gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Painful Lumbar Disk Derangement: Relevance of Endplate Abnormalities at MR Imaging (2001)

Moderate and severe endplate abnormalities appear be useful in the prediction of painful disk derangement in patients with symptomatic low back pain.
Intercellular adhesion molecule 1 serves as a primary cognate receptor for the Type IV pilus of nontypeable<i>Haemophilus influenzae</i> (2016)

Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) utilizes the Type IV pilus (Tfp) to adhere to respiratory tract epithelial cells thus colonizing its human host; however, the host cell receptor to which this adhesive protein binds is unknown. From a panel of receptors engaged by Tfp expressed by other bacterial species, we showed that the majority subunit of NTHI Tfp, PilA, bound to intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM1) and that this interaction was both specific and of high affinity. Further, Tfp-expressing NTHI inoculated on to polarized respiratory tract epithelial cells that expressed ICAM1 were significantly more adherent compared to Tfp-deficient NTHI or NTHI inoculated on to epithelial cells to which ICAM1 gene expression was silenced. Moreover, pre-incubation of epithelial cells with recombinant soluble PilA (rsPilA) blocked adherence of NTHI, an outcome that was abrogated by admixing rsPilA with ICAM1 prior to application on to the target cells. Epithelial cells infected with adenovirus or respiratory syncytial virus showed increased expression of ICAM1; this outcome supported augmented adherence of Tfp-expressing NTHI. Collectively, these data revealed the cognate receptor for NTHI Tfp as ICAM1 and promote continued development of a Tfp-targeted vaccine for NTHI-induced diseases of the airway wherein upper respiratory tract viruses play a key predisposing role.
Inversion of gravity profiles by use of a Backus-Gilbert approach (1975)

Abstract Geophysical inversion methods are most effective when applied to linear functionals: it is therefore advantageous to employ linear models for geophysical data. A two-dimensional linear model consisting of many horizontal prisms has been developed for interpretation of gravity profiles. A Backus-Gilbert inversion which finds the acceptable model 'nearest' to an initial estimate can be rapidly computed; iterative application of the technique allows a single-density model to be developed at a modest expense in computer time. Gravity data from the Guichon Creek batholith were inverted as a test of the method, with results comparable to those from a standard polygon model.
Characterization of estrogen-dependent growth of cultured MCF-7 human breast-cancer cells expressing 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (1996)

17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17HSD) type 1 converts the weakly active estrogen, estrone, into highly active estradiol. In addition to being essential for gonadal estradiol biosynthesis, the enzyme is also expressed in a significant proportion of breast tumors. In order to study the role of the enzyme in estrogen-dependent growth of breast cancer, MCF-7 breast-cancer cells stably expressing human 17HSD type 1 were generated. In control MCF-7 cells a very low 17HSD activity was observed and, in line with its low estrogenic activity, estrone was devoid of the growth-enhancing effect of estradiol. The presence of the enzyme in the stably transfected HSD-7 cells resulted in a rapid conversion of estrone into estradiol but did not alter the estrogen-receptor concentration in the cells. However, in transfected cells, estrone had a growth-promoting effect practically identical to that of estradiol. The presence or absence of 17HSD type 1 in breast-cancer cells may therefore be decisive with regard to estrogen exposure and the estrogen-responsive growth of breast-cancer tissues. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
The biological effects of a high molecular weight form of IGF II in a pluripotential human teratocarcinoma cell line. (1994)

The human teratoma cell line Tera 2 synthesizes and secretes insulin like growth factors into the culture medium. Size fractionation of conditioned medium by acidic gel filtration chromatography showed that the medium contains the canonical 7 kD IGF II, as well as a large IGF II variant, immunologically crossreactive with canonical IGF II. Amino acid analysis of the Tera 2 secreted large IGF II variant has shown that it is biochemically distinct from previously isolated high molecular weight variants of IGF II. Both species of IGF II support cell multiplication of Tera 2 cultures, albeit with different potency. In spite of the resulting potential for autocrine growth of Tera 2, we failed to observe such a situation. We propose that one reason for this failure to observe such a situation. We propose that one reason for this failure is the co-secretion of the 29 kD IGF binding protein type 1 with IGF II, which we have demonstrated to inhibit the biological effects of the growth factor on Tera 2 cells.
Delayed Complications from Fine-Needle Biopsies of Solid Masses of the Abdomen (1986)

