gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Effects of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles on Red Clover and Its Rhizobial Symbiont (2016)

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) are in consideration to be used in plant protection products. Before these products can be placed on the market, ecotoxicological tests have to be performed. In this study, the nitrogen fixing bacterium Rhizobium trifolii and red clover were exposed to two TiO2 NPs, i.e., P25, E171 and a non-nanomaterial TiO2. Growth of both organisms individually and their symbiotic root nodulation were investigated in liquid and hydroponic systems. While 23 and 18 mg l(-1) of E171 and non-nanomaterial TiO2 decreased the growth rate of R. trifolii by 43 and 23% respectively, P25 did not cause effects. Shoot length of red clover decreased between 41 and 62% for all tested TiO2 NPs. In 21% of the TiO2 NP treated plants, no nodules were found. At high concentrations certain TiO2 NPs impaired R. trifolii as well as red clover growth and their symbiosis in the hydroponic systems.
Photocatalytic Decomposition of NO at 275 K on Titanium Oxides Included within Y-Zeolite Cavities:  The Structure and Role of the Active Sites (1996)

Titanium oxide species anchored in the Y-zeolite cavities by an ion-exchange method exhibits a high and unique photocatalytic reactivity for the direct decomposition of NO into N2, O2, and N2O at 275 K with a high selectivity for the formation of N2. The in situ photoluminescence and XAFS (XANES and FT-EXAFS) investigations indicate that the titanium oxide species are highly dispersed in the zeolite cavities and exist in a tetrahedral coordination. The charge-transfer excited state of the titanium oxide species plays a significant role in the direct decomposition of NO with a high selectivity for the formation of N2, while the catalysts involving the aggregated octahedrally coordinated titanium oxide species show a high selectivity to produce N2O, being similar to reactions on the powdered TiO2 catalysts.
Effects of lanthanum carbonate versus calcium carbonate on vascular stiffness and bone mineral metabolism in hemodialysis patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized controlled trial (2015)

From this study, in Japanese type 2 diabetes HD patients, we conclude that 2-year treatment with LC might have slowed the progression of ba-PWV; however, it did not cause a difference in ba-PWV, IMT, BMD, or fracture, compared with CC. Further, LC increased the OC/BAP ratio to a greater extent than CC.
New Insights into the Regulation of Liver Inflammation and Oxidative Stress (2006)

Pro-inflammatory lipid mediators (i.e. eicosanoids), cytokines (i.e. TNF-alpha) and reactive oxygen species are targets of interest in the regulation of liver inflammation and oxidative stress. In the current review, we summarize recent advances in the pharmacological modulation of these pathways with especial emphasis on the participation of Kupffer cells, the liver resident macrophages and the cell type most directly related to the production of inflammatory mediators in this organ.
Dielectric confinement effect on excitons in<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">PbI</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>4</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>-based layered semiconductors (1992)

By varying the dielectric environment in new ${\mathrm{PbI}}_{4}$-based layer-type perovskite compounds, we have demonstrated directly the contribution by dielectric confinement to the exciton binding energy in three such ``natural-quantum-well'' semiconductors. With different dielectric environment, exciton binding energies of 320, 220, and 170 meV have been observed, dominated by the dielectric confinement. In terms of the conventional size-related electronic confinement, two of the materials represent monolayer ${\mathrm{PbI}}_{4}$ quantum wells while the third corresponds to a bilayer case, with a corresponding reduction in the electronic confinement. From theory, including the dielectric confinement effect, the effective mass of the exciton in a ${\mathrm{PbI}}_{4}$-based dielectric quantum well has been determined to be 0.09${\mathit{m}}_{\mathit{e}}$; the corresponding quasi-two-dimensional exciton Bohr radii were 15.5, 17.0, and 20.5 \AA{} for the three cases, respectively.
Large aperture phase error measurement and effects (2003)

Clinical measurements and computer simulations were conducted to determine the effects of phase errors on image quality in large aperture systems. Using a 3.5-MHz 24.5-mm receive aperture, phase errors were measured across the left breasts of female volunteers at the Duke University Medical Center. These results were compared to results from the authors' previous studies with small aperture systems. Using a beamforming computer program, point spread functions (PSFs) were generated in the presence of the measured phase error profiles. Data from sections of the aperture were used to demonstrate that phase aberration causes more severe degradation as aperture length increases. Highly similar phase error profiles (correlation coefficient=0.98) were found to produce quite different PSFs (correlation coefficient=0.66) for large aperture systems.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>
Synthetic Peptide Dendrimers Block the Development and Expression of Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis (2008)

