gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Introduction (2018)

Explores new developments and best practices in working with agricultural smallholders in order to support the sustainability and sourcing managers of global brands, off-takers, input companies, service providers, and banks. Meeting the food needs of the world’s 9.8 billion people in 2050 and reducing the numbers of malnourished will require an estimated increase of almost 50 percent in agricultural production, an objective all the more challenging given the limited scope for expansion of cultivated area, the effects of climate change on agricultural production, and competing pressures on natural resources including water. An estimated 480 million smallholder farmers worldwide can help meet this target through stronger market links and productivity improvements. More vibrant smallholder agriculture, with enhanced participation of women and youth, can help reduce poverty and hunger. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group has joined with global agribusiness firms to develop new and efficient ways of working with smallholder farmers.
Java Tool for Normalization and Analysis of Microarray Data (2003)

Abstract Microarray technology has become an essential tool in functional genomics. However, there are many sources of variation which affect the measured gene expression levels. Normalization refers to the process of removing systematic variation. For this purpose, a platform independent Java application for normalization and analysis of microarray experiments has been developed. The experiment data are graphically organized according to the design, scatterplots, histograms and boxplots allow the visualization of the data. Several normalization methods have been implemented: 1) global method, 2) LOWESS-regression, 3) self-normalization for dyeswapped slides and 4) normalization with controls. After normalization, replicated measurements can be combined and averaged to enable statistical analysis. For the detection of genes with significant changes in expression, a module is provided including: 1) fold-change detection and 2) t-test with adjusted p-values. The selected genes can be saved to a text file, readable by other microarray-analysis software. The variety of normalization methods and the ability of dealing with a wide range of experimental designs makes this software a useful and freely available tool to normalize microarray experiments.
Does (multi-)touch aid users' spatial memory and navigation in 'panning' and in 'zooming & panning' UIs? (2012)

Recent findings from Embodied Cognition reveal strong effects of arm and hand movement on spatial memory. This suggests that input devices may have a far greater influence on users' cognition and users' ability to master a system than we typically believe -- especially for spatial panning or zooming & panning user interfaces. We conducted two experiments to observe whether multi-touch instead of mouse input improves users' spatial memory and navigation performance for such UIs. We observed increased performances for panning UIs but not for zooming & panning UIs. We present our results, provide initial explanations and discuss opportunities and pitfalls for interaction designers.
Erasing Data from Blockchain Nodes (2019)

It is a common narrative that blockchains are immutable and so it is technically impossible to erase data stored on them. For legal and ethical reasons, however, individuals and organizations might be compelled to erase locally stored data, be it encoded on a blockchain or not. The common assumption for blockchain networks like Bitcoin is that forcing nodes to erase data contained on the blockchain is equal to permanently restricting them from participating in the system in a full-node role. Challenging this belief, in this paper, we propose and demonstrate a pragmatic approach towards functionality-preserving local erasure (FPLE). FPLE enables full nodes to erase infringing or undesirable data while continuing to store and validate most of the blockchain. We describe a general FPLE approach for UTXO-based (i.e., Bitcoin-like) cryptocurrencies and present a lightweight proof-of-concept tool for safely erasing transaction data from the local storage of Bitcoin Core nodes. Erasing nodes continue to operate in tune with the network even when erased transaction outputs become relevant for validating subsequent blocks. Using only our basic proof-of-concept implementation, we are already able to safely comply with a significantly larger range of erasure requests than, to the best of our knowledge, any other full node operator so far.
Multithreaded vector architectures (2002)

The purpose of this paper is to show that multi-threading techniques can be applied to a vector processor to greatly increase processor throughput and maximize resource utilization. Using a trace driven approach, we simulate a selection of the Perfect Club and Specfp92 programs and compare their execution time on a conventional vector architecture with a single memory port and on a multithreaded vector architecture. We devote an important part of this paper to study the interaction between multi-threading and main memory latency. This paper focuses on maximizing the usage of the memory port, the most expensive resource is typical vector computers. A study of the cost associated with the duplication of the vector register file is also carried out. Overall, multithreading provides for this architecture a performance advantage of more than a factor of 1.4 for realistic memory latencies, and can drive the utilization of the single memory port as high as 95%.
Endothelial Progenitor Cell Cotransplantation Enhances Islet Engraftment by Rapid Revascularization (2012)

