gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Prepaid cards: how do they function? how are they regulated? (2004)

This conference, sponsored by the Payment Cards Center, brought together prepaid card industry leaders and regulators to discuss how various prepaid-card systems work and the ways in which different state and federal laws can affect them. The conference featured sessions on bank- and merchant-issued gift cards, payroll cards, and flexible spending account cards. It also featured presentations by experts on Regulation E, the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, state money transmitter laws, and state abandoned property laws.
Validation of the Weight-Drop Contusion Model in Rats: A Comparative Study of Human Spinal Cord Injury (2000)

Animal models are widely used for studying the pathophysiology as well as treatment strategies for injuries of the central nervous system. However, it is still unclear in how far the rat model of spinal cord injury (SCI) is valid for human SCI. Therefore, comparisons were made among functional, electrophysiological, and morphological outcome parameters following SCI in rats and humans. Contusion of the mid-thoracic spinal cord in 27 adult rats was induced by a weight-drop, leading to severe deficits in open field locomotion at a chronic stage. The data of 85 human patients with chronic SCI were collected and compared with the rat data. In electrophysiological recordings, prolonged latencies and reduced amplitudes in both motor evoked potentials (MEP) and somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP) were closely correlated to the impairment of locomotor capacity of lower limbs in rats and humans. The morphological parameters assessed by high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in both species indicated that the lesion length and spinal cord atrophy were significantly related to the electrophysiological and functional outcome parameters. In rats, histological analysis was performed and showed, in addition to the MRI, a close relationship between spared white matter and locomotor capacity. Our results suggest an analogous relationship in rats and humans with respect to functional, electrophysiological, and morphological outcomes. Thus, the techniques for evaluating the extent and severity of SCI in humans and rats are of comparable value. This indicates that the rat can serve as an adequate animal model for research on functional and morphological changes after SCI and the effects of new treatment strategies.
Local Heat Activation of Single Myosins Based on Optical Trapping of Gold Nanoparticles (2015)

Myosin is a mechano-enzyme that hydrolyzes ATP in order to move unidirectionally along actin filaments. Here we show by single molecule imaging that myosin V motion can be activated by local heat. We constructed a dark-field microscopy that included optical tweezers to monitor 80 nm gold nanoparticles (GNP) bound to single myosin V molecules with nanometer and submillisecond accuracy. We observed 34 nm processive steps along actin filaments like those seen when using 200 nm polystyrene beads (PB) but dwell times (ATPase activity) that were 4.5 times faster. Further, by using DNA nanotechnology (DNA origami) and myosin V as a nanometric thermometer, the temperature gradient surrounding optically trapped GNP could be estimated with nanometer accuracy. We propose our single molecule measurement system should advance quantitative analysis of the thermal control of biological and artificial systems like nanoscale thermal ratchet motors.
Dendritic cells augment granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)/herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase-mediated gene therapy of lung cancer. (1999)

Lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, is resistant to most currently available therapies. To evaluate a multicomponent gene therapy approach that replaces tumor-bearing host immune deficits, we genetically modified Line 1 (L1C2), a weakly immunogenic alveolar cell carcinoma cell line. L1C2 was transduced ex vivo with a retroviral construct that contained two components: a cytokine gene (granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) and a drug sensitivity gene (herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase). The third component of this therapy, in vitro-activated syngeneic bone marrow-derived dendritic cells, was included to augment antigen presentation. The addition of ganciclovir (GCV) caused the lysis of transduced tumor cells, resulting in the release of potential tumor antigens. Ex vivo-transduced tumor cells regressed in vivo following GCV therapy but were not effective in the treatment of established parental tumors. To treat established tumors, dendritic cells were administered in combination with transduced tumor cells and GCV. A total of 50% of these mice rejected the 5-day-old established tumors and were immune to rechallenge with parental L1C2 cells. Thus, this multicomponent gene therapy system leads to both the regression of established tumors and enhanced immunogenicity in this weakly immunogenic murine lung cancer model.
A proposed laser frequency comb-based wavelength reference for high-resolution spectroscopy (2007)

High resolution spectroscopy is the foundation for many of the most challenging and productive of all astronomical observations. A highly precise, repeatable and stable wavelength calibration is especially essential for long term RV observations. The two wavelength references in wide use for visible wavelengths, iodine absorption cells and thorium/argon lamps, each have fundamental limitations which restrict their ultimate utility. We are exploring the possibility of adapting emerging laser frequency comb technology in development at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, to the needs of high resolution, high stability astronomical spectroscopy. This technology has the potential to extend the two current wavelength standards both in terms of spectral coverage and in terms of long term precision, ultimately enabling better than 10 cm/s astronomical radial velocity determination.
Use of Fetal Ultrasound to Select Metabolic Therapy for Pregnancies Complicated by Mild Gestational Diabetes (1994)