Multiple Ag peptides (MAPs) containing eight proteolipid protein (PLP)(139-151) peptides arranged around a dendrimeric branched lysine core were used to influence the expression and development of relapsing experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) in SJL mice. The PLP(139-151) MAPs were very efficient agents in preventing the development of clinical disease when administered after immunization with the PLP(139-151) monomeric encephalitogenic peptide in CFA. The treatment effect with these MAPs was peptide specific; irrelevant multimeric peptides such as guinea pig myelin basic protein GPBP(72-84) MAP (a dendrimeric octamer composed of the 72-84 peptide) and PLP(178-191) MAP (a dendrimeric octamer composed of the PLP(178-191) peptide) had no treatment effect on PLP(139-151)-induced EAE. PLP(139-151) MAP treatment initiated after clinical signs of paralysis also altered the subsequent course of EAE; it limited developing signs of paralysis and effectively limited the severity and number of disease relapses in MAP-treated mice over a 60-day observation period. PLP(139-151) MAP therapy initiated before disease onset acts to limit the numbers of Th17 and IFN-gamma-producing cells that enter into the CNS. However, Foxp3(+) cells entered the CNS in numbers equivalent for nontreated and PLP(139-151) MAP-treated animals. The net effect of PLP(139-151) MAP treatment dramatically increases the ratio of Foxp3(+) cells to Th17 and IFN-gamma-producing cells in the CNS of PLP(139-151) MAP-treated animals.
Impact of CRFR1 Ablation on Amyloid-β Production and Accumulation in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease (2015)

Stress exposure and the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) system have been implicated as mechanistically involved in both Alzheimer's disease (AD) and associated rodent models. In particular, the major stress receptor, CRF receptor type 1 (CRFR1), modulates cellular activity in many AD-relevant brain areas, and has been demonstrated to impact both tau phosphorylation and amyloid-β (Aβ) pathways. The overarching goal of our laboratory is to develop and characterize agents that impact the CRF signaling system as disease-modifying treatments for AD. In the present study, we developed a novel transgenic mouse to determine whether partial or complete ablation of CRFR1 was feasible in an AD transgenic model and whether this type of treatment could impact Aβ pathology. Double transgenic AD mice (PSAPP) were crossed to mice null for CRFR1; resultant CRFR1 heterozygous (PSAPP-R1(+/-)) and homozygous (PSAPP-R1(-/-)) female offspring were used at 12 months of age to examine the impact of CRFR1 disruption on the severity of AD Aβ levels and pathology. We found that both PSAPP-R1(+/-) and PSAPP-R1(-/-) had significantly reduced Aβ burden in the hippocampus, insular, rhinal, and retrosplenial cortices. Accordingly, we observed dramatic reductions in Aβ peptides and AβPP-CTFs, providing support for a direct relationship between CRFR1 and Aβ production pathways. In summary, our results suggest that interference of CRFR1 in an AD model is tolerable and is efficacious in impacting Aβ neuropathology.
Non-binary polar codes using Reed-Solomon codes and algebraic geometry codes (2010)

Polar codes, introduced by Arıkan, achieve symmetric capacity of any discrete memoryless channels under low encoding and decoding complexity. Recently, non-binary polar codes have been investigated. In this paper, we calculate error probability of non-binary polar codes constructed on the basis of Reed-Solomon matrices by numerical simulations. It is confirmed that 4-ary polar codes have significantly better performance than binary polar codes on binary-input AWGN channel. We also discuss an interpretation of polar codes in terms of algebraic geometry codes, and further show that polar codes using Hermitian codes have asymptotically good performance.
Natural Movement Generation Using Hidden Markov Models and Principal Components (2008)

Recent studies have shown that the perception of natural movements-in the sense of being "humanlike"-depends on both joint and task space characteristics of the movement. This paper proposes a movement generation framework that merges two established techniques from gesture recognition and motion generation-hidden Markov models (HMMs) and principal components-into an efficient and reliable means of generating natural movements, which uniformly considers joint and task space characteristics. Given human motion data that are classified into several movement categories, for each category, the principal components extracted from the joint trajectories are used as basis elements. An HMM is, in turn, designed and trained for each movement class using the human task space motion data. Natural movements are generated as the optimal linear combination of principal components, which yields the highest probability for the trained HMM. Experimental case studies with a prototype humanoid robot demonstrate the various advantages of our proposed framework.
Conselhos de gestão de políticas públicas: instituições e/ou espaços politicos (1999)

The present paper discusses the Councils for Public Political Management as political do institutional phenomena, mphasizing their (1) composition, 2) deliberative power and (3) the . A political control of their responsability. Furthermore (4), the Councils for the Rights of the Child and the Adolescent are sented specifically because of their intersectorial peculiarity. At last, the author points out some indicators for evaluating the consolidation of the Councils in the participative management of public policies.
Production of Liquid Hydrocarbons with CO<sub>2</sub>as Carbon Source based on Reverse Water‐Gas Shift and Fischer‐Tropsch Synthesis (2013)

Abstract The substitution of fossil fuels by renewable energy sources is needed to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, especially CO 2 . Wind and solar power are today considered as attractive alternatives for electric power generation, but are not suitable for providing base load. Thus, efficient storage of electrical energy is inevitable. Liquid hydrocarbons (HCs) exhibit an excellent volumetric energy density and offer various opportunities for storing electric energy. They can be produced by CO 2 and renewable H 2 (generated by water electrolysis) in a two step process. The first step is generation of syngas by reverse water‐gas shift (RWGS) at elevated temperatures; the second step comprises the production of liquid hydrocarbons by Fischer‐Tropsch (FT) synthesis. The experiments on RWGS with a commercial Ni‐catalyst show that a CO 2 conversion of around 80 % can be reached at 800 °C within a very short residence time of less than < 0.1 s. The experiments on FTS with Fe as catalyst and syngas containing different amounts of CO 2 indicate that the influence of CO 2 on CO conversion and product selectivities (including net CO 2 production by water‐gas shift) is insignificant if the inlet partial pressures of H 2 and CO are kept constant. If CO is substituted by CO 2 , less HCs are formed, the water‐gas shift is repressed, and methane selectivity increases.
Priming with IL-4 and IL-13 during HIV-1 infection restores in vitro IL-12 production by mononuclear cells of HIV-infected patients (1997)

The production of proinflammatory cytokines can be regulated by several factors that exert activating or inhibitory effects. IL-4, IL-10, IL-13, TGF-beta, and PGE2 have demonstrated a very wide range of potent macrophage-deactivating activities and, specifically, down-regulation of the production of many proinflammatory monokines. IL-12 plays a key role during immune response by providing a link between natural resistance and adaptive immunity. We and others have previously shown an impairment in IL-12 production by PBMC from HIV-1-infected individuals in response to various stimuli, but defining the mechanism responsible remains elusive. In this study, we observed that pretreatment of PBMC from patients with IL-4 or IL-13 for 24 h primes the cells for enhanced production of IL-12 in response to Staphylococcus aureus, and almost completely restores their deficient IL-12 production when compared with healthy controls. Although this priming effect was completely abrogated by IL-10 and PGE2, IL-10 was produced equivalently by untreated and IL-4- or IL-13-pretreated PBMC from both patients and controls. Additionally, indomethacin, which shuts off PGE2 synthesis, and cAMP-blocking reagents failed to restore or enhance IL-12 production. The priming effect of IL-4 and IL-13 is at the transcription level for both p40 and p35 genes. This complete restoration of IL-12 production by Th2-associated cytokines was unexpected in light of the mutually antagonistic roles of IL-12 and IL-4 in promoting Th1 or Th2 immune responses.
A Fuel Cell Development for Using Borohydrides as the Fuel (2003)

