gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
The food and environmental safety of Bt crops (2015)

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) microbial pesticides have a 50-year history of safety in agriculture. Cry proteins are among the active insecticidal ingredients in these pesticides, and genes coding for Cry proteins have been introduced into agricultural crops using modern biotechnology. The Cry gene sequences are often modified to enable effective expression in planta and several Cry proteins have been modified to increase biological activity against the target pest(s). Additionally, the domains of different but structurally conserved Cry proteins can be combined to produce chimeric proteins with enhanced insecticidal properties. Environmental studies are performed and include invertebrates, mammals, and avian species. Mammalian studies used to support the food and feed safety assessment are also used to support the wild mammal assessment. In addition to the NTO assessment, the environmental assessment includes a comparative assessment between the Bt crop and the appropriate conventional control that is genetically similar but lacks the introduced trait to address unintended effects. Specific phenotypic, agronomic, and ecological characteristics are measured in the Bt crop and the conventional control to evaluate whether the introduction of the insect resistance has resulted in any changes that might cause ecological harm in terms of altered weed characteristics, susceptibility to pests, or adverse environmental impact. Additionally, environmental interaction data are collected in field experiments for Bt crop to evaluate potential adverse effects. Further to the agronomic and phenotypic evaluation, potential movement of transgenes from a genetically modified crop plants into wild relatives is assessed for a new pest resistance gene in a new crop. This review summarizes the evidence for safety of crops containing Cry proteins for humans, livestock, and other non-target organisms.
Demonstration of a Plasmonic Dimple Lens for Nanoscale Focusing of Light (2008)

Focusing electromagnetic energy to sub-wavelength dimensions has become an increasingly active field of research for a variety of applications such as Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR), nanolithography, and nanoscale optical characterization of biological cells and single molecules using near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) technique. Double-sided surface plasmons in a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) geometry have been shown to have very small wavelengths for dielectric of thickness of less than 10 nm. A tapered dielectric structure sandwiched between metal, can be used to efficiently couple electromagnetic energy from free space photons to the plasmonic wavelengths at the nanoscale. In this paper, we present the fabrication and characterization of a novel MIM plasmonic lens structure.
Gestures and social‐emotional communicative development in chimpanzee infants (2013)

Communicative skills of chimpanzees are of significant interest across many domains, such as developmental psychology (how does communication emerge in prelinguistic beings?), evolution (e.g., did human language evolve from primate gestures?), and in comparative psychology (how does the nonverbal communication of chimpanzees and humans compare?). Here we ask about how gestures develop in chimpanzee infants (n = 16) that were raised in an interactive program designed to study skill development. Data on socio-communicative development were collected following 4 hr of daily interaction with each infant, longitudinally from birth through the first year of life. A consistent and significant developmental pattern was found across the contexts of tickle play, grooming, and chase play: Infant chimpanzees first engaged in interactions initiated by others, then they initiated interactions, and finally, they requested others to join them in the interaction. Gestures were documented for initiating and requesting tickle play, for initiating and requesting grooming, and for initiating and requesting chase play. Gestural requests emerged significantly later than gestural initiations, but the age at which gestures emerged was significantly different across contexts. Those gestures related to hierarchical rank relations, that is, gestures used by subordinates in interaction with more dominant individuals, such as wrist presenting and rump presenting, did not emerge in the same manner as the other gestures. This study offers a new view on the development of gestures, specifically that many develop through interaction and communicate socio-emotional desires, but that not all gestures emerge in the same manner.
Characterization of caulobacters isolated from wastewater treatment systems (1991)

Caulobacters are generally assumed to be found only in environments of low organic content; however, we readily isolated strains from a variety of sewage treatment system designs and locations, and 33 distinct strains were characterized. Most were morphologically similar, having the crescent-shaped cell body, short stalk, and hexagonally packed, paracrystalline surface (S) layer characteristic of several Caulobacter crescentus laboratory strains. Upon closer examination, they were distinguishable on the basis of protein band profiles on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, gross colony characteristics, or holdfast composition or by DNA restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis with flagellin and S-layer gene probes. Most of the isolates contained one or more high-molecular-weight plasmids and were resistant to a number of antibiotics, characteristics generally not shared with caulobacters isolated from other sources. Six of the 33 strains were retained because they did not fit the typical isolate profile; these strains are overrepresented in our collection compared with their relative proportion in wastewater treatment systems. By colony hybridization and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, all of these and one typical isolate showed less homology than the others to the surface array gene of a laboratory strain (C. crescentus CB15), and three hybridized less strongly with the flagellin gene from the same strain. In sum, although the strains were distinguishable, caulobacters from the wastewater treatment systems we examined were relatively homogenous, were similar to characterized laboratory strains, and, with exceptions, could probably be reliably detected as a group by gene probes derived from C. crescentus strains.
An efficient method for inverse dynamics of kinematically defective parallel platforms (2002)