Impaired revascularization of transplanted islets is a critical problem that leads to progressive islet loss. Since endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are known to aid neovascularization, we aimed to enhance islet engraftment by cotransplanting EPCs with islets. Porcine islets, with (islet-EPC group) or without (islet-only group) human cord blood-derived EPCs, were transplanted into diabetic nude mice. The islet-EPC group reached euglycemia by ∼11 days posttransplantation, whereas the islet-only group did not. Also, the islet-EPC group had a higher serum porcine insulin level than the islet-only group. Islets from the islet-EPC group were more rapidly revascularized at the early period of transplantation without increment of final capillary density at the fully revascularized graft. Enhanced revascularization rate in the islet-EPC group was mainly attributed to stimulating vascular endothelial growth factor-A production from the graft. The rapid revascularization by EPC cotransplantation led to better graft perfusion and recovery from hypoxia. EPC cotransplantation was also associated with greater β-cell proliferation, probably by more basement membrane production and hepatocyte growth factor secretion. In conclusion, cotransplantation of EPCs and islets induces better islet engraftment by enhancing the rate of graft revascularization. These findings might provide a directly applicable tool to enhance the efficacy of islet transplantation in clinical practice.
Fibrinogen, Fibrinopeptide a and Fibrin Monomers (1977)

SummaryThe main techniques for detection and quantitation of fibrinopeptide A and fibrin monomers, and the application of these techniques to the diagnosis of low grade or local activation of intravascular coagulation, are briefly reviewed. Radioimmunoassay of FPA provides direct, sensitive and specific quantitation of thrombin activity; elevated levels of FPA have been found in numerous clinical situations in which there is intravascular activation of the clotting system. Among the various tests for the detection and quantitation of fibrin monomers, agarose gel chromatography and affinity chromatography on insolubilized fibrinogen appear to be the most useful for the diagnosis of low grade or local intravascular coagulation in several diseases. All these tests, however, are not yet rapid or simple enough to be applicable to routine clinical testing.
Video Based Handwritten Characters Recognition (2010)

In this chapter, we firstly designed an adaptive skin color model for fingertip extraction and its application to handwritten character recognition. A cheap webcam is used to serve as the input device and the forefinger tip is extracted by integrating skin-color, motion, curvature, and its relatively higher position. The fingertip position is recorded and tracked for each frame. Thus, a video based pointing method was developed as a choice for information input or computer system operation. Compared with currently available technologies, our system has been a non-contact, comfortable, reliable, and inexpensive communication device that could be easily adaptable to serve special needs like character input. Furthermore, this input device was also integrated with the MS-Windows just like mouse. Here, the fingertip acting as pen tip can be used to write characters. We defined some stroke types including primitive directional strokes, semi-circle strokes, and compound loop strokes for alphanumeric characters. Dynamic time warp matching algorithm was used to extract possible strokes. On-line model was also utilized to formulate the character recognition as a multi-stage searching problem. At each stage, we have extracted stroke candidates for that stroke as defined in the on-line model. The optimal path represents the stroke sequence which complies with the on-line model most. It was found again by the DTW matching algorithm. Among all the found stroke sequences, the one with the highest similarity was picked and the written stroke sequence was recognized as the corresponding on-line model. The system we implemented can be inexpensive, convenient, and intuitive. Experimental results proved that the proposed system is feasible for applications. Up to now, users of IT products such as computer, notebook, and PDA, all need a convenient character input tool. The video-based handwritten character recognition system provides such an input method without the burden caused by holding tiny stylus pen, writing on a size quite limited touchpad, or inputting through an on-screen virtual keyboard. For future works, the character on-line model base can be extended to cover Chinese characters. For robustness improvement, the fingertip overlapped with moving skin color regions like faces would be difficult to extract. It is a challenge to achieve better recognition accuracy without increasing too much stroke extraction time.
Effect of Temperature on the Fatty Acid Composition of the Extreme Thermophiles,<i>Bacillus caldolyticus</i>and<i>Bacillus caldotenax</i> (1972)

