vulnerability factors associated with psychological distress among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth. &#13;\n&#13;\nMethods: The participants were 207 adolescents (mean age = 15.8 years, 55% female, 45% Aboriginal) recruited from two secondary schools located in Innu communities of Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean and Côte Nord (Canada). Data were collected on psychological distress, exposure to stressful life events,&#13;\nand resilience.&#13;\n&#13;\nResults: Six multiple linear regressions were conducted to predict six dimensions of psychological distress. Sexual abuse, family violence and other stressful life events were all associated with higher levels of psychological symptoms. Individual resilience factors were associated with lower levels of depression, anxiety, dissociation and post-traumatic stress (PTS), whereas relational/familial resilience factors were associated with lower levels of anger and sexual concerns. The relationship with contextual resilience was not significant.&#13;\n&#13;\nConclusions and implications: Overall, these results indicate that stressful life events such as sexual abuse and family violence may have deleterious effects on the mental health of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adolescents. However, some individual and relational factors may have positive effects on their mental health. These findings may provide hope for communities under greater stress and support the importance of establishing culturally sensitive intervention strategies that strengthen the key protective factors identified in this study.
Microbiome profiling of commercial pigs from farrow to finish (2018)

Balanced bacterial communities within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of animals are a key component of gut health, resulting in optimal performance and the prevention of disease. The purpose of this study was to characterize the commercial pig's baseline bacterial microbiome over time and across anatomical site. Several anatomical sites (duodenum/jejunum, ileum, cecum, and colon) were examined across multiple ages (days 0, 10, 21, 33, 62, 84, and market) for bacterial microbiome structure using 16S rRNA V4 region sequencing with Illumina MiSeq. General trends in the succession of the bacterial microbiome were observed over age, such as increasing populations of Clostridia and decreasing populations of Gammaproteobacteria (P < 0.05). However, apparent disruptions in the microbiome were also observed that did not follow these trends, specifically at sampling 24 h post-weaning where Lactobacillaceae were drastically reduced in relative abundance (P < 0.05). The introduction of solid feed between days 21 and 33 had the greatest overall impact on bacterial community structure as compared with the effects of age, changes in solid feed type, and pig movement. A core bacterial microbiome was identified across all anatomical sites consisting of the dominant operational taxonomic units (OTUs); samples were only differentiated based upon anatomical site when considering less abundant OTUs and differences in relative abundance. When considering mucosal vs. digesta samples from the cecum and ileum, several taxa were of significantly higher relative abundance in the mucosa (P < 0.05), including Anaerovibrio, Bacteroides, Desulfovibrio, Helicobacter, Oscillospira, Phascolarctobacterium, and Prevotella. Correlations between several genus-level taxa and pig weight were observed. Overall, this study provides an expanded view of the dynamic pig GI microbiome from farrow to finish.
Organization of the S I Cortex (1981)

Recent electrophysiological mapping studies have led to a significant redefinition of the internal organization of “S I” of primates (11, 17). Classically, “SI” has been described as a single and at least largely continuous representation of the body surface spanning four distinct architectonic regions, areas 3a, 3b, 1 and 2, in a number of New World and Old World species of primates (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 14, 27–31, 36-42). However, these new studies (extending earlier, more limited mapping studies of Paul et al., 23–25) have revealed that there are two complete (or nearly complete) representations of the body surface and two representations of deep body structures within the classical primate “S I” (11,17). The two large cutaneous representations are coincident with cytoarchitectonic areas 3b and 1. These two cutaneous representations have striking differences in internal topography, and in proportional representation of different skin surfaces.
EarBit (2017)

Chronic and widespread diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia require patients to monitor their food intake, and food journaling is currently the most common method for doing so. However, food journaling is subject to self-bias and recall errors, and is poorly adhered to by patients. In this paper, we propose an alternative by introducing EarBit, a wearable system that detects eating moments. We evaluate the performance of inertial, optical, and acoustic sensing modalities and focus on inertial sensing, by virtue of its recognition and usability performance. Using data collected in a simulated home setting with minimum restrictions on participants' behavior, we build our models and evaluate them with an unconstrained outside-the-lab study. For both studies, we obtained video footage as ground truth for participants activities. Using leave-one-user-out validation, EarBit recognized all the eating episodes in the semi-controlled lab study, and achieved an accuracy of 90.1% and an F<sub>1</sub>-score of 90.9% in detecting chewing instances. In the unconstrained, outside-the-lab evaluation, EarBit obtained an accuracy of 93% and an F<sub>1</sub>-score of 80.1% in detecting chewing instances. It also accurately recognized all but one recorded eating episodes. These episodes ranged from a 2 minute snack to a 30 minute meal.
Functional Characterization of the Candidate Tumor Suppressor Gene NPRL2 / G21 Located in 3p21.3C (2004)

