gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
SEPARATION OF HYDROGEN AND CARBON DIOXIDE USING A NOVEL MEMBRANE REACTOR IN ADVANCED FOSSIL ENERGY CONVERSION PROCESS (2001)

Inorganic membrane reactors offer the possibility of combining reaction and separation in a single operation at high temperatures to overcome the equilibrium limitations experienced in conventional reactor configurations. Such attractive features can be advantageously utilized in a number of potential commercial opportunities, which include dehydrogenation, hydrogenation, oxidative dehydrogenation, oxidation and catalytic decomposition reactions. However, to be cost effective, significant technological advances and improvements will be required to solve several key issues which include: (a) permselective thin solid film, (b) thermal, chemical and mechanical stability of the film at high temperatures, and (c) reactor engineering and module development in relation to the development of effective seals at high temperature and high pressure. In this project, we are working on the development and application of palladium and palladium-silver alloy thin-film composite membranes in membrane reactor-separator configuration for simultaneous production and separation of hydrogen and carbon dioxide at high temperature. From our research on Pd-composite membrane, we have demonstrated that the new membrane has significantly higher hydrogen flux with very high perm-selectivity than any of the membranes commercially available. The steam reforming of methane by equilibrium shift in Pd-composite membrane reactor is being studied to demonstrate the potential application this new development. To have better understanding of the membrane reactor, during this reporting period, we developed a two-dimensional pseudo-homogeneous reactor model for steam reforming of methane by equilibrium shift in a tubular membrane reactor. In numerical solution of the reactor model equations, numerical difficulties were encountered and we seeking alternative solution techniques to overcome the problem.
Science education in Hong Kong (1993)

This study aims to assess the extent to which science education in Hong Kong has been able to promote scientific literacy, and to prepare students for scientific disciplines in science-related careers. In a large-scale cross-country assessment of science achievement conducted in the first half of the 1980s by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, Hong Kong's Secondary 7 (Grade 13) students ranked first in physics, first in chemistry, first in mathematics, and second in biology among all participant countries. However, the Primary 4 and Secondary 4 (Grade 10) students performed poorly. This paper attempts to address such phenomenon. The first section examines the school system, and the major issues that affects the quality of education -- financing, selection and examination, teachers, curriculum and allocation of instructional time. The second section discusses Hong Kong students mathematics and science achievement by international standards, and the determinants of achievement. It addresses how the curriculum coverage, time-on-task, test relevance, teachers, teaching and learning process, gender, family background, and the students' aspiration and interest have affected learning outcomes. Finally, the paper examines the recent developments of science education in Hong Kong to meet the political, economic and technological challenges of the future.
Palladium-Catalyzed C–S Coupling: Access to Thioethers, Benzo[<i>b</i>]thiophenes, and Thieno[3,2-<i>b</i>]thiophenes (2011)

The first C-S bond formation/cross-coupling/cyclization domino reaction using thiourea as a cheap and easy to handle dihydrosulfide surrogate has been developed. Structurally important biarylthioether, benzo[b]thiophenes, and thieno[3,2-b]thiophene scaffolds are provided in high yield.
Detection of Iris Texture Distortions By Analyzing Iris Code Matching Results (2008)

Identity verification using iris biometrics is degraded if portions of the iris texture have a distorted appearance in the image. Distorted texture appearance can result from various causes, including contact lens artifacts, occlusion by hair, eyelids and eyelashes, and specular highlights. Previous work in iris biometrics attempts to cope with occlusion by eyelids/eyelashes and with specular highlights through improved segmentation of the iris region. Our approach assumes that some local distortions of the iris texture are not detected at the segmentation stage, and that these generate corresponding regions of local distortion in the iris code derived from the image. We introduce an approach to detect such regions of local distortion in the iris code through analysis of the iris code matching results. We know of no previous work that attempts to detect distortions of iris texture through analyzing the iris code matching results.
Oligodendroglial TNFR2 Mediates Membrane TNF-Dependent Repair in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis by Promoting Oligodendrocyte Differentiation and Remyelination (2016)