Gas chromatographic analysis of extracts from Bacillus caldolyticus and Bacillus caldotenax grown at 60, 70, or 80 C showed that both contain branched-chain fatty acids as major constituents at all temperatures tested. With increasing temperature, a decrease of i-C15 and an increase of i-C17 fatty acids were observed in both strains, as well as a decrease of i-C16 fatty acids corresponding to an increase of n-C16 fatty acids. The most obvious difference was that the shifts observed with B. caldolyticus occurred mainly upon raising the temperature to 10 C above, and in B. caldotenax upon lowering the temperature to 20 C below, the optimal growth temperature.
Combined bidding of regulation and spinning reserves for unidirectional Vehicle-to-Grid (2012)

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) has the potential to reduce the cost of owning and operating Electric Vehicles (EVs) while increasing utility system flexibility. Unidirectional V2G is a logical first step because it requires less infrastructure and does not degrade EV batteries from cycling. This work develops an optimal combined bidding formulation for regulation and spinning reserves to be used by an aggregator. Two different aggregator revenue structures are explored as objective functions. These algorithms maximize profits to the aggregator while increasing the benefits to the customers and utility. Simulations over a one month period on the ERCOT system verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms and show differences in performance of the two algorithms.
Behavior of Spiral Flow Structures Along the Trailing Edges of E-Block Arms Under Increasing Airflow Velocities (2006)

The behavior of spiral flow structures along the trailing edges of the E-block arm has been investigated under increasing airflow velocities. These coherent structures in the flow are commonly believed to be closely associated with the flow induced vibrations on the E-block arms. The experiments showed that vortex shedding is detected in a hard disk drive (HDD) model when the motor speed is as low as 1200 rpm. A turbulent wake is formed immediately after flow over the E-block arms. Flow turbulence in the wake becomes significant from 7200 rpm onwards and peaked at 10 000 rpm. From 12 000 rpm onwards, a turbulent jet is formed instead of a turbulent wake. The flow regime change deserved further in-depth investigations in order to understand the flow physics so that future designs of HDD that run at even higher rotational speeds with acceptable track misregistration could be realizable
Alpha-Voltaic Sources Using Liquid Ga as Conversion Medium (2006)

A family of proposed miniature sources of power would exploit the direct conversion of the kinetic energy of alpha particles into electricity. In addition to having long operational lives, these sources are expected to operate with energy-conversion efficiencies from 70 to 90 percent. A power source as proposed (see figure) would be an electrolytic cell in which liquid gallium would serve as both an electrolyte and an energy-conversion medium. The cell would contain an iridium cathode and a zirconium anode. The alpha particles, each with a kinetic energy approx.5.8 MeV, would be emitted by radioactive decay of Cm-244, which has a half-life of 18 years. The Cm-244 source would be positioned so that the a particles would enter the liquid gallium, where their kinetic energy would be dissipated mostly through ionization of Ga atoms, creating Ga(+) ions and free electrons. The electrons would be collected by iridium cathode, and the Ga(+) ions would be neutralized at the zirconium cathode by electrons returning after flowing through an external circuit. Gallium is a candidate for use as the electrolyte and the energy-conversion medium because in the liquid state it is a semimetal: its electrical conductivity is greater than that of a typical semiconductor but small in comparison with the conductivities of metals. Consequently, in liquid gallium, electrons and Ga(+) can exist without immediate recombination and can be moved by electric fields. It is expected that electric fields, resulting at least partly from the difference between the work functions of the electrode metals, would move the electrons and ions to their respective electrodes. The open-circuit potential of the cell is expected to be 1.62 V - equal to the difference between the work functions of iridium and zirconium. Unlike in a solid-state energy conversion medium, the impingement of energetic a particles would not give rise to displacement damage in the liquid gallium. Hence, the cell should have a long life, limited only by the half-life of Cm-244. A cell having a volume less than 25 cu mm, containing 1 curie of Cm-244 (the curie is a unit of radioactivity equal to 3.7 10(exp 10) disintegrations per second) is expected to deliver a current between 7 and 12 mA, which, at the expected open-circuit potential, would provide a power in the approximate range of 11 to 20 mW.
Relationships among Electrochemical, Thermodynamic, and Oxygen Potential Quantities in Lithium‐Transition Metal‐Oxygen Molten Salt Cells (1984)