Initial analysis identified the NPRL2/G21 gene located in 3p21.3C, the lung cancer region, as a strong candidate tumor suppressor gene. Here we provide additional evidence of the tumor suppressor function of NPRL2/G21. The gene has highly conserved homologs/orthologs ranging from yeast to humans. The yeast ortholog, NPR2, shows three highly conserved regions with 32 to 36% identity over the whole length. By sequence analysis, the main product of NPRL2/G21 encodes a soluble protein that has a bipartite nuclear localization signal, a protein-binding domain, similarity to the MutS core domain, and a newly identified nitrogen permease regulator 2 domain with unknown function. The gene is highly expressed in many tissues. We report inactivating mutations in a variety of tumors and cancer cell lines, growth suppression of tumor cells with tet-controlled NPRL2/G21 transgenes on plastic Petri dishes, and suppression of tumor formation in SCID mice. Screening of 7 renal, 5 lung, and 7 cervical carcinoma cell lines showed homozygous deletions in the 3' end of NPRL2 in 2 renal, 3 lung, and 1 cervical (HeLa) cell line. Deletions in the 3' part of NPRL2 could result in improper splicing, leading to the loss of the 1.8 kb functional NPRL2 mRNA. We speculate that the NPRL2/G21 nuclear protein may be involved in mismatch repair, cell cycle checkpoint signaling, and activation of apoptotic pathway(s). The yeast NPR2 was shown to be a target of cisplatin, suggesting that the human NPRL2/G21 may play a similar role. At least two homozygous deletions of NPRL2/G21 were detected in 6 tumor biopsies from various locations and with microsatellite instability. This study, together with previously obtained results, indicates that NPRL2 is a multiple tumor suppressor gene.
New strategies in vaccine design for the induction of CD8 T cell responses using biodegradable iron oxide nanoparticles (2017)

Abstract For vaccines targeting diseases such as malaria and cancer, CD8 T cell responses are vital. Traditional adjuvants, like alum, are incapable of inducing these responses and thus new delivery strategies are required. Previously, we have shown that biocompatible polystyrene nanoparticles (PSNPs) (carboxylate, 40–50 nm) can induce potent cytotoxic T cell and antibody responses when conjugated to antigen and can protect mice against experimental tumours or clear large established tumours after a single immunization. As a biodegradable alternative; we synthesised ~50 nm iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) stabilized with the polysaccharide pullulan. The IONPs share similar characteristics (size, charge and shape) with the PSNPs, are stable, non-toxic, rapidly taken up by dendritic cells in vitro and are considered inert as they do not upregulate costimulatory markers. The adjuvant/carrier capabilities of IONPs when conjugated to model antigen ovalbumin (OVA) were assessed in vivo. IONPs can induce strong antibody responses but failed to boost the T cell response (Th1 and Th2) after two immunisations, despite their similarity to PSNPs. This implies that the composition of a NP can affect its interactions with the immune system and as such its behaviour as a carrier. To produce an IONP delivery system in which CD8 T cells could also be induced in addition to strong antibody responses, IONPs were co-delivered with the TLR9 agonist CpG. This led to &amp;gt; 2-fold increases in CD8 T cell and antibody responses above either IONPs or CpG alone. Therefore, these biodegradable particles have the capacity to synergize with an inflammatory adjuvant and provide a new strategy for vaccine delivery focused on the induction of CD8 T cell responses.
ChemInform Abstract: Terminal Difluoro Olefin Analogues of Squalene are Time‐Dependent Inhibitors of Squalene Epoxidase. (1992)

Abstract ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.
Comparison of Five Radiographic Scoring Systems for Assessment of Bone Healing after Tibial Plateau Levelling Osteotomy in Dogs (2022)

