gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
An ethnographic study of acute respiratory infections in four local government areas of Nigeria. (1995)

An ethnographic study was conducted in four local government areas of Nigeria. The techniques of informal unstructured interviews and participant observation were used. A total of 104 focus group discussions with 53 groups of mothers, 21 groups of grandmothers, and 30 groups of fathers were conducted. Perception of causes of ARI ranged from cold water, to heredity, poor hygiene, exposure to smoke and dust and the supernatural forces. Preventive measures described were related to the perceived causes. For those groups that discussed home remedies to the treatment of ARI, the remedies described for cough included herbal drinks (39% of groups); honey with lemon (19.5%); eating specific vegetables believed to relieve cough (8.4%); and preparations containing palm oil (21.7%). Remedies described for measles included herbal drinks (62%); local tropical creams (24%); and palm wine (13.7%). Those for ear infections included drops of herbal mixtures in the ear (29.4%); putting various type of oil in the ear (38%); plugging the ear with cotton wool previously dipped in honey, or alcohol (17%). The findings of this study have implications for the Health Education Component of the National ARI Control Programm which Nigeria recently embarked upon. There is also the need for research on the efficacy and any possible adverse effects of identified home remedies.
Recent advances in features extraction and description algorithms: A comprehensive survey (2017)

Computer vision is one of the most active research fields in information technology today. Giving machines and robots the ability to see and comprehend the surrounding world at the speed of sight creates endless potential applications and opportunities. Feature detection and description algorithms can be indeed considered as the retina of the eyes of such machines and robots. However, these algorithms are typically computationally intensive, which prevents them from achieving the speed of sight real-time performance. In addition, they differ in their capabilities and some may favor and work better given a specific type of input compared to others. As such, it is essential to compactly report their pros and cons as well as their performances and recent advances. This paper is dedicated to provide a comprehensive overview on the state-of-the-art and recent advances in feature detection and description algorithms. Specifically, it starts by overviewing fundamental concepts. It then compares, reports and discusses their performance and capabilities. The Maximally Stable Extremal Regions algorithm and the Scale Invariant Feature Transform algorithms, being two of the best of their type, are selected to report their recent algorithmic derivatives.
Progress on the optical lattice clock (2015)

Optical lattice clocks have made significant leaps forward in recent years, demonstrating the ability to measure time/frequency at unprecedented levels. Here we highlight this progress, with a particular focus on research efforts at NIST and JILA. We discuss advances in frequency instability and the characterization of key systematic effects, with a brief outlook to the future.
Chemosensitization and Delayed Androgen-Independent Recurrence of Prostate Cancer With the Use of Antisense Bcl-2 Oligodeoxynucleotides (2000)

Treatment of Shionogi tumor cells with 500 nM antisense Bcl-2 oligodeoxynucleotides decreased expression of Bcl-2 messenger RNA (mRNA) by approximately 85%. Paclitaxel treatment induced Bcl-2 protein phosphorylation but did not alter Bcl-2 mRNA expression. Antisense Bcl-2 oligodeoxynucleotide treatment substantially enhanced paclitaxel chemosensitivity in a dose-dependent manner. Characteristic apoptotic DNA laddering and cleavage of poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase were demonstrated only after combined treatment. Adjuvant in vivo administration of antisense Bcl-2 oligodeoxynucleotides and micellar paclitaxel following castration resulted in a statistically significant delay of androgen-independent, recurrent tumors compared with administration of either agent alone (P<.001, Mantel-Cox log-rank test). Combination therapy also statistically significantly inhibited the growth of established hormone-refractory tumors compared with treatment with either agent alone (P<.001, Student's t test). CONCLUSIONS. Combined treatment with antisense Bcl-2 oligodeoxynucleotides and paclitaxel could be a novel and attractive strategy to inhibit progression to androgen-independent disease as well as growth of hormone-refractory prostate cancer through deprivation of Bcl-2 function.
A sensing cushion using simple pressure distribution sensors (2012)