Fetal ultrasound early in the third trimester identified women with mild GDM whose infants were at high risk for fetal macrosomia in the absence of standard glycemic criteria for insulin therapy. Insulin treatment reduced the macrosomia, indicating that fetal ultrasound can be used to guide metabolic therapy in pregnancies complicated by mild GDM.
Possible influence of phonons on stimulated emission from doped molecular crystals (1976)

An investigation was made of the spectra and intensities of stimulated emission from naphthalene single crystals doped with ββ'-dinaphthylethylene and excited with giant ultraviolet pulses of various energies in the absorption band of the impurity. An increase in the impurity concentration gave rise to the appearance, in the stimulated emission spectrum, not only of a zero-phonon line but also of a band corresponding to the phonon wing frequencies. The intensity of the zero-phonon line reached saturation when the pump energy was increased but the intensity of the phonon wing grew proportionally to the pump energy. A study was made of the influence of temperature on the behavior of the stimulated emission lines. The results obtained were explained on the hypothesis of the phonon participation in the stimulated emission process.
The inhibition of factor inhibiting hypoxia-inducible factor (FIH) by β-oxocarboxylic acids (2005)

Cyclic beta-oxocarboxylic acids inhibit factor inhibiting hypoxia-inducible factor via ligation to the active site iron.
Correlelogram as a stereo display element: theory and computer simulations (1986)

The correlelogram is a multiple layer optical element which can be used for stereo display. This paper concentrates on extension of the theory behind the correlelogram and on computer simulations for generating images as they would appear on the display. The theoretical extensions covered in this paper are smoothing of the pixel structure; elimination of artifacts; and extension of the theory to multilayer, multiperspective displays.
Intracellular calcium stores in <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> govern invasion of host cells (2003)

Invasion of host cells by Toxoplasma gondii is accompanied by secretion of parasite proteins that occurs coincident with increases in intracellular calcium. The source of calcium mobilized by the parasite and the signals that promote calcium increase remain largely undefined. We demonstrate here that intracellular stores of calcium in the parasite were both necessary and sufficient to support microneme secretion, motility and invasion of host cells. In contrast, host cell calcium was largely unaltered during parasite entry and not essential for this process. During parasite motility, cytosolic calcium levels underwent dramatic and rapid fluxes as imaged using the calcium indicator fluo-4 and time-lapse microscopy. Surprisingly, intracellular calcium in the parasite cytosol was rapidly quenched during the initial stages of host cell invasion, suggesting that while it is needed to initiate motility, it is not required to complete entry. These studies indicate that intracellular calcium stores govern secretion and motility by T. gondii and that the essential role of calcium in these events explains its requirement for cell entry.
Cyber-Secure UAV Communications Using Heuristically Inferred Stochastic Grammars and Hard Real-Time Adaptive Waveform Synthesis and Evolution (2017)

This paper initially describes how an inferred context-free (stochastic) grammar can be used to verify command transmissions and serve as a hedge against a successful cyber-attack. The remainder of the paper addresses a computational problem not amenable to closed-form solution; namely, the hard real-time (~57 usec) synthesis of a desired waveform through the adaptive modification of a carrier wave. This effectively increases the signal to noise ratio - ensuring better UAV communications. Here, the modulation of the primary waveform is under user control and is of strictly positive amplitude. The primary waveform induces a secondary waveform having delayed leading and trailing edges and expanded rise and fall times. There is, in general, a direct relation between the period of the primary waveform and the amplitude of the secondary waveform. The relation between the primary and secondary waveforms may be characterized by trigonometric functions or even interpolating polynomials. However, response time will be minimized where the primary waveforms are discretized and stored in the form of array-based cases. The tertiary (target) wave may be any periodic trigonometric function, but is taken to be a simple sine wave without loss of generality. The task of the adaptive program is to minimize ||s(t) - g(t)||2, where f(t) →g(t) and f(t) is the primary waveform at time t, g(t) is the secondary waveform at time t, and s(t) is the tertiary waveform at time t. A computationally efficient algorithm is provided for solving this task in real time. Moreover, an evolutionary program (EP) is provided for automatic case acquisition. Primary waveforms are mutated in accordance with a normal distribution.
Smart Markers for Watershed-Based Cell Segmentation (2012)

Automated cell imaging systems facilitate fast and reliable analysis of biological events at the cellular level. In these systems, the first step is usually cell segmentation that greatly affects the success of the subsequent system steps. On the other hand, similar to other image segmentation problems, cell segmentation is an ill-posed problem that typically necessitates the use of domain-specific knowledge to obtain successful segmentations even by human subjects. The approaches that can incorporate this knowledge into their segmentation algorithms have potential to greatly improve segmentation results. In this work, we propose a new approach for the effective segmentation of live cells from phase contrast microscopy. This approach introduces a new set of ''smart markers'' for a marker-controlled watershed algorithm, for which the identification of its markers is critical. The proposed approach relies on using domain-specific knowledge, in the form of visual characteristics of the cells, to define the markers. We evaluate our approach on a total of 1,954 cells. The experimental results demonstrate that this approach, which uses the proposed definition of smart markers, is quite effective in identifying better markers compared to its counterparts. This will, in turn, be effective in improving the segmentation performance of a marker-controlled watershed algorithm.
A Systematic Evaluation of Integration Free Reprogramming Methods for Deriving Clinically Relevant Patient Specific Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) Cells (2013)

A systematic evaluation of three different methods for generating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells was performed using the same set of parental cells in our quest to develop a feeder independent and xeno-free method for somatic cell reprogramming that could be transferred into a GMP environment. When using the BJ fibroblast cell line, the highest reprogramming efficiency (1.89% of starting cells) was observed with the mRNA based method which was almost 20 fold higher than that observed with the retrovirus (0.2%) and episomal plasmid (0.10%) methods. Standard characterisation tests did not reveal any differences in an array of pluripotency markers between the iPS lines derived using the various methods. However, when the same methods were used to reprogram three different primary fibroblasts lines, two derived from patients with rapid onset parkinsonism dystonia and one from an elderly healthy volunteer, we consistently observed higher reprogramming efficiencies with the episomal plasmid method, which was 4 fold higher when compared to the retroviral method and over 50 fold higher than the mRNA method. Additionally, with the plasmid reprogramming protocol, recombinant vitronectin and synthemax® could be used together with commercially available, fully defined, xeno-free essential 8 medium without significantly impacting the reprogramming efficiency. To demonstrate the robustness of this protocol, we reprogrammed a further 2 primary patient cell lines, one with retinosa pigmentosa and the other with Parkinsons disease. We believe that we have optimised a simple and reproducible method which could be used as a starting point for developing GMP protocols, a prerequisite for generating clinically relevant patient specific iPS cells.
Deciding equivalences among aggregate queries (1998)

Equivalcncc of aggregate queries is investigated for the class of conjunctive queries with comparisons and the aggregate operators min, max, count, count-distinct, and sum. Essentlally, this class contains all unnested SQL queries with the above aggregate operators, with a WHERE clause consisting of a conjunction of comparisons, and without a HAVING clause. The comparisons can be interpreted over either a dense order (c,g., over the rationals) or a discrete order (e.g., over the integers). Generally, however, different techniques and characterizations are needed in each of these two case-s. For queries with either max or min, equivalence is characterlzcd in terms of dominance mappings, which can be viewed aa a goncralization of containment mappings. For queries with the count-distinct operator, a sufficient condition for cquivalcncc is given in terms of equivalence of conjunctive qucrics under set semantics. For some special cases, it is shown that this condition is also necessary. For conjunctive queries with comparisons but without aggregation, equivalence under bag-set semantics is characterized in terms of isomorphism, This characterization essentially remains the same also for queries with the count operator. Moreover, this characterization also applies to queries with the sum operator if the queries have either constants or comparisons, but not both. In the general case (i.e., both comparisons and constants), the characterization of the equivalence of queries with the sum operator is more elaborate. All the characterizations given in the paper are decidable with polynomial spncc, Finally, it is shown that all the characterizations for min-, max-, count-, and sum-queries yield polynomial-time algorithms for linear queries, i.e., queries with no repeated prcdicatcs in their bodies.
Amides and formamidines with antinociceptive activity (note I). (1993)

Forty amides, formamidines and trifluoromethylsulfonylamides bearing on the nitrogen a cyclohexyl residue, eventually 2-substituted, were prepared and tested for analgesic activity against a chemical stimulus. Good activity was exhibited by amides 9, 11 and 28, by formamidine 34, as well as by triflyamide 40. Eleven additional compounds exhibited a moderate activity.
Joint trajectories of mechanical manipulators for Cartesian path approximation (1983)