A prospective study was conducted from 1977 through 1983, to determine the incidence of complications, particularly bleeding, after fine needle biopsy for suspected malignancy of the abdomen and pelvis. Hematocrits before and after the biopsy procedure, medical record follow-up, and review by a coagulation specialist were used to identify bleeders. We performed 395 biopsies on 360 patients. Thirteen percent of the patients had bothersome pain either during or after the biopsy. Hematocrit drops of 3% or more were found in 51 (12.7%) of the patients; nine were determined to be a direct result of the biopsy procedure. Our results and review of the literature suggest that there are complications, including delayed bleeding, yet few are life threatening. We caution, however, that adequate follow-up to identify bleeders is very important in patients having fine-needle biopsies of solid masses of the abdomen.
Discovering and understanding performance bottlenecks in transactional applications (2010)

Many researchers have developed applications using transactionalmemory (TM) with the purpose of benchmarking different implementations, and studying whether or not TM is easy to use. However, comparatively little has been done to provide general-purpose tools for profiling and tuning programs which use transactions.
Aflatoxin removal of peanut meals with aqueous ethanol (1993)

A preliminary approach to achieve compatible simultaneous extraction of aflatoxin and residual oil from pressed oil meals was conducted to determine the minimum amount of water to be added to ethanol versus necessary time to achieve complete removal of aflatoxin. Commercial anhydrous, 96, 93 and 90°GL ethanol were utilized in trials with Soxhlet extractors. Commercial anhydrous ethanol did not remove aflatoxin completely and the extraction efficiency in minutes was directly proportional to the amount of water present in the ethanol, as expected. Although 96°GL ethanol was efficient, alcoholic strengths between 96 and 99°GL need be evaluated to improve oil extraction, provided they do not decrease aflatoxin removal efficiency.
Time-Aware Web Users' Clustering (2008)

Web users' clustering is a crucial task for mining information related to users' needs and preferences. Up to now, popular clustering approaches build clusters based on usage patterns derived from users' page preferences. This paper emphasizes the need to discover similarities in users' accessing behavior with respect to the time locality of their navigational acts. In this context, we present two time-aware clustering approaches for tuning and binding the page and time visiting criteria. The two tracks of the proposed algorithms define clusters with users that show similar visiting behavior at the same time period, by varying the priority given to page or time visiting. The proposed algorithms are evaluated using both synthetic and real data sets and the experimentation has shown that the new clustering schemes result in enriched clusters compared to those created by the conventional non-time-aware user clustering approaches. These clusters contain users exhibiting similar access behavior in terms not only of their page preferences but also of their access time.
Targeting Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Pathways in Hepatocellular Carcinoma (2011)

Hepatocellular cancer (HCC) is the fifth most common malignancy worldwide with 660,000 deaths annually. Studies of the molecular pathophysiology of HCC have shown that growth factors and their corresponding receptors are commonly overexpressed and/or dysregulated in HCC. Activation of these receptors and their downstream signaling pathways can lead to angiogenesis, cell proliferation, survival and metastasis of HCC. Hence, agents that specifically block their activation and signaling cascades would be valuable for treatment of HCC. Many small molecular tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and antibodies have been tested in various phases of clinical trials. Although sorafenib has been shown to improve overall survival of patients with advanced HCC, the improvement is marginal and many patients eventually turn out to be refractory to this therapy. Thus, there is a pressing need to identify new drugs and effective treatments for this fatal disease. This review summarizes the pre-clinical and clinical data on the efficacy of the emerging tyrosine kinase inhibitors as well as the rationale for combination therapies for advanced HCC treatment. Understanding the mechanisms of action of these therapeutic agents and methods of combining these drugs may help to increase their efficacy, reduce toxicity, and improve overall survival and quality of life in patients with HCC.
Positive transcriptional control of <i>mry</i> regulates virulence in the group A streptococcus (1993)