Abstract In addition the general six‐degree‐of‐freedom parallel platforms, parallel platforms with fewer than six DOF can also be used in the structural design of robotic manipulators. The common property of these parallel platforms is that the motion parameters used to describe the position and orientation of the movable platform are six, but fewer than six are independent. In their general configurations, arbitrary six‐dimensional motion of the platform cannot be achieved by the actuators mounted on the legs, therefore they are kinematically defective. Because of this defect, the inverse dynamic analysis method, which is applicable to the general six‐DOF parallel platforms, cannot be directly used for the kinematically defective parallel platforms (KDPPs). In this paper, an effective method for formulating the inverse dynamics of KDPPs is presented. Using the proposed method, three different KDPPs are studied and their inverse dynamic formulas are derived. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Aggregation of Silica Nanoparticles Directed by Adsorption of Lysozyme (2011)

The interaction of the globular protein lysozyme with silica nanoparticles of diameter 20 nm was studied in a pH range between the isoelectric points (IEPs) of silica and the protein (pH 3-11). The adsorption affinity and capacity of lysozyme on the silica particles is increasing progressively with pH, and the adsorbed protein induces bridging aggregation of the silica particles. Structural properties of the aggregates were studied as a function of pH at a fixed protein-to-silica concentration ratio which corresponds to a surface concentration of protein well below a complete monolayer in the complete-binding regime at pH > 6. Sedimentation studies indicate the presence of compact aggregates at pH 4-6 and a loose flocculated network at pH 7-9, followed by a sharp decrease of aggregate size near the IEP of lysozyme. The structure of the bridged silica aggregates was studied by cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) and small-angle X-ray scattering. The structure factor S(q) derived from the scattering profiles displays characteristic features of particles interacting by a short-range attractive potential and can be represented by the square-well Percus-Yevick potential model, with a potential depth not exceeding 3k(B)T.
Privacy-enhancing Aggregation of Internet of Things Data via Sensors Grouping (2018)

Big data collection practices using Internet of Things (IoT) pervasive technologies are often privacy-intrusive and result in surveillance, profiling, and discriminatory actions over citizens that in turn undermine the participation of citizens to the development of sustainable smart cities. Nevertheless, real-time data analytics and aggregate information from IoT devices open up tremendous opportunities for managing and regulating smart city infrastructures in a more efficient and sustainable way. The privacy-enhancing aggregation of distributed sensor data, such as residential energy consumption or traffic information, is the research focus and challenge tackled in this paper. Citizens have the option to choose their privacy level by reducing the quality of the shared data at a cost of a lower accuracy in data analytics services. A baseline scenario is considered in which IoT sensor data are shared directly with an untrustworthy central aggregator. A grouping mechanism is introduced that improves privacy by sharing data aggregated first at a group level compared to a baseline scenario in which each individual shares data directly to the central aggregator. Group-level aggregation obfuscates sensor data of individuals, in a similar fashion as differential privacy and homomorphic encryption schemes, thus inference of privacy-sensitive information from single sensors becomes computationally harder compared to the baseline scenario. The proposed system and its generic applicability are evaluated using real-world data from two smart city pilot projects. Privacy under grouping increases, while preserving the accuracy of the baseline scenario. Intra-group influences of privacy by one group member on the other ones are measured and fairness on privacy is found to be maximized between group members with similar privacy choices. Several grouping strategies are compared. Grouping by proximity of privacy choices provides the highest privacy gains. The implications of the strategy on the design of incentives mechanisms are discussed.
Mutation hotspots at CTCF binding sites coupled to chromosomal instability in gastrointestinal cancers (2018)

Tissue-specific driver mutations in non-coding genomic regions remain undefined for most cancer types. Here, we unbiasedly analyze 212 gastric cancer (GC) whole genomes to identify recurrently mutated non-coding regions in GC. Applying comprehensive statistical approaches to accurately model background mutational processes, we observe significant enrichment of non-coding indels (insertions/deletions) in three gastric lineage-specific genes. We further identify 34 mutation hotspots, of which 11 overlap CTCF binding sites (CBSs). These CBS hotspots remain significant even after controlling for a genome-wide elevated mutation rate at CBSs. In 3 out of 4 tested CBS hotspots, mutations are nominally associated with expression change of neighboring genes. CBS hotspot mutations are enriched in tumors showing chromosomal instability, co-occur with neighboring chromosomal aberrations, and are common in gastric (25%) and colorectal (19%) tumors but rare in other cancer types. Mutational disruption of specific CBSs may thus represent a tissue-specific mechanism of tumorigenesis conserved across gastrointestinal cancers.
The theoretical precision with which an arbitrary radiation-pattern may be obtained from a source of finite size (1948)