Introduction: Accurate assessment of bone healing following an osteotomy procedure is vital in determining both clinical treatment as well as research purposes. To date, it is unknown which scoring system provides the most accurate assessment of osteotomy changes after tibial plateau levelling osteotomy (TPLO). The goal of this study was to compare the ability of five radiographic scoring systems to identify changes in bone healing after TPLO over time.
Search for supersymmetry in events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, and at least one tau lepton in 7 TeV proton-proton collision data with the ATLAS detector (2012)

A search for supersymmetry (SUSY) in events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, and at least one hadronically decaying lepton, with zero or one additional light lepton (e/), has been performed using 4.7 fb -1 of proton-proton collision data at s = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess above the Standard Model background expectation is observed and a 95 % confidence level visible cross-section upper limit for new phenomena is set. In the framework of gauge-mediated SUSY-breaking models, lower limits on the mass scale are set at 54 TeV in the regions where the 1 is the next-to-lightest SUSY particle (tan > 20). These limits provide the most stringent tests to date of GMSB models in a large part of the parameter space considered.
Intercell Interference Reduction by the Use of Chebyshev Circular Antenna Arrays with Beam Steering (2007)

Advanced antenna arrays at the base stations are one of the key techniques to reduce interference in WCDMA cellular systems. This paper presents the use of the beam steering method with circular arrays along with Chebyshev current distributions in order to reduce the value of the ratio of intercell interference to received intracell power in WCDMA cellular systems. The intercell to intracell interference ratio of the beam steering case with the proposed arrays is compared to that of the conventional omnidirectional case. The obtained results demonstrate a notable superiority of the proposed antenna arrays.
Gender Differences in Murine Airway Responsiveness and Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Inflammation (2006)

The roles of gender and sex hormones in lung function and disease are complex and not completely understood. The present study examined the influence of gender on lung function and respiratory mechanics in naive mice and on acute airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness induced by intratracheal LPS administration. Basal lung function characteristics did not differ between naive males and females, but males demonstrated significantly greater airway responsiveness than females following aerosolized methacholine challenge as evidenced by increased respiratory system resistance and elastance (p < 0.05). Following LPS administration, males developed more severe hypothermia and greater airway hyperresponsiveness than females (p < 0.05). Inflammatory indices including bronchoalveolar lavage fluid total cells, neutrophils, and TNF-alpha content were greater in males than in females 6 h following LPS administration (p < 0.05), whereas whole-lung TLR-4 protein levels did not differ among treatment groups, suggesting that differential expression of TLR-4 before or after LPS exposure did not underlie the observed inflammatory outcomes. Gonadectomy decreased airway inflammation in males but did not alter inflammation in females, whereas administration of exogenous testosterone to intact females increased their inflammatory responses to levels observed in intact males. LPS-induced airway hyperresponsiveness was also decreased in castrated males and was increased in females administered exogenous testosterone. Collectively, these data indicate that airway responsiveness in naive mice is influenced by gender, and that male mice have exaggerated airway inflammatory and functional responses to LPS compared with females. These gender differences are mediated, at least in part, by effects of androgens.
Adaptation and validation of the Genetic Counseling Outcome Scale for autism spectrum disorders and related conditions (2020)

The genetics care pathway experienced by families affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) around the time of diagnosis is currently uncharacterized and potentially variable across contexts. The lack of consensus on outcome measures to capture the impact of genetic services for these families shows a gap in understanding and optimizing this genetics care pathway. The Genetic Counseling Outcome Scale (GCOS-24) is a validated outcome measure of clinical genetics services. The current study aims to adapt and validate the GCOS-24 as an outcome measure in the context routine genetic testing in ASD and related conditions. Families seen for their child's developmental evaluation for ASD and related conditions were invited to participate in a genomics cohort between 2016 and 2018. Families (n = 111) completed the mGCOS-24 (modified GCOS-24), adapted from the original GCOS-24 by clinicians working in the target population's routine care pathway. The mGCOS-24 has acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.84) and high test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.88). It also inversely correlates with stress as measured by Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and distress, as measured by the Distress Thermometer, rs ≥ 0.39, ps < 0.001. The mGCOS-24 had adequate readability, as supported by cognitive interviews completed by a sub-sample of five mothers of a child with ASD. Together, our findings show that the mGCOS-24 has good validity for the target population. Preliminary characterization of the genetics care pathway in this population revealed remarkable variability in pre-test counseling and limited post-test counseling. The use of the mGCOS-24 as an outcome measure is useful in filling some of these gaps by offering a way to assess, and in the future, optimize the genetics care pathway for families affected by autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions.