gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Speech Rate Estimation via Temporal Correlation and Selected Sub-Band Correlation (2006)

In this paper, we propose a novel method for speech rate estimation without requiring automatic speech recognition. It extends the methods of spectral subband correlation by including temporal correlation and the use of selecting prominent spectral subbands for correlation. Furthermore, to address some of the practical issues in previously published methods, we introduce some novel components into the algorithm such as the use of pitch confidence, magnifying window, relative peak measure and relative threshold. By selecting the parameters and thresholds from realistic development sets, this method achieves a 0.972 correlation coefficient on syllable number estimation and a 0.706 correlation on speech rate estimation. This result is about 6.9% improvement over the current best single estimator and 3.5% improvement over the current multi-estimator, evaluated on the same switchboard database.
Wellhead System To Pretension the Casing and Metal Seal the Annulus for Hot, Deep, Corrosive Wells (1989)

ABSTRACT When drilling wells for the extraction of hydrocarbons there are two established conventional methods of suspending casing and sealing the annulus:by the use of a conventional wellhead stack with slips and elastomeric seals, which often involves removal of the BOP stack during slip installation, orby the use of a unified casing head (multibowl) with mandrel type hangers and seal assemblies run through the BOP. A recent joint development programme between a wellhead equipment supplier and an oil company seeks to provide the advantages of both systems by providing casing tensioning capability, positive casing hanger lock-down, and a high performance metal sealing system. The advantages of this system are particularly applicable to offshore platform installations in terms of both economics and safety. INTRODUCTION An operating company is developing offshore fields with deep, hot, corrosive wells and is experiencing many problems with existing wellhead systems:Unified wellhead with mandrel type hangers andConventional wellhead stack up with slips. Consequently, this company and a wellhead equipment supplier have joined in the design of a new surface wellhead. PHILOSOPHY Up to now the operating company has mostly used unified wellheads for oil field developments on the coast of Africa and conventional wellhead stack ups for gas field developments in the North Sea. Problems have been experienced with both systems, particularly in Angola, where they have been the most serious. For instance, since 1984 an oil field in Angolawas developed with uncemented length of deviated production casing of about 2400 meters. The temperature variation between shut-in and production modes was 50°C. This, over the uncemented casing, caused a 120 ton up thrust. On the first installed wells, with unified wellheads, the as-cemented weight of the casing was not sufficient to avoid buckling of the uncemented casing and vertical movement of the casing hanger. A combination of the temperature and fretting caused very rapid degradation of the elastomeric seals. Later wells are equipped with conventional wellhead stacks, with the casing tensioned on the slips. With this pre-tension there has not been buckling of the casing and only slight vertical movement of the wellheads. However, the system does not give completely satisfactory service:The life of the elastomer seals is uncertain for this temperature range.Critical situations have been experienced at the end of the cementation job, with instability of the annulus.Since the installation of the slips involves the removal of the BOP stack, cutting casing, and the installation of new spools etc., safety was jeopardized, time was lost, and costs increased significantly. Therefore, a new system had to be designed providing:Tensioning capability for the casingSimple installation of the hangers through the BOP and stacking them in one wellhead housingMetal annulus isolation seals
Compliance Ratio Method of Estimating Crack Length in Dynamic Fracture Toughness Tests (2002)

