gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Optimal architectures for long distance quantum communication (2016)

Despite the tremendous progress of quantum cryptography, efficient quantum communication over long distances (≥ 1000 km) remains an outstanding challenge due to fiber attenuation and operation errors accumulated over the entire communication distance. Quantum repeaters (QRs), as a promising approach, can overcome both photon loss and operation errors, and hence significantly speedup the communication rate. Depending on the methods used to correct loss and operation errors, all the proposed QR schemes can be classified into three categories (generations). Here we present the first systematic comparison of three generations of quantum repeaters by evaluating the cost of both temporal and physical resources, and identify the optimized quantum repeater architecture for a given set of experimental parameters for use in quantum key distribution. Our work provides a roadmap for the experimental realizations of highly efficient quantum networks over transcontinental distances.
Vascular Wall Progenitor Cells in Health and Disease (2015)

The vasculature plays an indispensible role in organ development and maintenance of tissue homeostasis, such that disturbances to it impact greatly on developmental and postnatal health. Although cell turnover in healthy blood vessels is low, it increases considerably under pathological conditions. The principle sources for this phenomenon have long been considered to be the recruitment of cells from the peripheral circulation and the re-entry of mature cells in the vessel wall back into cell cycle. However, recent discoveries have also uncovered the presence of a range of multipotent and lineage-restricted progenitor cells in the mural layers of postnatal blood vessels, possessing high proliferative capacity and potential to generate endothelial, smooth muscle, hematopoietic or mesenchymal cell progeny. In particular, the tunica adventitia has emerged as a progenitor-rich compartment with niche-like characteristics that support and regulate vascular wall progenitor cells. Preliminary data indicate the involvement of some of these vascular wall progenitor cells in vascular disease states, adding weight to the notion that the adventitia is integral to vascular wall pathogenesis, and raising potential implications for clinical therapies. This review discusses the current body of evidence for the existence of vascular wall progenitor cell subpopulations from development to adulthood and addresses the gains made and significant challenges that lie ahead in trying to accurately delineate their identities, origins, regulatory pathways, and relevance to normal vascular structure and function, as well as disease.
Protection of Suckling Mice from Heat-Stable Enterotoxin of Escherichia coli by Infant Formulas (1985)

Human milk contains factors that protect suckling infants against enteropathogen-induced diarrhea. One nonspecific protective factor found in human milk is a small molecular weight material that protects suckling mice from death due to the heat-stable enterotoxin of Escherichia coli. This study demonstrated that cow's milk and most formulas derived from cow's milk also contain a factor(s) that can protect against heat-stable enterotoxin of E. coli in suckling mice.
Exploring DeepMedic for the purpose of segmenting white matter hyperintensity lesions (2018)

DeepMedic, an open source software library based on a multi-channel multi-resolution 3D convolutional neural network, has recently been made publicly available for brain lesion segmentations. It has already been shown that segmentation tasks on MRI data of patients having traumatic brain injuries, brain tumors, and ischemic stroke lesions can be performed very well. In this paper we describe how it can efficiently be used for the purpose of detecting and segmenting white matter hyperintensity lesions. We examined if it can be applied to single-channel routine 2D FLAIR data. For evaluation, we annotated 197 datasets with different numbers and sizes of white matter hyperintensity lesions. Our experiments have shown that substantial results with respect to the segmentation quality can be achieved. Compared to the original parametrization of the DeepMedic neural network, the timings for training can be drastically reduced if adjusting corresponding training parameters, while at the same time the Dice coefficients remain nearly unchanged. This enables for performing a whole training process within a single day utilizing a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 graphics board which makes this library also very interesting for research purposes on low-end GPU hardware.
Removing rain and snow in a single image using guided filter (2012)

