gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
In vitro activity of antibiotic combinations against multidrug-resistant strains of Acinetobacter baumannii and the effects of their antibiotic resistance determinants (2011)

Various combinations of antibiotics are reported to show synergy in treating nosocomial infections with multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii). Here, we studied hospital-acquired outbreak strains of MDR A. baumannii to evaluate optimal combinations of antibiotics. One hundred and twenty-one strains were grouped into one major and one minor clonal group based on repetitive PCR amplification. Twenty representative strains were tested for antibiotic synergy using Etest(®). Five strains were further analyzed by analytical isoelectric focusing and PCR to identify β-lactamase genes or other antibiotic resistance determinants. Our investigation showed that the outbreak strains of MDR A. baumannii belonged to two dominant clones. A combination of colistin and doxycycline showed the best result, being additive or synergistic against 70% of tested strains. Antibiotic additivity was observed more frequently than synergy. Strains possessing the same clonality did not necessarily demonstrate the same response to antibiotic combinations in vitro. We conclude that the effect of antibiotic combinations on our outbreak strains of MDR A. baumannii seemed strain-specific. The bacterial response to antibiotic combinations is probably a result of complex interactions between multiple concomitant antibiotic resistance determinants in each strain.
Wetting transitions on rough surfaces (2004)

We consider microscopic contact states of a drop deposited on textured rough surfaces. The energies of three possible (meta)stable wetting states are compared and the lowest energy state is regarded as the "phase". We present the "phase diagrams" in the two-dimensional space of texture parameters, which suggests transitions between the wetting states. We propose a model which allows the description of transition states between (meta)stable contact states and quantify the energy barriers between them. Thereby, we theoretically suggest that the actually realized state is not always the lowest energy state.
Protecting people from phishing (2007)

Phishing attacks, in which criminals lure Internet users to websites that impersonate legitimate sites, are occurring with increasing frequency and are causing considerable harm to victims. In this paper we describe the design and evaluation of an embedded training email system that teaches people about phishing during their normal use of email. We conducted lab experiments contrasting the effectiveness of standard security notices about phishing with two embedded training designs we developed. We found that embedded training works better than the current practice of sending security notices. We also derived sound design principles for embedded training systems.
Photographic shutters: better pictures with a reconsideration of shutter efficiency (1977)

An efficient photographic shutter is one which can open and close in small fractions of the exposure time, and this property is generally thought desirable. But no one combination of f/stop and time in an efficient shutter can match the subjective quality, depth of field, and motion stopping ability of certain deliberately inefficient shutters used on automatic cameras. These advantages are derived from a simple optical model by MTF techniques and are confirmed experimentally.
Descriptive catalogue of the American Byrrhidae (1912)

(Uploaded by Plazi from the Biodiversity Heritage Library) No abstract provided.
Array of M Protein Gene Subtypes in 1064 Recent Invasive Group A Streptococcus Isolates Recovered from the Active Bacterial Core Surveillance (2003)

Using sequence analysis to detect variation within the hypervariable M protein N terminus, we found 41 emm types encompassing 81 subtypes, among 1064 consecutive invasive group A streptococcus isolates from a recent multistate, population-based surveillance. Seventeen of the 30 emm types represented by multiple isolates displayed multiple subtypes. Most subtypes differed from reference strain emm sequences as a result of single base substitutions or other alterations likely to be stably inherited. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention database (available at: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/biotech/strep/strepblast.htm) currently contains 225 distinct emm types encompassing 450 subtypes. Although this subtyping scheme increases specificity, limited variation within individual types favors introduction of M protein type-specific vaccines.
Architecture and Design of IP Broadcasting System Using Passive Optical Network (2008)