A fuel cell was developed using borohydride solutions as the fuel. The cell consisted of an anode made of a Zr-Ni alloy, a cathode made of Pt/C, and a form Nafion membrane as the electrolyte. The borohydride-fueled cell showed an open-circuit voltage of 1.3 V, compared with 1.0 V for a hydrogen gas-fueled one. The anode exhibited a small polarization property compared with the cathode. The cathode polarization was the main reason for the cell voltage drop with increasing currents. When a Nafion membrane was used as the electrolyte, it was confirmed that cations were the charge carrier in it. Compared with Nafion 112 membrane, Nafion 117 membrane demonstrated a considerable resistance to borohydride crossover and resulted in acceptable cell performance. However, there are several problems such as evolution during operation, crossover, NaOH accumulation at the cathode, and accumulation at the anode in recent systems. Further effort is needed to develop the fuel cell using borohydrides as the fuel. © 2003 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.
Flexible Simulation of Faults (2010)

Abstract Fault geometry is modelled on basis of seismic data, but restricted by fault observations in wells. Due to uncertainties in depth migration, seismic interpretation and well data, there is a significant uncertainty in the geometry and position of the faults. Fault uncertainty impact reservoir volume, flow properties and well planning, and can be studied by stochastic simulation of faults. We have developed a method for stochastic simulation of fault surfaces and fault networks using standard geostatistical methods. This is made possible by the fault parameterization used, where the faults are modelled as tilted surfaces. This new method is more flexible and efficient compared to already existing algorithms due to a simpler parameterization. Conditioning to fault observations in wells is also made simpler. The fault is defined as a two-dimensional surface on a tilted reference plane. The uncertainty for a fault surface is bounded by a volume enclosing the fault surface. The smoothness of the simulated fault surfaces is controlled by variograms. The simulation is done by adding a simulated Gaussian residual. Well conditioning is done by kriging. Using the described method we can simulate a set of fault realizations where the simulated faults look realistic, are within the defined uncertainty volumes, and honour well observations. Technical contributions compared to previous work include efficient simulation of fault geometry, a flexible uncertainty model and well conditioning with no performance impact.
Contributions of the N- and C-Terminal Domains of Surfactant Protein D to the Binding, Aggregation, and Phagocytic Uptake of Bacteria (2002)

Collectins play important roles in host defense against infectious microorganisms. We now demonstrate that the serum collectins mannose-binding lectin (MBL) and conglutinin have less ability to bind to, aggregate, and enhance neutrophil uptake of several strains of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria than pulmonary surfactant protein D (SP-D). Collectins are composed of four major structural domains (i.e., N-terminal, collagen, and neck and carbohydrate recognition domains). To determine which domains of SP-D are responsible for its greater bacterial binding or aggregating activity, activities of chimeric collectins containing the N-terminal and collagen domains of SP-D coupled to the neck recognition domains and carbohydrate recognition domains (CRD) of MBL or conglutinin (SP-D/Cong(neck+CRD) and SP-D/MBL(neck+CRD)) were tested. The SP-D/Cong(neck+CRD) and SP-D/MBL(neck+CRD) chimeras bound to and aggregated the bacteria more strongly than did wild-type MBL or conglutinin. SP-D/MBL(neck+CRD) also enhanced neutrophil uptake of bacteria more so than MBL. Hence, the SP-D N-terminal and/or collagen domains contribute to the enhanced bacterial binding and aggregating activities of SP-D. In prior studies, SP-D/Cong(neck+CRD) and SP-D/MBL(neck+CRD) had increased ability to bind to influenza virus compared not only with that of conglutinin or MBL but with that of wild-type SP-D as well. In contrast, the chimeras had either reduced or unchanged ability to bind to or aggregate bacteria compared to that of wild-type SP-D. Hence, although replacement of the neck recognition domains and CRDs of SP-D with those of MBL and conglutinin conferred increased viral binding activity, it did not favorably affect bacterial binding activity, suggesting that requirements for optimal collectin binding to influenza virus and bacteria differ.
Fast and accurate near-duplicate image elimination for visual sensor networks (2017)