It has been promising to provide personalized services for improving our living environment in support of information technologies. Sitting is one of the frequent actions in our daily life, especially for people who work in office. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a sensing cushion. The cushion's information about seated postures can be used to help avoid adverse effects of sitting for long periods of time or to predict seated activities for a human-computer interface. The cushion's seat pan and backrest surface is mounted with simple binary valued pressure distribution sensors. The pressure distribution data is scanned by a micro controller unit and then transited to a personal computer by a Bluetooth module. The recognition task is performed on the PC side, which can recognize 9 different seated postures in real time with high accuracy.
Cellular and Humoral Immune Responses to<i>Borrelia burgdorferi</i>Antigens in Patients with Culture-Positive Early Lyme Disease (2001)

We determined cellular and humoral immune responses to Borrelia burgdorferi lysate and to recombinant flagellin (FlaB), OspC, and OspA in acute- and convalescent-phase samples from 39 culture-positive patients with erythema migrans and in 20 healthy control subjects. During the acute illness, a median of 4 days after the onset of erythema migrans, 51% of the patients had proliferative cellular responses and 72% had antibody responses to at least one of the borrelial antigens tested. During convalescence, at the conclusion of antibiotic therapy, 64% of the patients had proliferative cellular reactivity and 95% had antibody reactivity with at least one of the spirochetal antigens tested. In both acute- and convalescent-phase samples, cellular immune responses were found as frequently to OspA as to OspC and FlaB. Although antibody responses were also frequently seen to OspC and FlaB, only a few patients had marginal antibody reactivity with OspA. The percentage of patients with proliferative responses was similar in those with clinical evidence of localized or disseminated infection, whereas humoral reactivity was found more often in those with disseminated disease. We conclude that cellular and humoral responses to B. burgdorferi antigens are often found among patients with early Lyme disease. In contrast with the other antigens tested, cellular but not humoral reactivity was often found with OspA.
Participation of Histamine in the Step-Through Active Avoidance Response and Its Inhibition by H1-Blockers (1991)

The effects of intravenous and intracerebroventricular administrations of certain H1-blockers on the active avoidance response in rats were studied. Among the classic H1-blockers used in this study: pyrilamine, diphenhydramine, promethazine and chlorpheniramine, promethazine was the most effective and chlorpheniramine the least in inhibiting the active avoidance response; namely, a variation of prolongation in the response latency of the avoidance response. Meanwhile, ketotifen most potently inhibited the active avoidance response when the drugs were administered intracerebroventricularly. Mequitazine, astemizole and oxatomide were weak depressants when administered by either route. Azelastine was less effective than the classic H1-blockers by intravenous injection, while by intracerebroventricular injection, the inhibition was almost identical to those induced by the classic H1-blockers. Intracerebroventricular injection of histamine was antagonized the prolonged latency in the avoidance response induced by pyrilamine or diphenhydramine. A similar effect was also produced by 2-methylhistamine, but 4-methylhistaminc had no effect. Intracerebroventricular injection of acetylcholine was restored the retarded avoidance response induced by pyrilamine, but a dose 20 times greater than that of histamine was required. From these findings, it can be concluded that inhibition of the active avoidance response induced by H1-blockers may be exerted through interaction with H1-receptors in the brain.
5-Hydroxytryptamine(1A) receptor-stimulated [(35)S]GTPgammaS binding in rat brain: absence of regional differences in coupling efficiency. (2000)