Crack extension during fracture toughness tests of ferritic structural steels cannot be determined from measurements of unloading compliance or electric potential change when the specimen is dynamically loaded. Measurements of crack extension in fracture toughness tests are also very difficult when the test temperature is high or the test environment is aggressive. To circumvent this limitation, researchers for years have been developing key curve and normalization function methods to estimate crack extension in standard elastic-plastic fracture toughness test geometries. In the key curve method [1,2] a load-displacement curve is measured for a so-called “source” specimen that is subsize or has a blunt notch so that the crack will not initiate during elastic-plastic loading. The load and displacement are then converted to normalized stress-strain units to obtain a key curve that can be used to predict crack extension in geometrically similar “target”specimens of same material loaded at similar loading rates and tested under similar environmental conditions. More recently, Landes and coworkers [3,4] proposed the normalization method. During the past three years the ASTM Task Group E 08.08.08 has prepared a draft Appendix H for the ASTM E 1820 specification that presents the normalization method as an alternative to the standard E 1820 unloading compliance procedure. Although the normalization method works well in many cases, it has serious drawbacks: the load, displacement, and crack length at the end of the test must be measured; the prescribed functional form that is fitted to the initial and final data may not be accurate for all materials; and the iterative method of inferring crack length from the combination of the data and the normalization function is complex. The compliance ratio (CR) method developed in Ref 5 is used in this paper to determine key curves for predicting crack extension in dynamically loaded specimens. It consists of first testing a statically loaded source specimen using the unloading compliance procedure as specified in ASTM 1820. Then the so-called CR load-displacement curve is calculated for the source specimen, which is the load-displacement record that would have been obtained if the crack had not extended. Nondimensionalizing the CR load by the maximum load and the displacement by the elastic displacement at the maximum load, P*i/Pmax and vi/velmax from the source specimen yields the rate adjusted key curve. Assuming that the key curves of the statically and dynamically loaded specimens are one and the same, the compliance is calculated with a reverse application of the compliance ratio method and the crack length is obtained using the equations in ASTM E 1820. The CR method is found to be much simpler than the normalization method described in the draft Appendix H of ASTM 1820.
ILK Expression in Colorectal Cancer Is Associated with EMT, Cancer Stem Cell Markers and Chemoresistance (2018)

ILK overexpression in human CRC associates with EMT and CSC traits, contributing to tumor progression and chemoresistance.
The human sex ratio. Part 2: A hypothesis and a program of research. (1987)

This is the second of a two-part study on the human sex ratio. It is hypothesised that hormone levels of both parents at the time of conception affect the probability of a male birth high levels of estrogen and testosterone increasing this probability and high levels of gonadotropin decreasing it. The author discusses how such a hypothesis accommodates observed variations of sex ratio and outlines two methods of testing the hypothesis in future research. (EXCERPT)
Towards fast and accurate temperature mapping with proton resonance frequency-based MR thermometry. (2012)

The capability to image temperature is a very attractive feature of MRI and has been actively exploited for guiding minimally-invasive thermal therapies. Among many MR-based temperature-sensitive approaches, proton resonance frequency (PRF) thermometry provides the advantage of excellent linearity of signal with temperature over a large temperature range. Furthermore, the PRF shift has been shown to be fairly independent of tissue type and thermal history. For these reasons, PRF method has evolved into the most widely used MR-based thermometry method. In the present paper, the basic principles of PRF-based temperature mapping will be reviewed, along with associated pulse sequence designs. Technical advancements aimed at increasing the imaging speed and/or temperature accuracy of PRF-based thermometry sequences, such as image acceleration, fat suppression, reduced field-of-view imaging, as well as motion tracking and correction, will be discussed. The development of accurate MR thermometry methods applicable to moving organs with non-negligible fat content represents a very challenging goal, but recent developments suggest that this goal may be achieved. If so, MR-guided thermal therapies may be expected to play an increasingly-important therapeutic and palliative role, as a minimally-invasive alternative to surgery.
Chitin synthesis in human pathogenic fungi (2001)

In recent years it has become evident that the structural polysaccharide chitin is synthesized from a family of enzymes encoded by multiple CHS chitin synthase genes, and regulated by an array of ancillary gene products that influence CHS activation and localization. Considerable attention has therefore been given to elucidating the function of specific CHS gene products in individual fungi. In those fungi in which individual CHS genes have been deleted systematically, there is little evidence for redundancy of function in family members. Chs enzymes are now known that participate in lateral wall biosynthesis, septum synthesis and spore formation but the phenotype of some CHS gene mutations is subtle, and so the role of the corresponding isoenzymes remains obscure. Nonetheless, it has become clear that certain members of the CHS gene families of fungi are more important for growth, integrity and viability than others, and this knowledge has already led to the design of new classes of antifungal agents that are targeted against key enzyme activities. Future work in this area will help define how individual Chs enzymes are targeted to specific regions of the cell wall and at specific times of the cell cycle, and should facilitate the rational development of novel and highly specific antifungal agents.
ROLLING DICE FOR THE FUTURE OF THE PLANET (1995)