We propose an IP broadcasting system architecture using passive optical networks (PON) utilizing the optical broadcast links of a PON with a downstream bandwidth allocation algorithm to provide a multi-channel IP broadcasting service to home subscribers on single broadband IP network infrastructures. We introduce the design and adaptation of the optical broadcast links to effectively broadcast video contents to home subscribers. We present a performance analysis that includes the downstream bandwidth utilization efficiency of the broadcast link and the bandwidth control of the IP broadcasting and Internet data. Our analysis and simulation results show that the proposed system can provide 100 HDTV channels to every user over fiber lines. We also propose an IPTV channel selection mechanism in an ONT by selecting a broadcast stream. We developed and evaluated a prototype that can achieve a 15-msec IPTV channel selection speed.
Reduction of adenylate cyclase activity in lysates of human platelets by the alpha-adrenergic component of epinephrine. (1976)

The effects of the alpha- and beta-adrenergic components of epinephrine on adenylate cyclase activity were studied in lyastes of human platelets. The beta-adrenergic component increased enzyme activity between 20 and 50%, whereas the alpha-adrenergic component caused a concentration-dependent reduction of adenylate cyclase activity. The maximal inhibition of adenylate cyclase was 50 to 60% with about 100 muM epinephrine; about 1 muM epinephrine caused half-maximal inhibition. The alpha-adrenergic reduction of adenylate cyclase activity appeared to be immediate and was specific for platelets from species in which alpha-adrenergic stimulation caused aggregation. Adenylate cyclase activity measured in the presence of prostaglandins of fluoride was also reduced by the alpha-adrenergic component of epinephrine, but the inhibitory effect was less than on basal activity. In contrast, the 5'-guanylylimidodiphosphate-stimulated enzyme was not affected by stimulation of alpha-adrenergic receptors.
Multiple parameters control the selectivity of nuclear receptors for their response elements. Selectivity and promiscuity in response element recognition by retinoic acid receptors and retinoid X receptors. (1993)

A number of nuclear receptors are capable of binding to specific DNA sequences known as response elements that correspond to two 5'-PuG(G/T)TCA motifs. We have systematically compared the selectivity of DNA sequence recognition by the estrogen receptor and the retinoic acid receptor (RAR) and retinoid X receptor (RXR), using a variety of synthetic oligonucleotides related to natural response elements. The importance of the spacing and relative orientation of the PuG(G/T)TCA motifs as well as the possible role of the flanking sequences were investigated for each receptor. We find that the three receptors have different response element preferences and that their intrinsic DNA binding properties cannot be simply ascribed to spacing or orientation rules. For example, RARs bind with similar efficiencies to response elements containing directly repeated PuGTTCA motifs separated by 2, 3, 4, or 5 base pairs, and RXRs bind to response elements in which the directly repeated motifs are separated by 1, 2, and 5 base pairs. The actual sequence of the repeated motifs and the nature of their flanking bases appear to be important parameters in determining RAR and RXR binding efficiencies. The possibility that the binding specificity of nuclear receptors can be modified by interactions with other proteins, in particular other nuclear receptors, is discussed in relation to the patterns of transcriptional activation observed with either endogenous or transiently expressed receptors on chimeric promoters containing various response elements.
Possibilities of using nanoparticles as carriers for drugs and vaccines (1988)

(1988). Possibilities of using nanoparticles as carriers for drugs and vaccines. Journal of Microencapsulation: Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 115-127.
<title>Optimal parallel watershed algorithm based on image integration and sequential scannings</title> (1997)

Watershed transformation is a tool for image segmentation widely used in computer vision applications. However, the complexity of processing large images entails fast parallel algorithms. In this paper, an improved SPMD (single program multiple data) watershed algorithm based on image integration and sequential scannings is rendered. The task performed by the algorithm is an alternative to the classical simulated immersion for computing the watershed image. Although the technique converges slow on a single processor computer, due to the repeated raster and anti-raster scannings of the image, it performs much faster in parallel, when subimages of the global image are simultaneously processed. Additionally, a global connected components operation employed for the parallel labeling of the seeds for region growing increases the efficiency of the algorithm. Results of a message passing interface (MPI) implementation tested on a Cray T3D parallel computer demonstrate the resilience of the presented parallel design solution to increasing number of processors, as to larger image sizes.
Adaptive hardware becomes a reality using electrically reconfigurable arrays (ERAs) (1991)