It appears that it is possible to approximate as closely as desired to a specified radiation-pattern by a suitable distribution of field over an aperture of given size, though the necessary currents in the conducting elements of the source would in general be prohibitively large in comparison with the power radiated. The difficulty of obtaining a high degree of approximation, and in particular a power gain very much greater than that of a uniformly illuminated aperture, is thus a practical rather than a theoretical one. The same is true for the linear array of given length as for the continuous aperture if no limit is set to the number of elements. Even when this number is limited by the adoption of half-wavelength spacing, the broadside power gain is not a maximum when the amplitudes and phases of the elements are equal, unless the elements are ideal isotropic point-sources.
<title>Possible enhancement in bolometric response using free-standing film of YBa2Cu3Ox</title> (1991)

Improvement of the sensitivity in infrared detectors made of high Tc superconducting films is discussed. Usually these films are grown on a substrate which results in reduced sensitivity due to additional heat capacity of the substrate. A five-fold increase of the noise equivalent power is calculated if free-standing superconducting films are used. A new technique for preparation of thin films of YBa2Cu3Ox without a substrate is also described. The film material is deposited by pulsed laser ablation on a thin carbon film. When the film is annealed in situ in oxygen, the carbon burns off, leaving a free-standing film. The film area can be large as 10X10 mm2 and less than one-half micron thick. They have the correct stoichiometry, the orthorhombic phase and an onset temperature of about 85 K.
The Born approximation in the theory of the scattering of elastic waves by flaws (1977)

We used the integral equation formulation of the scattering of elastic waves to generate an approximate solution analogous to the Born approximation in quantum mechanics. This solution is attractive because of the ease with which it may be applied to scatterers of complicated shapes. We investigated the validity of the approximation by comparing it with exact results for spherical scatterers. Our conclusion for voids in elastic media is that the approximation describes well the scattering when the wavelength of the incident wave is approximately an order of magnitude larger than the scatterer and when the scattering is viewed in the backscattered directions. For many applications this range of validity is experimentally accessible. For elastic inclusions, however, where the properties of defect and host differed by 20–40%, the Born approximation is surprisingly good for all angles and even at short wavelengths.
Impaired visual search in dyslexia relates to the role of the magnocellular pathway in attention (1999)

We tested the hypothesis that in a cluttered visual scene, the magnocellular (M) pathway is crucial for focusing attention serially on the objects in the field. Since developmental dyslexia is commonly associated with an M pathway deficit, we compared reading impaired children and age-matched normal readers in a search task that required the detection of a target defined by the conjunction of two features, namely form and colour, that are processed by the parvocellular dominated ventral neocortical stream. The dyslexic group's performance was significantly poorer than the controls when there were a large number of distractor items. The scheme of selective attention proposed from these results provides a neural mechanism that underlies reading and explains the pathophysiology of dyslexia.
Ultrathin Barrier Formation Using Combination of Manganese Oxide Encapsulation and Self-Aligned Copper Silicon Nitride Barriers for Copper Wiring in Future LSI Interconnects (2011)

Combining Mn oxide/Ta encapsulation and a self-aligned CuSiN barrier enhanced reliability of both wiring and dielectrics, reducing wiring resistance by 10%, compared with that of a control sample. The CuSiN barrier effectively concentrated Mn, resulting in a composite barrier consisting of Mn oxide, Mn silicate, and MnSiN forming on top of the Cu wiring. Mn concentration is attributed to the large difference in the standard heat of formation between Mn silicide and Cu silicide. The composite barrier that formed on top of the Cu wiring played a critical role in enhancing the reliabilities by suppressing surface Cu self-diffusion, vacancy diffusion, and Cu ion drift under electrical and thermal stresses. Suppressing the surface self-diffusion, for example, increased electromigration lifetime by a factor of 51. This combination technique has an advantage over a previous self-formation of a Mn oxide barrier in terms of reliabilities since the previous technique cannot form such a composite barrier on top of the Cu wiring.
Evaluation of Possible Methanol Fuel Additives for Reducing Engine Wear and/or Corrosion (1990)

<div class="htmlview paragraph">The use of fuel additives is one possible approach to reduce wear and corrosion in methanol fueled automobile engines. One hundred and six compounds added to M100 fuel in modest concentrations (1%) were tested in a Ball on Cylinder Machine (BOCM) for their ability to improve lubricity. The most promising candidates were then tested in an engine using a modified ASTM Sequence V-D wear screening test. Additive performance was measured by comparing the buildup of wear metals in the oil to that obtained from an engine fueled with neat M100. The BOCM method of evaluating the additive candidates proved inadequate in predicting abrasive engine wear under the test conditions utilized for this research program.</div>
Mechanical properties of thin films on substrates (1990)