In hippocampal membranes, the selective 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT(1A)) receptor agonists 8-hydroxy-dipropylaminotetralin (8-OH-DPAT) and N,N-dipropyl-5-carboxamidotryptamine (N,N-DP-5-CT) stimulated guanosine-5'-O-(3-thio)triphosphate ([(35)S]GTPgammaS) binding by 130 to 140%; binding stimulated by nonselective agonists (5-HT and 5-CT) was approximately 30% greater. However, the selective 5-HT(1A) receptor antagonist N-[2-[4-(2-methoxyphenyl)-1-piperazinyl]ethyl]-N-2-pyridinyl-cyclohex anecarboxamide (WAY100,635) completely abolished the increases produced by 8-OH-DPAT and N,N-DP-5-CT but only eliminated 70% of that elicited by 5-CT. The rank potency order of the tested agonists was identical with their rank order of affinity for 5-HT(1A) receptors [5-CT congruent with N,N-DP-5-CT > R-(+)-8-OH-DPAT > 5-HT > ipsapirone]. Racemic 8-OH-DPAT and the partial agonist ipsapirone exhibited lower intrinsic activity than R-(+)-8-OH-DPAT. R-(+)-8-OH-DPAT also stimulated [(35)S]GTPgammaS binding in cortex, but not in striatum, which lacks 5-HT(1A) receptors. Partial irreversible inactivation of 5-HT(1A) receptors, in vitro with phenoxybenzamine (0.3 or 1 microM) or in vivo with N-ethoxycarbonyl-2-ethoxy-1,2-dihydroquinoline (1 mg/kg), reduced the maximal response produced by R-(+)-8-OH-DPAT but did not alter its EC(50). In autoradiographic sections, R-(+)-8-OH-DPAT stimulated [(35)S]GTPgammaS binding in 5-HT(1A) receptor-rich regions (dorsal hippocampus, 123%; lateral septum, 111%; midhippocampus, 110%; dorsal raphe nucleus, 83%; medial prefrontal cortex, approximately 60%). The EC(50) of R-(+)-8-OH-DPAT did not vary significantly among brain regions (46-96 nM). Partial irreversible blockade of 5-HT(1A) receptors in brain sections (phenoxybenzamine, 10 microM) reduced the maximal response without altering the EC(50) in both the hippocampus and dorsal raphe. Despite prior evidence that dorsal raphe somatodendritic 5-HT(1A) autoreceptors exhibit high receptor/effector coupling efficiency (receptor reserve) compared with postsynaptic receptors in hippocampus, there was no evidence of a difference at the level of receptor/G protein coupling.
The Role of Subcellular Localization in Initiation of Apoptosis by Photodynamic Therapy (1997)

Rapid initiation of apoptosis can be induced by photodynamic therapy, depending on the cell line and sensitizer employed. In this study, we evaluated the photodynamic responses to two structurally related photosensitizing agents, using the P388 murine leukemia cell line in culture. Photodamage mediated by tin etiopurpurin involved lysosomes and mitochondria and yielded a rapid apoptotic response; apoptotic nuclei were observed within 60 min after PDT. A drug analog, tin octaethylpurpurin amidine, targeted lysosomes, mitochondria and cell membranes; apoptotic nuclei were not observed until 24 h after PDT. These results, together with other recent reports, are consistent with the hypothesis that membrane photodamage can delay or prevent an apoptotic response to PDT.
한국인에서 Human T - cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 ( HTLV - 1 ) 에 대한 항체보유 (1996)

Objectives: HTLV-I infections are newly recognized disease entity which are common in some tropical and subtropical areas including southwestern district of Japan. Inspite of geographical adjacency and frequent cultural exchanges between Korea and Japan, it has been known that Korea is not an endemic area and HTLV-I associated illnesses are very rare in Korea. Our study was designed to reevaluate the prevalence of anti-HTLV-I antibodies in Korea and its regional distributions. Methods: Sera were obtained from blood donors from various districts of Korea. Anti-HTLV-I anti- bodies were detected using microtiter particle agglutination test kit( Fujirebio Inc. Japan) employing an indirect agglutination technique. Results: The results were as follows 1) Total 9,281 donors were tested and 12 donors were anti-HTLV-I positive(positive rate = 0.13%) 2) Positive rate was 0.11% in male and 0.46% in female, with relative female sex predominence. 3) Frequency of seropositive donors had tendency to increase gradually with age. 4) Relatively high incidence of anti-HTLV-I positive donors were observed in Jonnam(0.15%), Kyung-nam(0.31%), and Chejue(0.80%) which showed increasing incidence as the district got closer to Japan. Conclusion : In conclusion the prevalence rate of anti-HTLV-I seemed to be very low in Korea. But districts close to endemic areas of Japan showed relatively high incidence of anti-HTLV-I positive donors. Surprisingly high incidence of of anti- HTLV-I positive donors were noticed in Chejue warranting further research on HTLV-I associated illnesses and prevention programs.
Purification and characterization of a novel lactonohydrolase, catalyzing the hydrolysis of aldonate lactones and aromatic lactones, from <i>Fusarium oxysporum</i> (1992)