Reconfigurable systems-which modify their operation to adapt to prevailing conditions-promise new and exciting design concepts for the 1990s. Adaption, to date, has primarily been the domain of software, but new hardware techniques of logic design using RAM based silicon open up significant benefits. The author discusses how the Electrically Reconfigurable Arrays (ERAs) can be used in adaptive hardware systems. The generic name of SRAM based products such as the ERA is Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Key features to look for in FPGAs for adaptive hardware applications are speed and flexibility of reconfiguration.
Pro‐ and antiangiogenic therapies: current status and clinical implications (2018)

Blood vessels nurture every part of the human body. Consequently, abnormalities in the vasculature are closely associated with a variety of diseases, including cerebral stroke, heart disease, retinopathy, and cancer. Pro- or antiangiogenic therapies can influence these diseases by regulating the growth of new blood vessels from a pre-existing vascular network or dampening excessive blood growth. However, clinical translation of these approaches is slow and challenging. In this review, we discuss recent preclinical approaches to regulate angiogenesis and their potential and risks in a clinical setting.-Rust, R., Gantner, C., Schwab, M. E. Pro- and antiangiogenic therapies: current status and clinical implications.
Lack of MK2 Inhibits Myofibroblast Formation and Exacerbates Pulmonary Fibrosis (2007)

Fibroblasts play a major role in tissue repair and remodeling. Their differentiation into myofibroblasts, marked by increased expression of smooth muscle-specific alpha-actin (alpha-SMA), is believed to be important in wound healing and fibrosis. We have recently described a role for MK2 in this phenotypic differentiation in culture. In this article, we demonstrate that MK2 also regulates myofibroblasts in vivo. Disruption of MK2 in mice prevented myofibroblast formation in a model of pulmonary fibrosis. However, MK2 disruption and consequent lack of myofibroblast formation exacerbated fibrosis rather than ameliorated it as previously postulated. When mice lacking MK2 (MK2-/-) were exposed to bleomycin, more collagen accumulated and more fibroblasts populated fibrotic regions in their lungs than in similarly treated wild-type mice. While there were many vimentin-positive cells in the bleomycin-treated MK2-/- mouse lungs, few alpha-SMA-positive cells were observed in these lungs compared with wild-type mouse lungs. siRNA against MK2 reduced alpha-SMA expression in wild-type mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF), consistent with its suppression in MK2-/- MEF. On the other hand expressing constitutively active MK2 in MK2-/- MEF significantly increased alpha-SMA expression. MK2-/-MEF proliferated at a faster rate and produced more collagen; however, they migrated at a slower rate than wild-type MEF. Overexpressing phosphomimicking HSP27, a target of MK2, did not reverse the effect of MK2 disruption on fibroblast migration. MK2 disruption did not affect Smad2 activation by transforming growth factor-beta. Thus, MK2 appears to mediate myofibroblast differentiation, and inhibiting that differentiation might contribute to fibrosis rather than protect against it.
An imaging/therapeutic molecular probe for ultrasound and photoacoustic dual modality system (2010)