Our study, using novel TNF receptor 2 (TNFR2) conditional KO mice with selective TNFR2 ablation in oligodendrocytes, provides the first direct evidence that TNFR2 is an important signal for oligodendrocyte differentiation. Following activation by transmembrane TNF, TNFR2 initiates pathways that drive oligodendrocytes into a reparative mode contributing to remyelination following disease. This identifies TNFR2 as a new molecular target for the development of therapeutic agents in multiple sclerosis.
Separation of Forged Steel Connecting Rods and Caps by Fracture Splitting (1993)

<div class="htmlview paragraph">Separation of the rods and caps of integrally hot-forged steel connecting rods by fracture splitting has not been possible with current alloys because the fracture is accompanied by too much ductility to permit accurate rejoining. A development effort was undertaken to devise an alloy which could be cracked with minimal distortion, while maintaining good machinability and adequate fatigue strength. The resulting alloy, upon air-cooling from the forging temperature, develops a microstructure which is essentially all pearlite. Impact tests and rod cracking experiments show that fracture of the new alloy occurs with less distortion than fracture of SAE 1151, a steel with a ferrite-pearlite microstructure. Machinability of the new alloy is comparable to SAE 1151 of the same hardness. Fatigue tests indicate that the new alloy is comparable in strength to current production alloys.</div>
Probabilistic multiparty dialogue management for a game master robot (2014)

We present our ongoing research on multiparty dialogue management for a game master robot which engages multiple human participants to play a quiz game. The robot invites passing people to join the game, instructs participants on the rules of the game, and leads them in the game. The robot has to manage people leaving and coming at arbitrary times. Our approach maintains a dialogue manager for each participant, and a module takes a final action with each decision cycle; responsible to decide "what/whom/when to say". We have implemented the dialogue manager with a probabilistic rules approach [4] and made preliminary evaluations with our multiparty human-robot game dialogue data that was collected in a WoZ fashion.
BMP‐6 over‐expression in prostate cancer is associated with increased Id‐1 protein and a more invasive phenotype (2007)

Bone morphogenetic protein-6 (BMP-6) has been strongly implicated in prostate cancer development and bone metastasis. Our previous data showed that BMP-6 mRNA was absent in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia, but evident in primary tumours with established secondary skeletal metastases. To examine the role of BMP-6 in prostate cancer progression, we have developed a BMP-6-regulatable, doxycycline-inducible gene expression system. BMP-6 induction by doxycycline addition led to increased levels of BMP-6 RNA and protein, associated with nuclear translocation of SMADs and activation of the downstream target gene Id-1. BMP-6 protein did not enhance the proliferation rate of PC3M cells but did significantly increase the rate of migration and invasion in both PC3M and DU145 cells. Increased metalloproteinase (MMP-1 and MMP-9) mRNA levels were also observed following BMP-6 induction. Luciferase reporter assays confirmed BMP-6-mediated activation of MMP-1 and MMP-9 promoters, indicating direct transcriptional activation of MMPs by BMP-6. BMP-6 stimulation also led to an increase in phosphorylation levels of MAPK proteins. We next examined the effects of BMP-6 on the downstream gene Id-1 in a cohort of prostate cancer patients. A tissue microarray (TMA) was constructed and samples stained for BMP-6 and Id-1 expression. We observed a significant increase in the intensity of staining of epithelial BMP-6 in the cancer cases compared to the benign cases (Mann-Whitney U test, p < 0.0005) and in the intensity of staining of epithelial Id-1 in the cancer cases compared to the benign cases (Mann-Whitney U test, p = 0.015). We further observed a significant positive correlation between epithelial staining for Id-1 and BMP-6 (p = 0.001) across all samples for both benign and cancer cases. These data demonstrate that BMP-6 promotes migration and invasion of prostate cancer cells, potentially through activation of Id-1 and MMP activation.
Metron factor-1 prevents liver injury without promoting tumor growth and metastasis (2008)