Dynamic weather conditions, such as rain and snow, degrade the performance of vision algorithms, which is served for video surveillance and analysis tasks. Many methods have been proposed to reduce the effects of raindrops and snow flakes that are regarded as noises in each frame of a certain video. However, the removing of rain-drop or snow-flake is quite challenging since each of them affects only on a very small region of an image, thus, leading us a rub to determine which region should be smoothed and which should not. In this paper, a guided filter, by which no pixel-based statistical information for detecting rain and snow are needed, is introduced in the removal stage. The results show that it may achieve better performance. In addition, the degradation-restoring algorithm is suitable for both single images and videos.
Molecular cloning of the gene for the allatostatin family of neuropeptides from the cockroach Diploptera punctata. (1993)

Allatostatins (ASTs) are insect neuropeptides that inhibit juvenile hormone biosynthesis by the corpora allata. We have isolated a cDNA from the cockroach Diploptera punctata that encodes a 41.5-kDa precursor polypeptide containing the AST family of peptides. Translation of the cDNA revealed a 370-amino acid pre-pro-peptide consisting of 13 AST-type peptides and appropriate processing sites for endoproteolytic cleavage and amidation. The 13 potential AST sequences are characterized by the C-terminal AST corestructure Phe-Gly-Leu-NH2, with only one exception. Separating the clustered ASTs in the precursor, three acidic spacer regions are found. Contained within the largest of these are two potentially related peptides that may also be processed. Southern blot analysis revealed the presence of a single copy of the AST gene per haploid genome, as well as the probability that the gene may be present in at least two allelic forms. In situ hybridization indicated the AST-encoding gene is expressed in neurosecretory cells of D. punctata brain.
Telemetric assessment of bone healing with an instrumented internal fixator (2012)

In an interdisciplinary project involving electronic engineers and clinicians, a telemetric system was developed to measure the bending load in a titanium internal femoral fixator. As this was a new device, the main question posed was: what clinically relevant information could be drawn from its application? As a first clinical investigation, 27 patients (24 men, three women) with a mean age of 38.4 years (19 to 66) with femoral nonunions were treated using the system. The mean duration of the nonunion was 15.4 months (5 to 69). The elasticity of the plate-callus system was measured telemetrically until union. Conventional radiographs and a CT scan at 12 weeks were performed routinely, and healing was staged according to the CT scans. All nonunions healed at a mean of 21.5 weeks (13 to 37). Well before any radiological signs of healing could be detected, a substantial decrease in elasticity was recorded. The relative elasticity decreased to 50% at a mean of 7.8 weeks (3.5 to 13) and to 10% at a mean of 19.3 weeks (4.5 to 37). At 12 weeks the mean relative elasticity was 28.1% (0% to 56%). The relative elasticity was significantly different between the different healing stages as determined by the CT scans. Incorporating load measuring electronics into implants is a promising option for the assessment of bone healing. Future application might lead to a reduction in the need for exposure to ionising radiation to monitor fracture healing.
Comparison of the nucleotide sequence of the SH gene and flanking regions of mumps vaccine virus (Urabe strain) grown on different substrates and isolated from vaccinees (1991)

The small hydrophobic (SH) protein gene and flanking regions of the Urabe Am9 vaccine strain of mumps virus were amplified by the polymerase chain reaction and sequenced directly by the dideoxynucleotide chain termination method. The 434 bp sequence was identical for the Urabe strain isolated from vaccines produced by three manufacturers and for virus isolated following post-vaccination parotitis. No changes were detected for coding, non-coding or intergenic regions between virus grown on different substrates. The Urabe virus SH coding region differed from the published sequence for strain SBL-1 by 14.4% at the nucleotide level and 24.6% at the amino acid level. The 5' non-coding SH region was strongly conserved between the two strains (2% different), whereas the other non-coding regions were not.
Numerical Model of Fluid Flow and Oxygen Transport in a Radial-Flow Microchannel Containing Hepatocytes (1999)