Gold nanorods (AuNRs) have been used as contrast enhancement agents for photoacoustic (PA) imaging as well as effective photothermal therapy agents. In the literature, pulsed ultrasound exposures have shown to enhance delivery of fluorescently labeled polystyrene nanoparticles. Microbubbles (MBs) can also substantially enhance the ablation effects. In this study, we develop a US/PA imaging/therapeutic multimodality molecular probe - encapsulated gold nanorods albumin microbubbles (AuMBs) for US/PA imaging. The AuNR solution containing 0.4-M Cysteamine dihydrochloride (5 ml) and 16 mM HNO3 (10 ml) is aged for 30 min. Next, the solution is centrifuged at 5500 rpm for 15 min to remove excess cysteamine. Human serum albumin is added into the AuNR solution and then aged for 24 hour at 4°C. AuNR targeted MBs were generated by sonicating 4 mL of solution containing 1.2% AuNR-HSA, 0.04% avidin, and C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> F <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">8</sub> gas in phosphate-buffered saline. The AuMBs concentration was 2.41×10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">9</sup> /ml, and their mean diameter was 1319 nm. Phantom experiments were performed to characterize the AuMBs using Polyacrylic Acid gels with a chamber to load the samples. The property of the AuMBs for US/PA dual imaging system was estimated, and modified as a molecular probe. The optical characteristics of the AuMBs were presented. In addition, the potential of the AuMBs in the enhancement of the AuNR based hyperthermia was investigated.
Immunogenicity and Reactogenicity of Primary Immunization With a Hexavalent Diphtheria-Tetanus-Acellular Pertussis-Hepatitis B-Inactivated Polio-Haemophilus Influenzae Type B Vaccine Coadministered With Two Doses of a Meningococcal C-Tetanus Toxoid Conjugate Vaccine (2006)

Coadministration of DTaP-HBV-IPV/Hib or DTaP-IPV/Hib with 2 doses of MenC-TT conjugate vaccine is safe, well tolerated, and immunogenic, with no impairment of the response to the coadministered antigens.
Learning to Take Good Pictures of People with a Robot Photographer (2020)

We present a robotic system capable of navigating autonomously by following a line and taking good quality pictures of people. When a group of people is detected, the robot rotates towards them and then back to line while continuously taking pictures from different angles. Each picture is processed in the cloud where its quality is estimated in a two-stage algorithm. First, features such as the face orientation and likelihood of facial emotions are input to a fully connected neural network to assign a quality score to each face. Second, a representation is extracted by abstracting faces from the image and it is input to a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to classify the quality of the overall picture. We collected a dataset in which a picture was labeled as good quality if subjects are well-positioned in the image and oriented towards the camera with a pleasant expression. Our approach detected the quality of pictures with 78.4% accuracy in this dataset and received a better mean user rating (3.71/5) than a heuristic method that uses photographic composition procedures in a study where 97 human judges rated each picture. Statistical analysis against the state-of-the-art verified the quality of the resulting pictures.
High glucose level unmasks a genetic predisposition to enhanced extracellular matrix production in mesangial cells from the Milan normotensive strain. (1997)

A growing body of evidence indicates that the individual genetic background plays a role in the pathogenesis of diabetic glomerular disease by either favoring or protecting against injury produced by hyperglycemia. Two genetically related rat strains, the Milan normotensive strain (MNS) and the Milan hypertensive strain (MHS) display different susceptibilities to develop glomerulosclerosis with age. Glomerular sclerosing lesions occur in the MNS rats, which remain normotensive throughout their entire life-span, but not in the MHS rats, despite the presence of arterial hypertension. Previous studies have reported that extracellular matrix production and cell proliferation increased with donor-aging in mesangial cells isolated from MNS rats, but not in those from MHS rats, thus suggesting the existence of an inherited defect in the regulation of cell and matrix turnover, which translates into an abnormal response to growth-promoting stimuli favoring the development of glomerulosclerosis. In the study presented here, it was hypothesized that, in addition to donor-aging, other independent risk factors for the development of glomerular disease, such as metabolic injury by hyperglycemia, would be able to trigger and/or precipitate the occurrence of these changes in mesangial cells from the susceptible normotensive strain, but not in those from the protected hypertensive strain. To test this hypothesis, mesangial cells obtained from these rat strains (before the onset of either glomerulosclerosis or hypertension) were used to assess the effects of prolonged (4 wk) exposure to high (30 mmol/L) versus normal (5.5 mmol/L) glucose concentrations on extracellular matrix and cytokine production and cell proliferation. The accumulation and/or gene expression of the matrix components fibronectin, laminin, and collagen IV, and of the cytokines insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) did not change under normal glucose and increased progressively in response to high glucose in both MNS and MHS cells. These increases, with the exception of the increment in TGF-beta gene expression, were significantly more pronounced in MNS cells than in MHS cells. In contrast, the proliferative response to serum was not affected by high glucose, but increased in MNS cells, and decreased, although not significantly, in MHS cells during the 4-wk period, thus mimicking the changes previously observed in these rat strains as a function of age. These results indicate that high glucose unmasks a genetic tendency to produce increasing amounts of extracellular matrix, not yet evident under normal glucose conditions, and suggest that a genetically determined propensity of mesangial cells to hyperrespond to chronic hyperglycemia may be implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic glomerular disease.
Algorithms for matching 3D line sets (2004)