These data suggest that MF-1 is as effective as HGF at preventing liver injury and at promoting hepatocyte regeneration, but therapeutically safer than HGF because it lacks proangiogenic and prometastatic activity.
Checkpoint/Restart and Beyond: Resilient High Performance Computing with FPGAs (2011)

As FPGA resources continue to increase, FPGAs present attractive features to the High Performance Computing community. These include the power-efficient computation and application-specific acceleration benefits, as well as tighter integration between compute and I/O resources. This paper considers the ability of an FPGA to address another, increasingly important, feature - resiliency. Specifically, a minimally-invasive monitoring infrastructure operating over a sideband network is presented. This includes a multi-chip protocol, IP cores that implement the protocol, and a tool to instrument existing hardware accelerator FPGA designs. To demonstrate the functionality, the system has been implemented on a cluster of FPGA devices running off-the-shelf MPI and Linux. We demonstrate the ability to do integrated software and hardware accelerator check pointing with restart under a variety of injected faults.
Experimental investigation of photomask with near-field polarization imaging (2006)

Near-field induced polarization imaging with a solid immersion lens (SIL) is used to provide high lateral resolution for both native and induced polarization (cross polarized) images. A new technique is used to obtain height information from the near-field induced polarization image. An AltPSM mask sample is studied with this imaging technique, and compared to imaging with an AFM and a PSI interferometer. Topological data from the near-field induced polarization image are within a few nanometer of the AFM result, without contacting surface. In addition, features due to undercutting the Cr are observable in the induced polarization image.
Effects of intracellular zinc depletion on the expression of VDAC in cultured hippocampal neurons (2011)

An experiment was conducted to investigate whether intracellular zinc depletion can actually change expression of voltage-dependent anion channel 1 (VDAC1) and VPAC2 in cultured hippocampal neurons as well as their significance. Hippocampal neurons were obtained by primary culture from hippocampus of newborn Wistar rats. Cultured hippocampal neurons were exposed to a cell membrane-permeable zinc chelator N,N,N',N'-tetrakis (2-pyridyl methyl) ethylenediamine (TPEN) (2 µM), and to TPEN plus zinc sulfate (5 µM) for 1 or 24 hours. Cultures were then processed to detect neuronal injury by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay, intracellular Ca(2+) with the fluorescent probe fluo-3/AM, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation using 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA) assay, nuclear morphology by Hoechst 33342, VDAC1, and VDAC2 protein levels by western blot, and VDAC1 and VDAC2 mRNA levels by RT-PCR. The results demonstrated that exposure of hippocampal neurons to TPEN (2 µM) for 24 hours induced notably neuronal injury, significantly increased the number of apoptotic nuclei, up-regulated the expression of VDAC1 protein level and down-regulated the expression of VDAC2 protein level. Significant down-regulation of mRNA levels for VDAC1 and VDAC2 were observed in TPEN-treated neurons. Co-addition of zinc almost completely reversed TPEN-induced neuronal injury and above alterations in VDAC1 and VDAC2 protein levels and mRNA levels. Present results implicate a possibility that up-regulation of VDAC1 and down-regulation of VDAC2 may participate in hippocampal neuron injury induced by zinc deficiency.
Materials for hydrogenstorage: current research trends and perspectives (2008)

Storage and transport of hydrogen constitutes a key enabling technology for the advent of a hydrogen-based energy transition. Main research trends on hydrogen storage materials, including metal hydrides, porous adsorbents and hydrogen clathrates, are reviewed with a focus on recent developments and an appraisal of the challenges ahead. .
Tomography from diffuse waves: Passive shear wave imaging using low frame rate scanners (2013)

We present an approach to extract from the local measurement of a complex field a wavelength tomography. In contrast with noise correlation techniques developed in recent years in seismology or ultrasound, field measurement is under-sampled which opens applications to slow imaging devices. Through simulations and experiments, it is demonstrated that the loss of time and/or spatial coherence of the field measurement is not an obstacle for tomography reconstruction. We present an application in shear wave imaging: a conventional ultrasonic scanner working at 25 Hz is tested in a medical phantom and in the thyroid of a healthy volunteer.
An Energy-Efficient Self-Organization Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks (2005)