The incorporation of monolayers of cultured hepatocytes into an extracorporeal perfusion system has become a promising approach for the development of a temporary bioartificial liver (BAL) support system. In this paper we present a numerical investigation of the oxygen tension, shear stress, and pressure drop in a bioreactor for a BAL composed of plasma-perfused chambers containing monolayers of porcine hepatocytes. The chambers consist of microfabricated parallel disks with center-to-edge radial flow. The oxygen uptake rate (OUR), measured in vitro for porcine hepatocytes, was curve-fitted using Michaelis–Menten kinetics for simulation of the oxygen concentration profile. The effect of different parameters that may influence the oxygen transport inside the chambers, such as the plasma flow rate, the chamber height, the initial oxygen tension in the perfused plasma, the OUR, and Km was investigated. We found that both the plasma flow rate and the initial oxygen tension may have an important effect upon oxygen transport. Increasing the flow rate and/or the inlet oxygen tension resulted in improved oxygen transport to cells in the radial-flow microchannels, and allowed significantly greater diameter reactor without oxygen limitation to the hepatocytes. In the range investigated in this paper (10 μm < H < 100 μm), and for a constant plasma flow rate, the chamber height, H, had a negligible effect on the oxygen transport to hepatocytes. On the contrary, it strongly affected the mechanical stress on the cells that is also crucial for the successful design of the BAL reactors. A twofold decrease in chamber height from 50 to 25 μm produced approximately a fivefold increase in maximal shear stress at the inlet of the reactor from 2 to 10 dyn/cm2. Further decrease in chamber height resulted in shear stress values that are physiologically unrealistic. Therefore, the channel height needs to be carefully chosen in a BAL design to avoid deleterious hydrodynamic effects on hepatocytes.
512-Element Actively Steered Silicon Phased Array for Low-Power LIDAR (2018)

We demonstrate the highest yet-reported element count actively-steered optical phased array with record low array power consumption of <1.8W. We show 2D steering over a 70 x 14 degree field of view while pumped by an integrated InP/silicon laser.
Intelligent Collaborative Localization Among Air-Ground Robots for Industrial Environment Perception (2018)

Multiple mobile robots have gradually played a key role in many industrial systems, such as factory freight logistics system, patrol security in the factory environment, and multirobot collaborative service and work. As a key issue in industrial environment perception, the accurate robot localization can enhance their autonomous ability and is an important branch of robotic studies in artificial intelligence. In this paper, we propose a new method for cooperative autonomous localization among air-ground robots in a wide-ranging outdoor industrial environment. The aerial robot first maps an area of interest and achieves self-localization. Then the aerial robot transfers a simplified orthogonal perspective 2.5-D map to the ground robots for collaboration. Within the collaboration, the ground robot achieves pose estimation with respect to the unmanned aerial vehicle pose by instantaneously registering a single panorama with respect to the 2.5-D map. The 2.5-D map is used as the spatial association among air-ground robots. The ground robots estimate the orientation using automatically detected geometric information and generates the translation by aligning the 2.5-D map with a semantic segmentation of the panorama. Our method effectively overcomes the dramatic differences between the air-level view and the ground-level view. A set of experiments is performed in the outdoor industrial environment to demonstrate the applicability of our localization method. The proposed robotic collaborative localization outperforms most consumer sensor in accuracy and also has an outstanding running time.
Identification of the trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (<i>tps</i>) gene in desiccation tolerant and intolerant tardigrades (2012)

The presence of the gene coding for trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (tps) was determined for the first time in Tardigrada in twelve species belonging to both Heterotardigrada and Eutardigrada. The tps gene was found in all semiterrestrial and anhydrobiotic species examined, correlating trehalose presence with anhydrobiotic ability. In contrast, tps was not detected in two limnic and desiccation intolerant species. The surprising presence of tps in another limnic and desiccation intolerant species, Dactylobiotus parthenogeneticus, allowed us to infer that in tardigrades trehalose could be produced and involved, not just in anhydrobiosis, but also in the regulation of other biological functions, such as encystment. Our findings, integrated with literature data, indicate that anhydrobiotic ability in tardigrades can depend on the combined action of numerous different molecules, only partially identified. With nucleotide tps sequences, it is impossible to infer phylogenetic relationships inside the phylum Tardigrada, while amino acid sequences further support the relationship between Tardigrada and Pancrustacea.
Quantitative detection of left ventricular dyssynchrony from cardiac computed tomography angiography (2011)