Matching two sets of lines is a basic tool that has applications in many computer vision problems such as scene registration, object recognition, motion estimation, and others. Line sets may be composed of infinitely long lines or finite length line segments. Depending on line lengths, three basic cases arise in matching sets of lines: 1) finite-finite, 2) finite-infinite, and 3) infinite-infinite. Case 2 has not been treated in the literature. For Cases 1 and 3, existing algorithms for matching 3D line sets are not completely satisfactory in that they either solve special situations, or give approximate solutions, or may not converge, or are not invariant with respect to coordinate system transforms. In this paper, we present new algorithms that solve exactly all three cases for the general situation. The algorithms are provably convergent and invariant to coordinate transforms. Experiments with synthetic and real 3D image data are reported.
ChemInform Abstract: GLYOXAL DERIVATIVES PART 6, THE FORMATION OF GLYCOLATES AND THE ACID‐CATALYZED DECOMPOSITION OF GLYOXAL ACETALS (1974)

Abstract Glyoxal (I) reagiert mit Cyclohexanol (II) bei niederer Temperatur zum Diacetal (III), während bei höherer Temperatur der Äther‐ester (IV) entsteht.
Multiphoton excitation and ionization by elliptically polarized, intense short laser pulses: Recognizing multielectron dynamics and doorway states in<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mtext>C</mml:mtext><mml:mrow><mml:mn>60</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>vs Xe (2009)

Ionization and fragmentation of ${\text{C}}_{60}$ fullerenes are studied by time-of-flight mass spectrometry, in elliptically polarized femtosecond laser fields at 797 nm of intensities ${I}_{0}=(0.5--4.3)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{14}\text{ }\text{W}\text{ }{\text{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$. Xe atoms serve as a test case. We derive a qualitative theory describing such polarization studies. It turns out that polarization dependence can very sensitively distinguish single active electron (SAE) and multiple active electrons dynamics. In the case of Xe a clear signature of SAE dynamics is observed, with very pronounced changes in the ion yield as a function of ellipticity, indicative of $\mathcal{N}=5--8$ and 18--22 photon processes for ${\text{Xe}}^{+}$ and ${\text{Xe}}^{2+}$, respectively. In contrast, only a moderate polarization dependence is observed in the ${\text{C}}_{60}$ case, although at least 5 $h\ensuremath{\nu}$ photons at 797 nm are needed to generate $\text{C}_{60}{}^{+}$ and additional 11 for $\text{C}_{60}{}^{2+}$. At lower intensities, a moderate reduction in the ion yield for circular polarization establishes a two-photon SAE absorption process, connected with the key role of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital $(\text{LUMO})+1({t}_{1g})$ as ``doorway state.'' The absence of any polarization effect at 399 nm corroborates this finding. At high intensities enhanced fragmentation is observed, which is tentatively attributed to returning loops of electron trajectories by the combined action of the $\text{C}_{60}{}^{+}$ field and the circularly polarized laser field---in contrast to conventional wisdom that linear polarization should lead to an enhanced recolliding electron yield. No sign of a pronounced multiphoton polarization signature with five and more photons is seen for ${\text{C}}_{60}$ which would be predicted by the SAE picture---although the slopes of the ion yield as a function of intensity are given by the corresponding power laws $\ensuremath{\propto}{I}_{0}^{\mathcal{N}}$. This is taken as clear evidence of multielectron dynamics after reaching the doorway state.