The networks considered consist of tiny energy constrained commodity sensors massively deployed in an area of interest. In a wireless sensor network, energy conservation is the primary design goal. The most efficient way to save energy is keeping sensor nodes turned off as long as possible. These sleeping-or-awaking nodes need the capabilities of self-organization and re-organization to adapt to dynamic environment and network settings. The paper describes an energy efficient self-organization protocol designed for a wireless sensor network.
Evaluation of the Concrete Works Produced Locally in River Nile State (2015)

This paper aim to evaluate the concrete produced locally in River Nile State (RNS) where the output results lead to improve the work of casting the concrete in-situ in order to acquire the design values and raise the level of quality control. A data concern the concrete casting in-situ in the RNS was collected by visiting a 24 sites included information about the materials used in concrete such as cement, sand and gravel also information about the procedure followed for quality control and the tests done for the concrete and materials and its results. Many samples of materials on sites were collected and a lab test for each had been done. The study also include visiting of 20 sites constructed through past 10 years and the available data had been collected. This paper adopted a criterion to classify the sites included by this study according to the quality control. Statistical analysis had been done for the information collected and for the results obtained from lab test. The study concluded that for more than 57% of the sites studied it is found that the quality control followed for construction is fair and poor. Many reasons of that were summarized and the necessary recommendations were given.
Phenol removal by soil adsorption with activated sludge addition (1993)

This research study evaluated the removal of phenol by using different types of soils and soils plus activated sludge. Treatment time intervals were one, two, three, five and seven days. Four types of soils-loam, sandy loam, silty loam and silty-clay loam-were collected from the metropolitan Cleveland area and were used in the study. The soil to wastewater ratios of 1:1, 1:2 and 1:5 were used in the treatment experiment. Activated sludge of various concentrations was added in soils to improve treatment efficiency. Results showed that the loam, silty loam and silty-clay loam appeared to be effective in reducing phenol levels over the given soil/wastewater ratios and designated treatment time intervals. The phenol removal efficiency ranged from 30 percent to 55 percent. Among the four types of soils which have been added with activated sludge, the silty loam and silty-clay loam proved to be most effective in removing phenol from wastewater with a phenol removal efficiency up to 70 percent. It was also found that addition of activated sludge to the soil enhanced biological oxidation and removal of phenol.
Design of Peptide Immunotherapies for MHC Class-II-Associated Autoimmune Disorders (2013)

Autoimmune disorders, that occur when autoreactive immune cells are induced to activate their responses against self-tissues, affect one percent of the world population and represent one of the top 10 leading causes of death. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a principal susceptibility locus for many human autoimmune diseases, in which self-tissue antigens providing targets for pathogenic lymphocytes are bound to HLA molecules encoded by disease-associated alleles. In spite of the attempts to design strategies for inhibition of antigen presentation targeting the MHC-peptide/TCR complex via generation of blocking antibodies, altered peptide ligands (APL), or inhibitors of costimulatory molecules, potent therapies with minimal side effects have yet to be developed. Copaxone (glatiramer acetate, GA) is a random synthetic amino acid copolymer that reduces the relapse rate by about 30% in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Based on the elucidated binding motifs of Copaxone and of the anchor residues of the immunogenic myelin basic protein (MBP) peptide to HLA-DR molecules, novel copolymers have been designed and proved to be more effective in suppressing MS-like disease in mice. In this report, we describe the rationale for design of second-generation synthetic random copolymers as candidate drugs for a number of MHC class-II-associated autoimmune disorders.
Novel Approach to Optimize Bandwidth Consumption for Video Streaming using Eye Tracking (2017)