In an influential paper published in Science, Nordhaus employs an integrated climate‐economy model to study climate change. He finds that optimizing climate change policy requires low levels of controls on emissions of greenhouse gases. This paper follows his pioneering methodology but challenges his conclusions. Nordhaus's results depend crucially on certain parameters such as the discount rate and the autonomous decline in energy intensity of production. However, choosing a set of different though equally plausible values for these parameters causes the control rate to rise substantially. This translates into a greater level of action for slowing climate change.
Molecular cloning and mapping of phenol degradation genes from Bacillus stearothermophilus FDTP-3 and their expression in Escherichia coli (1992)

Two genes of the meta pathway of phenol degradation were cloned from a phenol-utilizing strain of Bacillus stearothermophilus and were mapped by subcloning and by use of a Tn5 insertion mutation. They code for phenol hydroxylase and catechol 2,3-dioxygenase, respectively. The gene encoding catechol 2,3-dioxygenase, which is more thermostable than catechol 2,3-dioxygenase encoded by the other gene, shares rather limited homology with that from Pseudomonas putida.
Separate <i>cis</i> sequences and <i>trans</i> factors direct metabolic and developmental regulation of a potato tuber storage protein gene (1994)

The expression of genes encoding patatin, a major tuber protein, is highly tissue-specific but is also modulated by exogenous sucrose. The patterns of transcription observed in potato plants could be due to mechanisms conferring tuber-specificity or they could reflect the concentrations of sucrose found in different tissues. To distinguish between these possibilities, a detailed examination was made of the function of a region of the promoter previously implicated in conferring tissue-specific and sucrose-inducible expression. Internal deletions of this region revealed three separate functional domains regulating expression. The B repeat region acted as a positive activator of transcription in the tuber and was also responsible for a degree of sucrose-inducibility. The distal region of the A repeat repressed transcription in leaf and tuber tissue, while the proximal region of the A repeat was able to confer sucrose-responsiveness. Each of these regions specifically bound nuclear proteins which may be putative transcription factors involved in conferring these responses. The region found to confer sucrose-inducible expression was conserved among some other genes that are also regulated by exogenous sucrose.
Comparison of scintillators for positron emission mammography (PEM) systems (2003)

Positron emission mammography (PEM) has promise as an effective method for the detection of breast lesions. Perhaps the most significant design feature of a PEM system is the choice of scintillator material. In this investigation we compared three scintillators for use in PEM: NaI(Tl), gadolinium oxyorthosilicate (GSO), and lutetium-gadolinium oxyorthosilicate (LGSO). The PEM systems consisted of two 30/spl times/30 arrays of pixelated scintillators (3/spl times/3/spl times/10 mm/sup 3/ for GSO and LGSO and 3/spl times/3/spl times/19 mm/sup 3/ for NaI(Tl)) coupled to arrays of square position-sensitive photomultiplier tubes. The Compton scatter fraction, system energy resolution, spatial resolution, spatial resolution uniformity, and detection sensitivity were compared. Compton scatter fractions for the systems were comparable, between 8% and 9%. The NaI(Tl) system produced the best system energy resolution (18.2%), the GSO system had the worst system energy resolution (28.7%). Spatial resolution for each system was relatively uniform across the face of the detectors, though the magnitude was dependent upon scintillator material. The NaI(Tl) system produced the lowest mean resolution (3.54/spl plusmn/0.05 mm for horizontal profiles and 3.51/spl plusmn/0.04 mm for vertical profiles), while the LGSO system produced the greatest mean spatial resolution (3.19/spl plusmn/0.04 mm for horizontal profiles and 3.20/spl plusmn/0.03 mm for vertical profiles). Detection sensitivity varied among the three systems: NaI(Tl)=217.7 c/s/kBq/ml, GSO=383.9 c/s/kBq/ml and LGSO=646.9 c/s/kBq/ml. Imaging of a simulated breast containing various sized spheres demonstrated that the LGSO system produced the greatest detectability for small spheres (as gauged by the contrast-to-noise ratio), while the NaI(Tl) system had the worst detectability. These differences were due mainly to the lower sensitivity of the NaI(Tl) system compared to the LGSO and GSO imagers. This investigation demonstrated the very important connection between scintillator selection and performance of PEM systems.
Design strategies for commercial solar cells using the buried contact technology (1999)