A novel lactonohydrolase, an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of aldonate lactones to the corresponding aldonic acids, was purified 10-fold to apparent homogeneity, with a 61% overall recovery, from Fusarium oxysporum AKU 3702, through a purification procedure comprising DEAE-Sephacel, octyl-Sepharose CL-4B and hydroxyapatite chromatographies and crystallization. The molecular mass of the native enzyme, as estimated by high-performance gel-permeation chromatography, is 125 kDa, and the subunit molecular mass is 60 kDa. The enzyme contains 15.4% (by mass) glucose equivalent of carbohydrate, and about 1 mol calcium/subunit. The enzyme hydrolyzes aldonate lactones, such as D-galactono-gamma-lactone and L-mannono-gamma-lactone, stereospecifically. Furthermore, it can catalyze the asymmetric hydrolysis of D-pantoyl lactone, which is a promising chiral building block for the chemical synthesis of D-pantothenate. These reactions are reversible, and the reaction equilibrium at pH 6.0 has a molar ratio of nearly 1:1 with D-pantoyl lactone and D-pantoic acid. The Km and Vmax for D-galactono-gamma-lactone are 3.6 mM and 1440 U/mg, respectively, and those for D-galactonate are 52.6 mM and 216 U/mg, respectively. The enzyme also irreversibly hydrolyzes several aromatic lactones, such as dihydrocoumarin and homogentisic-acid lactone.
TRIM E3 Ligases Interfere with Early and Late Stages of the Retroviral Life Cycle (2008)

Members of the TRIpartite interaction Motif (TRIM) family of E3 ligases have been shown to exhibit antiviral activities. Here we report a near comprehensive screen for antiretroviral activities of 55 TRIM proteins (36 human, 19 mouse). We identified approximately 20 TRIM proteins that, when transiently expressed in HEK293 cells, affect the entry or release of human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV), murine leukemia virus (MLV), or avian leukosis virus (ALV). While TRIM11 and 31 inhibited HIV entry, TRIM11 enhanced N-MLV entry by interfering with Ref1 restriction. Strikingly, many TRIM proteins affected late stages of the viral life cycle. Gene silencing of endogenously expressed TRIM 25, 31, and 62 inhibited viral release indicating that they play an important role at late stages of the viral life cycle. In contrast, downregulation of TRIM11 and 15 enhanced virus release suggesting that these proteins contribute to the endogenous restriction of retroviruses in cells.
Deep Direct Regression for Multi-oriented Scene Text Detection (2017)

In this paper, we first provide a new perspective to divide existing high performance object detection methods into direct and indirect regressions. Direct regression performs boundary regression by predicting the offsets from a given point, while indirect regression predicts the offsets from some bounding box proposals. In the context of multioriented scene text detection, we analyze the drawbacks of indirect regression, which covers the state-of-the-art detection structures Faster-RCNN and SSD as instances, and point out the potential superiority of direct regression. To verify this point of view, we propose a deep direct regression based method for multi-oriented scene text detection. Our detection framework is simple and effective with a fully convolutional network and one-step post processing. The fully convolutional network is optimized in an end-to-end way and has bi-task outputs where one is pixel-wise classification between text and non-text, and the other is direct regression to determine the vertex coordinates of quadrilateral text boundaries. The proposed method is particularly beneficial to localize incidental scene texts. On the ICDAR2015 Incidental Scene Text benchmark, our method achieves the F-measure of 81%, which is a new state-ofthe-art and significantly outperforms previous approaches. On other standard datasets with focused scene texts, our method also reaches the state-of-the-art performance.
Electrochemical synthesis and reactivity screening of a ternary composition gradient for combinatorial discovery of fuel cell catalysts (2004)