Recent leaps in eye tracking technology have made it possible to enable eye tracking as a cheap, reliable and efficient addition to the human computer interaction technologies. This thesis looks into the possibility of utilizing it for client aware video streaming. Increasingly people are consuming high quality video content on wireless network devices, thus there is need to optimize bandwidth consumption for efficient delivery of such high resolution content, both for 2D and 360°videos.This work proposes SEEN (Smart Eye-tracking Enabled Networking), a novel approach to streaming video content using real time eye tracking information. This uses HEVC video tiling techniques to display high and low qualities in the same video frame depending on where the user is looking. The viability of proposed approach is validated using extensive user testing conducted on a Quality of Experience (QoE) testbed which was also developed as part of this thesis. Test results show significant bandwidth savings of up to 71% for 2D videos on standard 4K screens, and up to 83% for 360°videos on Virtual Reality (VR) headsets for acceptable QoE ratings. A comparative study on viewport tracking and eye tracking for VR headsets is also included in the thesis in order to further advocate the necessity of eye tracking.This research was conducted in collaboration with Ericsson, Tobii and KTH under the umbrella project SEEN: Smart Eye-tracking Enabled Networking.
Operation Changes Recommendation Method Using Histories of Operation Changes in Cloud Computing Environment (2015)

Virtualization technologies in a cloud computing system enable its users to create and delete virtual machines easily. This flexibility accelerates the update cycle of applications to keep up with user demand. When updating applications, the application management process should also be modified. If necessary changes in the management process are overlooked, this lack of changes can cause inconsistencies between an application and its management, resulting in improper system status. To identify required changes in management process, we propose a method to identify them based on an assumption that similar application updates often require similar operation changes. Evaluation results show that our method can recommend the necessary operation changes with high accuracy and can reduce the possibility of operators overlooking them about 63% of the time if operation changes are overlooked.
Development of Biodegradable Foamlike Materials Based on Casein and Sodium Montmorillonite Clay (2010)

Biodegradable foamlike materials based on a naturally occurring polymer (casein protein) and sodium montmorillonite clay (Na+ -MMT) were produced through a simple freeze-drying process. By utilizing DL-glyceraldehyde (GC) as a chemical cross-linking agent, the structural integrity of these new aerogels were remarkably improved when compared to those of the control system (without GC), with a minimal increase in the density from 0.11 to 0.12 g cm⁻³. The degree of perfection of the foamlike structures was another parameter that had a significant influence on the physical and thermal performances of the low density composites. The biodegradability of the aerogels was investigated in terms of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) evolution for up to 8 weeks in compost media under controlled conditions.
Improving Thermal Stability of Alloy 718 via Small Modifications in Composition (1989)

Expanding upon the effort to redesign Alloy 718 in order to provide microstructural and mechanical stability beyond 65O"C, six modified compositions have been studied after a precipitation hardening treatment and then after aging for 534 hr at 730C (1350F). The variations in Al, Ti and Nb content provided an (Al+Ti)/Nb ratio between 0.66 and 0.92, an Al./Ti ratio between 0.88 and 1.69 and total hardener (Al+Ti+Nb) content between 5.80 and 6.80 at pet; two of the alloys also contained 0.76 or 1.77 at pet W as a solid solution strengthening element. Even though the rate of y ' coarsening was faster after the aging treatment, the coarsening rate of y " and the decline in strength occurred more slowly in the four alloys with a higher (Al+Ti)/Nb ratio, and with less transformation to 6 phase, than was the case in the two lower (Al+Ti)/Nb ratio alloys. The two alloys having the highest (Al+Ti)/Nb and Al/Ti ratios and a W addition provided increasing strength and a slower rate of y " coarsening. Hardness and tensile strength after the conventional heat treatment exceeded the published results for high strength processed 718 and, after 534 hours at 730C and testing at room temperature, these mechanical properties were retained to the highest degree in these same alloys. Under stress rupture conditions at 700C (1300"F), these alloys survived from 35 to 53 hours under a stress of 92.5 ksi whereas conventional 718 has a published rupture life of 18 hours when stressed at 85 ksi. At this stress level, one of the alloys having both ratios and total hardening element content on the high side of the range survived for 74.3 hours. These preliminary results suggest that the basic composition of Alloy 718 can be modified to a minor degree in order to improve temperature capability beyond 650C.