Currently, a huge amount of visual data such as digital images and videos have been collected by visual sensor nodes, that is, camera nodes, and distributed on visual sensor networks. Among the visual data, there are a lot of near-duplicate images, which cause a serious waste of limited storage, computing, and transmission resources of visual sensor networks and a negative impact on users’ experience. Thus, near-duplicate image elimination is urgently demanded. This article proposes a fast and accurate near-duplicate elimination approach for visual sensor networks. First, a coarse-to-fine clustering method based on a combination of global feature and local feature is proposed to cluster near-duplicate images. Then in each near-duplicate group, we adopt PageRank algorithm to analyze the contextual relevance among images to select and reserve seed image and remove the others. The experimental results prove that the proposed approach achieves better performances in the aspects of both efficiency and accuracy compared with the state-of-the-art approaches.
Non-Prussian Blue Structures and Magnetic Ordering of Na<sub>2</sub>Mn<sup>II</sup>[Mn<sup>II</sup>(CN)<sub>6</sub>] and Na<sub>2</sub>Mn<sup>II</sup>[Mn<sup>II</sup>(CN)<sub>6</sub>]·2H<sub>2</sub>O (2011)

The aqueous reaction of Mn(II) and NaCN leads to the isolation of the 3-D Prussian blue analogue (PBA) Na(2)Mn[Mn(CN)(6)]·2H(2)O (1·H(2)O), which under careful dehydration forms 1. 1·H(2)O is monoclinic [P2(1)/n, a = 10.66744(32) Å, b = 7.60223(23) Å, c = 7.40713(22) Å, β = 92.4379(28)°], while 1 is rhombohedral [R ̅3, a = 6.6166(2) Å, c = 19.2585(6) Å], and both structures are atypical for PBAs, which are typically face centered cubic. Most notably, the average ∠Mn-N-C angles are 165.3(3)° and 142.4(4)° for 1·H(2)O and 1, respectively, which are significantly reduced from linearity. This is attributed to the ionic nature of high-spin Mn(II) accommodating a reduced ∠Mn-N-C to minimize void space. Both 1 and 1·H(2)O magnetically order as ferrimagnets below their ordering temperature, T(c), of 58 and 30 K, respectively, as determined from the average of several independent methods. 1 and 1·H(2)O are hard magnets with 5 K coercive fields of 15,300 and 850 Oe, and remnant magnetizations of 9075 and 102 emu·Oe/mol, respectively. These data along with previous T(c)'s reported for related materials reveal that T(c) increases as the ∠Mn-N-C deviates further from linearity. Hence, the bent cyanide bridges play a crucial role in the superexchange mechanism by increasing the coupling via shorter Mn(II)···Mn(II) separations, and perhaps an enhanced overlap.
South Korean Elementary Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Mathematics (2014)

The purpose of this research is to develop an understanding of South Korean elementary teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in mathematics. In accordance with this purpose, this research seeks to identify the mathematics knowledge for teaching at the elementary level by analyzing South Korean elementary teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in mathematics.
Mexiletine for Symptoms and Signs of Myotonia in Nondystrophic Myotonia (2012)

clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00832000.
Optochemical HCl gas detection based on tetraphenylporphine dispersed in ethylcellulose (1996)

To detect sub-ppm levels of HCl gas, spectral changes of tetraphenylporphine and derivatives dispersed in ethylcellulose were examined in the visible region. For free-base tetraphenylporphyrin the absorbance of the Soret and Q-bands are sensitive to sub-ppm levels of HCl and reversibility at room temperature. The Soret and Q-bands are also sensitive to vapours from aqueous solutions of HNO3, HF or HCOOH, while they are insensitive to vapours from CH3COOH or C2H5COOH and also to 1 ppm of NH3, Cl2, NO2 and NO. The sensitivity can be modified by substituent groups and using different concentrations of porphyrin in the composite.
Retinal Vascular Occlusions (2008)

While local diagnostic and therapeutic measures are performed by ophthalmologists, there is an important role for interdisciplinary cooperation in the investigation and systemic treatment of these events.
A Food-Grade Approach for Functional Analysis and Modification of Native Plasmids in <i>Lactococcus lactis</i> (2003)

While plasmids from lactic acid bacteria possess many traits that are of industrial value, their exploitation is often frustrated by an inability to conduct food-grade engineering of native plasmids or to readily screen for their transfer. Here we describe a system that uses a RepA(+) temperature-sensitive helper plasmid and a RepA(-) cloning vector to overcome these problems while maintaining the food-grade status of the native plasmid. This strategy was used to precisely delete ltnA1 alone, or in conjunction with ltnA2 (encoding the structural proteins of the lantibiotic lacticin 3147), from the native 60.2-kb plasmid pMRC01 and to select for the transfer of pMRC01 between Lactococcus lactis strains.