Thin films that are used primarily for their optical, electronic, magnetic and chemical properties are not generally considered to be structural elements. Nonetheless, when thin films are auached to substrates, they are often found to support very high stresses which can cause both deformation and fracture to occur. Thus, the mechanical properties of thin films on substrates are of technological importance. In particular, the mechanical properties of optical thin films must be sufficient to insure their mechanical integrity and dimensional stability over the lifetime of the device in which they are used. The origins and consequences of internal stresses in thin films and variations in strength and stiffness from those expected of bulk materials are discussed. Two measurement techniques are presented. In the first, curvatures induced in a substrate by stresses in an attached thin film are measured to determine those stresses. The second technique involves determining the hardness and elastic modulus of a thin film while it is attached to a substrate using a depth-sensing indentation device.
CopA: An <i>Escherichia coli</i> Cu(I)-translocating P-type ATPase (2000)

The copA gene product, a putative copper-translocating P-type ATPase, has been shown to be involved in copper resistance in Escherichia coli. The copA gene was disrupted by insertion of a kanamycin gene through homologous recombination. The mutant strain was more sensitive to copper salts but not to salts of other metals, suggesting a role in copper homeostasis. The copper-sensitive phenotype could be rescued by complementation by a plasmid carrying copA from E. coli or copB from Enterococcus hirae. Expression of copA was induced by salts of copper or silver but not zinc or cobalt. Everted membrane vesicles from cells expressing copA exhibited ATP-coupled accumulation of copper, presumably as Cu(I). The results indicate that CopA is a Cu(I)-translocating efflux pump that is similar to the copper pumps related to Menkes and Wilson diseases and provides a useful prokaryotic model for these human diseases.
Clinical and Hip Simulator Comparisons of Ceramic-on-Polyethylene and Metal-on-Polyethylene Wear (2000)

The benefit of reduced polyethylene wear with ceramic in hip replacements does not seem to have been universally appreciated. In this current study, wear predictions from laboratory and clinical studies were compared for ceramic-on-polyethylene and cobalt chrome-on-polyethylene combinations. Many laboratory studies included water-based lubrication and linear-tracking mechanisms. Now it is appreciated that these were inappropriate methods, because of a propensity for very low or virtually no polyethylene wear against ceramics in water. Thus, water-based studies predicting a 20- to 80-fold advantage for ceramic-on-polyethylene compared with metal-on-polyethylene clearly were in error. However, serum-based simulator studies with high protein-concentrations generally have shown greater wear with alumina-on-polyethylene than with metal-on-polyethylene. Controversy still remains over the use of such nonphysiologic protein levels. The simulator studies were just beginning to explore the role of serum protein concentrations and the influence on the various wear models. Polyethylene wear with zirconia systems was particularly affected by serum protein concentrations. In one simulator study, use of proteins in the physiologic range resulted in the alumina-on-polyethylene wear rate decreasing to approximately 50% of that of metal-on-polyethylene. In the literature, many hip design and polyethylene variations were reported which confounded the wear analysis. Overall, the clinical data supported the superior performance of ceramic-on-polyethylene systems by a factor of 1.5- to fourfold. However, the amount of supporting data was not large. This summary of laboratory and clinical data indicated that ceramic-on-polyethylene hip replacement systems offered on average a 50% wear reduction from metal-on-polyethylene systems.
Enhanced C-V2X Mode-4 Subchannel Selection (2018)

In Release 14, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) introduced Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) mode-4 as a novel disruptive technology to support sidelink vehicular communications in out-of-coverage scenarios. C-V2X mode-4 has been engineered to operate in a distributed manner, wherein vehicles autonomously monitor the received power across sidelink subchannels before selecting one for utilization. By means of such an strategy, vehicles attempt to (i) discover and (ii) reserve subchannels with low interference that may have the potential to maximize the reception likelihood of their own broadcasted safety messages. However, due to dynamicity of the vehicular environment, the subchannels optimality may fluctuate rapidly over time. As a consequence, vehicles are required to make a new selection every few hundreds of milliseconds. In consonance with 3GPP, the subchannel selection phase relies on the linear average of the perceived power intensities on each of the subchannels during a monitoring window. However, in this paper we propose a nonlinear power averaging phase, where the most up-to-date measurements are assigned higher priority via exponential weighting. We show through simulations that the overall system performance can be leveraged in both urban and freeway scenarios. Furthermore, the linear averaging can be considered as a special case of the exponentially-weighted moving average, ensuring backward compatibility with the standardized method. Finally, the 3GPP mode-4 scheduling approach is described in detail.