The efficiency of commercial solar cells depends not only on the design and technology used to make the solar cell, but just as importantly on the minority carrier lifetime in the silicon wafer material. This paper presents a design strategy based on matching the efficiency potential of the silicon material to that of the silicon substrate in order to minimize the $/W cost of a solar cell. The flexibility of the buried contact technology allows this design strategy to be fully utilized and a range of buried contact solar cell structures can be developed, each suited to a particular type of commercial silicon substrate. The paper demonstrates that simplified buried contact solar cells are best suited to multicrystalline silicon material. Generation I buried contact solar cells are optimally matched to conventional Czochralski (CZ) substrates, and double-sided buried contact (DS BC) structures will allow the thinner, higher lifetime wafers to reach their full efficiency potential.
Radiation effects on SBR–EPDM blends: A correlation with blend morphology (2006)

Abstract The effect of γ radiation on the morphological and physical properties of Styrene–butadiene rubber (SBR) and Ethylene–propylene–diene monomer (EPDM) blends has been investigated. An attempt has been made to establish a correlation between various parameters like Gordon–Taylor parameter ( k ), hydrodynamic interaction parameter (Δ[η] mix ), chemical shift factor ( b ), Charlesby–Pinner parameter ( p 0 / q 0 ) and polymer–polymer interaction parameter (χ). The results showed a close dependence of mechanical and physical properties of irradiated blends on these parameters. The probability of spur overlap has been found to increase with the increase in EPDM content in the blends, which in turn results in significant improvement in the mechanical properties of the irradiated SBR–EPDM blends with higher EPDM fraction. The efficiency of four multifunctional acrylates as crosslinking aid for the radiation‐induced vulcanization of SBR–EPDM blend was also studied. The results established lower efficiency of methacrylates over acrylates in the process and indicated that among the crosslinking agents studied trimethylolpropane triacrylate is the most efficient one. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 1676–1689, 2006
Effect of Biomass-Based Catalyst in Walnut Shell/Polypropylene to BTX (2021)

Four biomass-based catalyst carriers with different pore structures were prepared by using a carbonization-activation method, followed by employment in the copyrolysis of Walnut Shell/Polypropylene (WNS/PP) to produce Benzene, Toluene and Xylene (BTX). Ten cycles were performed in each copyrolysis test in a bench-scaled tube furnace to determine the suitable pore size of the catalyst and excellent cycling performance for BTX production. In addition, Zn, Ni, and Ce were loaded with the selected catalyst carriers to synthesize the most suitable biomass-based catalyst. Results showed that the pore size and active center of the catalyst were the key factors affecting the WNS/PP catalytic copyrolysis. Biomass-based carrier with a pore size in the range of 0.55-1.2 nm was the most suitable to produce BTX in the optimal 10 cycle performance; it realized a relative BTX content of 9-20 area%, and a BTX mass yield of 23-67 mg/(graw) in the liquid-phase products from the WNS/PP copyrolysis. A catalyst loaded with 10 wt% Zn possessed the best catalytic effect with a relative BTX content of 39.49 area%, and a BTX yield of 111.13 mg/(graw).
Emulsion Synthesis of Size-Tunable CH<sub>3</sub>NH<sub>3</sub>PbBr<sub>3</sub> Quantum Dots: An Alternative Route toward Efficient Light-Emitting Diodes (2015)