Methods of joint trajectory generation for mechanical manipulators using <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">X</i> -spline and quartic spline functions are presented. A sequence of Cartesian knots, i.e. positions and orientations of the hand, are selected from the desired Cartesian path. Joint values corresponding to these selected knots are solved from the kinematic equation. Approximate joint paths are constructed by interpolating these joint positions. At any instant, two or more future knots need to be known in advance in order to determine the current joint trajectories. Approximate errors for Cartesian paths are discussed. An illustrative example is used for comparing these trajectories to other existent polynomial-type trajectories.
Photocatalytic reductive cyclizations of enones: Divergent reactivity of photogenerated radical and radical anion intermediates (2011)

Photocatalytic reactions of enones using metal polypyridyl complexes proceed by very different reaction manifolds in the presence of either Lewis or Brønsted acid additives. Previous work from our lab demonstrated that photocatalytic [2+2] cycloadditions of enones required the presence of a Lewis acidic co-catalyst, presumably to activate the enone and stabilize the key radical anion intermediate. On the other hand, Brønsted acid activators alter this reactivity and instead promote reductive cyclization reactions of a variety of aryl and aliphatic enones via a neutral radical intermediate. These two distinct reactive intermediates give rise to transformations differing in the connectivity, stereochemistry, and oxidation state of their products. In addition, this reductive coupling method introduces a novel approach to the tin-free generation of β-ketoradicals that react with high diastereoselectivity and with the high functional group compatibility typical of radical cyclization reactions.
Prostate Cancer: Detection of Extracapsular Extension by Genitourinary and General Body Radiologists at MR Imaging (2004)

Endorectal MR imaging findings are significant predictors for detection of ECE when MR images are interpreted by genitourinary radiologists experienced with MR imaging of the prostate.
Resource and hardware options for microarray-based experimentation (2003)

DNA microarray technology permits the study of biological systems and processes on a genome-wide scale. Arrays based on cDNA clones, oligonucleotides and genomic clones have been developed for investigations of gene expression, genetic analysis and genomic changes associated with disease. Over the past 3-4 years, microarrays have become more widely available to the research community. This has occurred through increased commercial availability of custom and generic arrays and the development of robotic equipment that has enabled array printing and analysis facilities to be established in academic research institutions. This brief review examines the public and commercial resources, the microarray fabrication and data capture and analysis equipment currently available to the user.
Quantitative analysis of peristaltic and segmental motion in vivo in the rat small intestine using dynamic MRI (2009)

Conventional methods of quantifying segmental and peristaltic motion in animal models are highly invasive; involving, for example, the external isolation of segments of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract either from dead or anesthetized animals. The present study was undertaken to determine the utility of MRI to quantitatively analyze these motions in the jejunum region of anesthetized rats (N = 6) noninvasively. Dynamic images of the GI tract after oral gavage with a Gd contrast agent were acquired at a rate of six frames per second, followed by image segmentation based on a combination of three-dimensional live wire (3D LW) and directional dynamic gradient vector flow snakes (DDGVFS). Quantitative analysis of the variation in diameter at a fixed constricting location showed clear indications of both segmental and peristaltic motions. Quantitative analysis of the frequency response gave results in good agreement with those acquired in previous studies using invasive measurement techniques. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the segmented data using active shape models resulted in three major modes. The individual modes revealed unique spatial patterns for peristaltic and segmental motility.
Ad-hoc network DOA tracking via sequential Monte Carlo filtering (2007)

一个新奇顺序的蒙特卡罗(SMC ) 算法被为追踪的到达(DOA ) 的多重调遣的特定的网络终端方向提供。一个非线性的活动性和观察模特儿被收养，它能更实际上描述特定的网络终端的运动特征。算法不需要任何另外的测量设备。模拟结果显示出它的重要追踪精确性。
A Neural Network Model for Real-Time Scheduling on Heterogeneous SoC Architectures (2007)

With increasing embedded application complexity, designers have proposed to introduce new hardware architectures based on heterogeneous processing units on a single chip. For these architectures, the scheduling service of a realtime operating system must be able to assign tasks on different execution resources. This paper presents a model of artificial neural networks used for real-time task scheduling to heterogeneous system-on-chip architectures. Our proposition is an adaptation of the Hopfield model and the main objective concerns the minimization of the neuron number to facilitate future hardware implementation of this service. In fact, to ensure rapid convergence and low complexity, this number must be dramatically reduced. So, we propose new constructing rules to design smaller neural network and we show, through simulations, that network stabilization is obtained without reinitialisation of the network.