This paper describes a method for synthesis of multi-component gradient libraries for combinatorial catalyst discovery. A 'gel-transfer' synthesis method is demonstrated that involves localized diffusion of aqueous precursor metal salts into a hydrated gel to establish spatially varying concentration fields. Electrodeposition is then used to transfer the gradient in metal precursors to a surface. To illustrate the utility of this method, a platinum–ruthenium–rhodium (PtxRuyRhz) catalyst gradient was constructed, and its reactivity towards several fuel cell reactions evaluated. An optical screening technique based upon the pH-sensitive fluorescence of quinine was used to visualize the spatial onset of reactivity on the ternary catalyst gradient. The evolution of protons from several reactions of interest for low temperature fuel cells was visualized by quinine fluorescence. The oxidation of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methanol and ethanol were tested on the catalyst library. Catalyst regions that exhibited fluorescence (and hence the onset of activity) at lowest potentials were identified for each of the above reactions.
Some analytical tools for the design of space-time convolutional codes (2002)

Space-time convolutional codes have shown considerable promise for providing improved performance for wireless communication through combined diversity and coding gain. An efficient design procedure is presented for optimizing the coding and diversity gain measures proposed in the first papers on space-time codes. The procedure is based on some simple lower and upper bounds on coding gain. The same calculations needed to compute these bounds can be used to check either necessary or sufficient conditions on space-time codes which achieve maximum diversity gain. A new simple, but useful, measure of code performance is also suggested which augments existing measures. The use of the design procedure is illustrated and new codes are provided. These codes are shown to outperform the space-time convolutional codes provided in the initial papers introducing space-time codes.
Automated Road Extraction From High Resolution Satellite Images (2016)

The importance of road extraction from satellite images arises from the fact that it greatly enhances the efficiency of map generation and thus can be a big help in car navigations systems or any emergency (rescue) system that needs instant maps. Therefore, increasing research is being dedicated and focused on the development of efficient methods to extract topographical meaningful features (like roads) from digital remote sensed images. The work deals with extraction of roads from satellite images. This is a challenging domain compared to extraction from aerial images as satellite images are noisy and of lower resolution. In this method, a Vectorization Approach for the automatic method of road extraction is being used where the image is segmented to identify the road network regions followed by a decision making and continuity procedure to correctly detect the roads and the Vectorization step to identify the line segments or curved segments which represents the road. This method may be employed for obtaining information for feeding large-scale Geographic Information System. In the automatic method of road extraction the extracted roads are converted into road vectors in order to use these vector road maps in GIS. A semi-automated scheme is used for scenarios where fully automated system fails. A combination of both methods can be devised for a full fledged real business scenario
EFFECTS OF AMINO ACIDS AND CONVULSANTS ON SPONTANEOUS ACTION POTENTIALS IN CEREBELLAR CORTEX SLICES (1976)

1 Picrotoxin selectively and reversibly suppressed the inhibitory action of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), but not that of glycine, taurine or beta-alanine, on the frequency of spontaneous spike discharges in guinea-pig cerebellar slices. Strychnine reversibly suppressed the inhibitory action of glycine, taurine or beta-alanine but had no effect on that of GABA. 2 GABA, glycine, taurine and beta-alanine showed an early excitatory effect that was unaffected by picrotoxin or strychnine. 3 Studies of the dose-response relations indicated a competition between the amino acid and the convulsant at a common receptor site. 4 Kinetic analyses of the dose-response relations for the amino acids in the presence or absence of picrotoxin or strychnine indicated that the number of molecules of amino acid combining with the receptor site in order to produce a response (inhibition or excitation) was 3 for GABA, 2 for glycine, 3 for taurine and 4 for beta-alanine. There appeared to be no evidence that the response was due to the cooperativity between the amino acid receptor complexes. The number of molecules of convulsant that combined with the receptor site was 1 for either strychnine or picrotoxin. 5 Mixtures of glycine with taurine or beta-alanine, in contrast to those with GABA, appeared not to give additive inhibitory effects.