Heart failure represents both an enormous disease and economic burden in the United States, affecting more than 5.7 million people nationally at an annual cost of more than 35 billion dollars. Cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is a rapidly advancing, non-invasive imaging technique that has the potential to both dramatically reduce the cost and simplify the gathering of diagnostic information needed for the evaluation and treatment of patients with newly diagnosed LV systolic dysfunction. In this paper, we present a parametric model based approach for the detection and classification of dyssynchronous LV using CCTA data. First, the LV endocardial border is traced and then fitted in a prolate spheroidal coordinate system. A new metric, time to minimum λ (t <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">min</sub> λ), is then derived from this parametric model and tested on six LVs (3 synchronous, 3 dyssynchronous). The preliminary results of the classifier using only the means and standard deviations of t <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">min</sub> λ are extremely encouraging. We then further show how t <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">min</sub> λ can be used to quantitatively study the degree and location of dysfunction in a dyssynchronous LV.
Fetal resorption in rats treated with an antiestrogen in relation to luteal phase nidatory estrogen secretion (1992)

Centchroman was administered to rats in relation to luteal phase nidatory estrogen secreted between 21.00 on day 4 and 10.00 on day 5 of pregnancy. A single oral dose of 1.25 mg/kg before the secretion of nidatory estrogen, i.e. until 21.00 on day 4, prevented implantation in 100% of the rats without altering plasma estradiol or progesterone concentration. Administration of a dose of up to 62.5 mg/kg at 10.00 on day 5 even failed to inhibit implantation, but caused dose-dependent resorption of implantations. Resorption of all implantations at a dose of 62.5 mg/kg was associated with a decrease in circulating progesterone levels, but was only partially reversed by progesterone or progesterone + estrone supplementation. Apparently normal morulae and blastocysts recovered between days 4 and 10 from rats treated with anti-implantation doses before release of nidatory estrogen, when transferred to the uteri of control rats exhibited lower pregnancy, implantation and development rates with increasing confinement in the genital tract of treated donors. None of the embryos recovered from control or centchroman treated females implanted in the uteri of treated rats. Centchroman administration on day 1, but not on day 5, abolished endometrial receptivity to an artificial stimulus for decidualization. All term fetuses were apparently normal and their weight comparable to that of control fetuses. The study provides evidence of post-implantation fetal resorption, occurring primarily between days 10 and 19 post-coitum, in rats treated with a potent antiestrogen before or immediately after the prenidatory estrogen secretion. This was not related to altered ovarian function and the decreased plasma progesterone concentration on day 19 after a higher dose of the compound was secondary to resorption of all implantations.
<i>Pseudomonas</i>sp. Strain 273, an Aerobic α,ω-DichloroalkaneDegrading Bacterium (1998)

A gram-negative, aerobic bacterium was isolated from soil; this bacterium grew in 50% (vol/vol) suspensions of 1,10-dichlorodecane (1,10-DCD) as the sole source of carbon and energy. Phenotypic and small-subunit ribosomal RNA characterizations identified the organism, designated strain 273, as a member of the genus Pseudomonas. After induction with 1,10-DCD, Pseudomonas sp. strain 273 released stoichiometric amounts of chloride from C5 to C12 alpha, omega-dichloroalkanes in the presence of oxygen. No dehalogenation occurred under anaerobic conditions. The best substrates for dehalogenation and growth were C9 to C12 chloroalkanes. The isolate also grew with nonhalogenated aliphatic compounds, and decane-grown cells dechlorinated 1,10-DCD without a lag phase. In addition, cells grown on decane dechlorinated 1,10-DCD in the presence of chloramphenicol, indicating that the 1,10-DCD-dechlorinating enzyme system was also induced by decane. Other known alkane-degrading Pseudomonas species did not grow with 1,10-DCD as a carbon source. Dechlorination of 1,10-DCD was demonstrated in cell extracts of Pseudomonas sp. strain 273. Cell-free activity was strictly oxygen dependent, and NADH stimulated dechlorination, whereas EDTA had an inhibitory effect.
Epoxyeicosatrienoic acid analog attenuates angiotensin II hypertension and kidney injury (2014)

Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) contribute to blood pressure regulation leading to the concept that EETs can be therapeutically targeted for hypertension and the associated end organ damage. In the present study, we investigated anti-hypertensive and kidney protective actions of an EET analog, EET-B in angiotensin II (ANG II)-induced hypertension. EET-B was administered in drinking water for 14 days (10 mg/kg/d) and resulted in a decreased blood pressure elevation in ANG II hypertension. At the end of the two-week period, blood pressure was 30 mmHg lower in EET analog-treated ANG II hypertensive rats. The vasodilation of mesenteric resistance arteries to acetylcholine was impaired in ANG II hypertension; however, it was improved with EET-B treatment. Further, EET-B protected the kidney in ANG II hypertension as evidenced by a marked 90% decrease in albuminuria and 54% decrease in nephrinuria. Kidney histology demonstrated a decrease in renal tubular cast formation in EET analog-treated hypertensive rats. In ANG II hypertension, EET-B treatment markedly lowered renal inflammation. Urinary monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 excretion was decreased by 55% and kidney macrophage infiltration was reduced by 52% with EET-B treatment. Overall, our results demonstrate that EET-B has anti-hypertensive properties, improves vascular function, and decreases renal inflammation and injury in ANG II hypertension.
High-speed ΣΔ modulators with reduced timing jitter sensitivity (2002)

As higher and higher frequency signals are sampled, clock jitter limits the achievable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). This clock jitter limit is reviewed for upfront sampled ADCs and continuous-time (CT) sigma-delta modulators (/spl Sigma//spl Delta/Ms). A pulse-shaped feedback digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is proposed to mitigate the jitter-imposed SNR limit in CT /spl Sigma//spl Delta/Ms. An intuitive analysis that compares the pulse-shaped DAC to conventional DACs is presented. This analysis as well as a more rigorous analysis shows that the pulse-shaped feedback /spl Sigma//spl Delta/M has potential for significant SNR improvement over conventional CT /spl Sigma//spl Delta/Ms as well as any upfront sampled system. For typical jitter, phase and amplitude noise numbers, SNR improvement is on the order of 17 dB over a conventional CT /spl Sigma//spl Delta/M and 8 dB over an upfront sampled ADC for a 1-GHz input.
Novel Effects of Neutrophil-Derived Proteinase 3 and Elastase on the Vascular Endothelium Involve In Vivo Cleavage of NF-κB and Proapoptotic Changes in JNK, ERK, and p38 MAPK Signaling Pathways (2002)

Leukocyte-derived proteases have long been considered simply degradative. However, emerging data raise possibilities of a complex and specific biologic role for these proteases in substrate processing and in signaling pathways within cells. This study reports that the release of neutrophilic and monocytic proteases, such as proteinase 3 (PR3) and human neutrophil elastase (HNE), can result in their entry into endothelial cells coincident with the activation of proapoptotic-signaling events through ERK, JNK, and p38 MAPK. Inhibition of JNK blocked PR3-induced apoptosis, and inhibition of p38 MAPK blocked PR3- and HNE-induced apoptosis, indicating that these pathways are required for activation of apoptosis. It is here shown that protease entry results in direct cleavage of p65 NF-kappaB in the N-terminal region by PR3 and in the C-terminal region by HNE. This cleavage results in diminished transcriptional activity by NF-kappaB as demonstrated by diminished levels of TNF-alpha-induced IL-8 message in the presence of PR3 or HNE. Inhibition of caspases did not block the cleavage of p65 NF-kappaB, and sequence analysis showed that the PR3 and HNE cleavage sites are unique with respect to reported caspase sites. The data demonstrate that PR3 and HNE have specific, fundamental roles in endothelial responses during inflammation. Upon entry, they can usurp the cell's control of its own fate by directly intervening into caspase cascades. This provides a unique mechanism of crosstalk between leukocytes and endothelial cells at sites of inflammation that impacts both cytokine networks and cell viability.