Transcription of the antiphagocytic M protein in the group A streptococcus (Streptococcus pyogenes) is environmentally regulated in response to CO2 and requires Mry, a trans-acting positive regulatory protein. We have examined the role of Mry in environmental regulation by analysing the factors that regulate expression of the gene that encodes Mry (mry). By employing a strategy that utilizes integrational plasmids, it was found that expression of mry requires the participation of DNA sequences that extend 473 base pairs upstream of the Mry coding region. Transcription of mry, as analysed in S1 nuclease protection assays, is initiated from two separate promoters located within this extended regulatory region. Construction and analysis of transcriptional fusions between the mry promoters and a promoterless chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene demonstrated that mry is autoregulated and environmentally regulated in response to the level of CO2. These data suggest a model for the regulation of virulence in S. pyogenes where positive transcriptional control of mry in response to environmental stimuli regulates the expression of the M protein.
Membrane defects and genetic redundancy: Are we at a turning point for DYT1 dystonia? (2016)

Heterozygosity for a 3-base pair deletion (ΔGAG) in TOR1A/torsinA is one of the most common causes of hereditary dystonia. In this review, we highlight current understanding of how this mutation causes disease from research spanning structural biochemistry, cell science, neurobiology, and several model organisms. We now know that homozygosity for ΔGAG has the same effects as Tor1a<sup>KO</sup> , implicating a partial loss of function mechanism in the ΔGAG/+ disease state. In addition, torsinA loss specifically affects neurons in mice, even though the gene is broadly expressed, apparently because of differential expression of homologous torsinB. Furthermore, certain neuronal subtypes are more severely affected by torsinA loss. Interestingly, these include striatal cholinergic interneurons that display abnormal responses to dopamine in several Tor1a animal models. There is also progress on understanding torsinA molecular cell biology. The structural basis of how ΔGAG inhibits torsinA ATPase activity is defined, although mutant torsinA<sup>ΔGAG</sup> protein also displays some characteristics suggesting it contributes to dystonia by a gain-of-function mechanism. Furthermore, a consistent relationship is emerging between torsin dysfunction and membrane biology, including an evolutionarily conserved regulation of lipid metabolism. Considered together, these findings provide major advances toward understanding the molecular, cellular, and neurobiological pathologies of DYT1/TOR1A dystonia that can hopefully be exploited for new approaches to treat this disease. © 2016 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
Psychiatric aspects of epilepsy (1968)

The quantitative 14C-deoxyglucose (DG) autoradiographic technique has been used to study changes in cerebral metabolism during forelimb movements induced by graded stimulation of motor cortex. Experiments were directed at studying basic physiologic and anatomic aspects of the metabolic changes. Single shocks caused movement without metabolic change, whereas low-frequency trains caused seizures. Repetitive high- frequency train stimuli of short duration (500 Hz for 20 msec) caused jerk movements coupled with DG uptake in pathways. With stimulation of the forelimb motor zone at frequencies of 15–30/min there was prominent activation of cortical columns and strips in ipsilateral SI, SII, and MII, and contralateral MI and SI. Higher frequencies (120/min) were required to cause significant changes in DG in subcortical circuits. The most prominent changes occurred within a longitudinal corridor in dorsal thalamus and a ventral corridor in second-order sites in basal ganglia. Metabolic activation also occurred in contralateral cerebellum, the cuneate nucleus, and dorsal horn of the cervical spinal cord. Changes in these latter two sites were largely eliminated by removing feedback sensory activity. Stimulation of the forelimb sensory zone activated different sites in caudatoputamen and thalamus but similar zones in midbrain and cerebellum. The magnitude of the metabolic response in distant sites depended on the frequency of cortical stimulation. Different frequency-response relationships in different sites seemed to reflect the nature of the cortical input as well as differential effects of anesthesia. The pattern of the metabolic response was studied by comparing sites of activation with sites of the anatomic projections from motor and sensory cortical zones. 3H- and 14C-labeled amino acids were used to map the site and relative strength of pathways. Results revealed good correlation between the site of anatomic projection and the site of DG uptake but no consistent relationship between the relative strength of a projection and the magnitude of metabolic change within its field. Changes in glucose utilization with metabolic mapping experiments depend on the nature, strength, and frequency of stimulation; the site and nature of anatomic projection; the effects of anesthesia; and the strength of sensory feedback associated with the induced behavior.
Swarm intelligence in autonomous collective robotics : from tools to the analysis and synthesis of distributed control strategies (1999)

These Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne EPFL, n° 2069 (1999)Faculte informatique et communicationsJury: Jean-Louis Deneubourg, Dario Floreano, Luca Gambardella, Rodney Goodman, Claude Petitpierre, Roland Siegwart Public defense: 1999-10-28 Reference doi:10.5075/epfl-thesis-2069Print copy in library catalog Record created on 2005-03-16, modified on 2016-08-08
Fas ligand expression in human pancreatic cancer (2004)

Tumor cells escape immunologic rejection through diverse mechanisms. Fas and its ligand represent one such mechanism. Recently we reported that pancreatic cancer cell lines express Fas-ligand and kill lymphoid cells by Fas-mediated apoptosis in vitro. This study was designed to determine whether human pancreatic tumors express Fas-ligand in vivo, as a potential mediator of counterattacking the host immune cells, and to determine if Fas-ligand expression correlates with clinicopathologic characteristics and patient survival. Fas-ligand expression in 45 primary pancreatic ductal cancers and two hepatic metastases was determined using immunohistochemistry. Apoptotic cells within the tumor were assessed by immunohistochemistry for the presence of single stranded DNA. Immunohistochemistry showed that 37 (82%) of the primary tumors and both of the hepatic metastases expressed Fas-ligand. Tumor infiltrating lymphoid cells were frequently apoptotic, but the cancer cells were rarely apoptotic. Patients with Fas-ligand-positive tumor had significantly shorter survival times than Fas-ligand-negative. A multivariate analysis indicated that Fas-ligand expression and the histologic margin status were significant prognostic factors. These results suggest that the expression of Fas-ligand in human pancreatic cancers and the induction of apoptosis in the infiltrating lymphoid cells may be required to counterattack the host cytotoxic T-lymphocytic and natural killer cellular responses.
Free volume, excess entropy and mechanical behavior of polymeric glasses (1981)

Abstract Free volume fraction of the Williams‐Landel‐Ferry(WLF)‐Doolittle type has been applied to the analysis of the nonequilibrium state for the glassy polymers. The free volume fraction is a two parameter variable since it depends on the free volume and the occupied volume. The excess entropy is derived from the mixing of vacant and occupied sites, and for polymers a factor is added which corresponds to disordering the molecular segments. A relationship between the excess entropy and enthalpy is derived. For a given level of fractional free volume, there is a unique rate constant associated with changing that level of the fractional free volume. The reciprocal of this rate constant, which depends on the exponential order of the fractional free volume, can be considered as a time constant for changing the molecular conformational probability, and its value is in the order of the average dielectric relaxation time in the corresponding state. When mechanical deformation is. imposed with a rate which is too fast as compared to this time constant, the deformation without a change in the conformational probability, i.e., the reversible elastic deformation, will ensue. In contrast, a sufficiently slow deformation will be accompanied by a change in fractional free volume and the excess entropy, and the above‐mentioned time constant will change with deformation. Since dilation will tend to shorten this time constant, tensile deformation will result in reducing the modulus accompanied by the increase in entropy. Shear deformation is considered as a mixture of compression and tension, where only tension contributes to a change in entropy, and the net result is the strain softening which can be predicted from the tensile behavior. Uniaxial compression is controlled by the shear behavior, and the excess entropy and the fractional free volume increase, while the occupied volume decreases with strain. A constitutive relationship has been proposed which accounts for the effects of temperature, pressure, strain rates and thermal history on nonlinear viscoelastic behavior of polymeric glass.
Field emission current cleaning and annealing of microfabricated cold cathodes (2001)