We report a facile nonaqueous emulsion synthesis of colloidal halide perovskite quantum dots by controlled addition of a demulsifier into an emulsion of precursors. The size of resulting CH3NH3PbBr3 quantum dots can be tuned from 2 to 8 nm by varying the amount of demulsifier. Moreover, this emulsion synthesis also allows the purification of these quantum dots by precipitation from the colloidal solution and obtains solid-state powder which can be redissolved for thin film coating and device fabrication. The photoluminescence quantum yields of the quantum dots is generally in the range of 80-92%, and can be well-preserved after purification (∼80%). Green light-emitting diodes fabricated comprising a spin-cast layer of the colloidal CH3NH3PbBr3 quantum dots exhibited maximum current efficiency of 4.5 cd/A, power efficiency of 3.5 lm/W, and external quantum efficiency of 1.1%. This provides an alternative route toward high efficient solution-processed perovskite-based light-emitting diodes. In addition, the emulsion synthesis is versatile and can be extended for the fabrication of inorganic halide perovskite colloidal CsPbBr3 nanocrystals.
Abstract 3555: Anti-tumor activity of CAL-101, a potent selective inhibitor of the p110Δ isoform of PI3K, in models of human glioblastoma (2011)

Abstract Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) activation and Akt phosphorylation play a pivotal role in cell proliferation and survival, transducing signals from several cell surface receptors through PI3K isoforms (designated p110α, β, Δ, and γ). Our previous research has elucidated a significant role of the PI3K p110Δ (PI3KΔ) isoform in hematologic malignancies. Aberrant upregulation of the PI3K/Akt pathway is a frequently observed defect in human malignancies, including glioblastoma, but the role of the PI3KΔ isoform, has not been systematically evaluated. Selective inhibition of PI3KΔ with the orally bioavailable investigational drug, CAL-101, offers the potential for targeting PI3KΔ as a therapeutic approach to glioblastoma while avoiding undesirable side effects associated with pan-inhibitors that broadly block PI3K isoforms in multiple cell types. CAL-101 potently inhibits PI3KΔ (with an EC50 of 65 nM in a whole-blood assay) and shows &gt;200-fold selectivity over other Class I PI3K isoforms and no activity against Class II and III PI3K family members or other PI3K-related proteins, including mTOR and DNA-PK. We examined expression levels of PI3KΔ and constitutive pathway activation in a panel of glioma cell lines (LN18, LN229, SF-539, U87MG, U138MG, and U251). PI3KΔ was consistently expressed and was functionally active, inducing high basal levels of phosphorylated-Akt (pAkt) in all tested cell lines. Treatment with CAL-101 decreased p-Akt levels in all cell lines and also reduced phosphorylation of the downstream pathway target, S6. Furthermore, PI3KΔ inhibition with CAL-101 resulted in an accumulation of cells in G1 and a decrease in the S phase population. Consistent with the effects of CAL-101 on G1 cell-cycle arrest, immunoblotting showed a decrease in cyclin D1 levels. In mice bearing U87MG xenografts, in vivo PI3KΔ inhibition resulted in significant anti-tumor effects, delaying time to tumor progression (tumor volume of &gt;1000 mm3) by 30 days (p&lt;0.001). Taken together, these data suggest that PI3KΔ overexpression and heightened functional activity contribute to glioblastoma proliferation, and that selective targeting of PI3KΔ may offer a novel therapeutic approach for patients with central nervous system tumors. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3555. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-3555
<p>Pediatric localized intestinal lymphangiectasia treated with resection</p> (2019)

Despite being a benign condition, mortality of PIL can be as high as 13% due to the difficulties associated with the management of the disease. PIL should be considered as a rare but potential cause for an abdominal mass, even in the older child, when cystic mesenterial involvement might be seen on ultrasound or MRI. In selected cases of PIL affecting only a short segment of the bowel or following unsuccessful conservative treatment, surgical resection of the affected bowel segment can be curative.