Thermal cleaning and annealing by the extracted field emission current has been used to achieve and maintain stable emission characteristics with microfabricated cold field emission cathodes. Our studies show that the cathode tip surface can be smoothed, recrystallized, and at least partially cleaned of surface adsorbates. The result is a significant decrease in emission current noise and recovery of the initial current–voltage characteristics of the cathode following surface contamination.
The cannabinoid quinol VCE-004.8 alleviates bleomycin-induced scleroderma and exerts potent antifibrotic effects through peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ and CB2 pathways (2016)

Scleroderma is a group of rare diseases associated with early and transient inflammation and vascular injury, followed by fibrosis affecting the skin and multiple internal organs. Fibroblast activation is the hallmark of scleroderma, and disrupting the intracellular TGFβ signaling may provide a novel approach to controlling fibrosis. Because of its potential role in modulating inflammatory and fibrotic responses, both PPARγ and CB2 receptors represent attractive targets for the development of cannabinoid-based therapies. We have developed a non-thiophilic and chemically stable derivative of the CBD quinol (VCE-004.8) that behaves as a dual agonist of PPARγ and CB2 receptors, VCE-004.8 inhibited TGFβ-induced Col1A2 gene transcription and collagen synthesis. Moreover, VCE-004.8 inhibited TGFβ-mediated myofibroblast differentiation and impaired wound-healing activity. The anti-fibrotic efficacy in vivo was investigated in a murine model of dermal fibrosis induced by bleomycin. VCE-004.8 reduced dermal thickness, blood vessels collagen accumulation and prevented mast cell degranulation and macrophage infiltration in the skin. These effects were impaired by the PPARγ antagonist T0070907 and the CB2 antagonist AM630. In addition, VCE-004.8 downregulated the expression of several key genes associated with fibrosis, qualifying this semi-synthetic cannabinoid as a novel compound for the management of scleroderma and, potentially, other fibrotic diseases.
Layering in the Gars-bheinn ultrabasic sill, Isle of Skye: a new interpretation, and its implications (1984)

Synopsis The Gars-bheinn sill is intruded into plateau basalts on the southern margin of the Cuillin igneous complex. The sill is composed dominantly of peridotite, but near its top it contains feldspar-rich, pegmatitic layers. Field evidence and mineralogical data suggest that the feldspar-rich layers were emplaced by the injection of fluids into already consolidated peridotite, and that the peridotite and feldspar-rich layers are not cogenetic as was formerly supposed. This has necessitated revision of the intrusive sequence in the southern Cuillin.
RETINAL DETACHMENT OF REGRESSED RETINOPATHY OF PREMATURITY IN CHILDREN AGED 2 TO 15 YEARS (2004)

Late retinal detachment is the main vision-threatening condition in patients with regressed ROP during childhood. The visual prognoses of these patients are poorer than those with late retinal detachments that occur in adult ROP patients. Therefore, a periodic fundus examination should be performed more frequently during childhood than in adulthood, particularly in nonverbal children.
Application of Multiple-Model Adaptive Control Strategy for Robust Damping of Interarea Oscillations in Power System (2004)

This paper demonstrates the application of multiple-model adaptive control (MMAC) strategy for robust damping of low-frequency electromechanical oscillation in an interconnected power system. The control algorithm uses a model-based approach to account for the variability and uncertainty involved in the postdisturbance dynamics of the system. Conventional proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers are tuned to achieve the desired performance for each of these models. Using a Bayesian approach, the probability of each model representing the actual power system response is computed in each iteration. The resultant control action is derived as a probability-weighted average of the individual control moves of the controllers. This strategy has been used to design and test a damping controller for a thyristor controlled series compensator (TCSC) device installed in a prototype power system. The control scheme worked satisfactorily following possible disturbances without any prior knowledge about the specific postdisturbance dynamics.