The interdependence of thermodynamic parameters, phase equilibria, and electrochemical measurements can be used as a powerful tool in the development of high specific energy cells. These principles were used in the analysis of electrochemical experiments performed on ternary lithium‐transition metal‐oxide positive electrodes. The free energies of formation of , , , and were found to be −178.21, −399.88, −154.18, and −131.62 kcal/mol at 400°C. The electrochemical displacement reactions were found to be reversible in molten salt cells over a range of 0.0–3.0 Li equivalents per mol at current densities of 5–15 mA/cm2. The equilibrium potential vs. Li was found to be a logarithmic function of the calculated oxygen partial pressure for any tie triangle in which is present, or for any tie triangle containing ternary oxide phases which are only marginally stable with respect to and the relevant binary oxides . Compounds with oxygen partial pressures above 10−25 atm were found to be unstable in electrolyte at 400°C.
Dewetting Patterns and Molecular Forces: A Reconciliation (2001)

We studied the dewetting of thin liquid polymer films from solid surfaces. Our experimental results lead to a consistent picture demonstrating the interplay between short- and long-range interfacial forces. Observations comprise nucleation and spinodal dewetting, as well as thermal nucleation of holes. The effective interface potential of the system, as reconstructed from the morphology of the dewetting patterns, agrees quantitatively with what is computed from the optical properties of the system. This shows that the assumption of additivity of dispersion potentials in multilayer systems yields good results.
Beyond the Excluded Volume Effects: Mechanistic Complexity of the Crowded Milieu (2015)

Macromolecular crowding is known to affect protein folding, binding of small molecules, interaction with nucleic acids, enzymatic activity, protein-protein interactions, and protein aggregation. Although for a long time it was believed that the major mechanism of the action of crowded environments on structure, folding, thermodynamics, and function of a protein can be described in terms of the excluded volume effects, it is getting clear now that other factors originating from the presence of high concentrations of "inert" macromolecules in crowded solution should definitely be taken into account to draw a more complete picture of a protein in a crowded milieu. This review shows that in addition to the excluded volume effects important players of the crowded environments are viscosity, perturbed diffusion, direct physical interactions between the crowding agents and proteins, soft interactions, and, most importantly, the effects of crowders on solvent properties.
Polymers for Induction of Revascularization in the Rat Fascial Flap: Application of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Pancreatic Islet Cells (2003)

One of the major obstacles in transplanting avascular tissue or metabolically active cells for ischemic diseases is the loss of transplanted cells due to lack of oxygen and nutrients in the early posttransplantation period. Biodegradable polymeric tissue engineering scaffolds and hydrogels have a potential to incorporate cells or cellular organoids such as islets of Langerhans and growth factors. In this study, we tested the efficiency of two types of polymeric materials to carry recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor (rhVEGF) or pancreatic tumor cell lines, namely Ins-1 and AR42J, for the induction of new vessels. Chitosan hydrogel fibers with micropores were prepared and molded into a cylinder construct (5 mm phi; 8 mm height). Macroporous PLGA scaffolds with a pore size of 250-400 microm were prepared and cut into cylinders (6 mm phi; 3 mm height). Both chitosan and PLGA constructs were loaded with rhVEGF (3 microg) or seeded with the cell lines (5 x 10(5) cells and 3 x 10(5) cells/construct, respectively, for AR42J and INS-1 cells), and transplanted into the fascial flaps of Wistar rats. At distinct time points up to 4 weeks postimplantation, polymers were explanted, fixed, and vessel density was counted on sections stained with anti-Factor-VIII antibody. Additionally, the kinetics of rhVEGF release from PLGA microspheres (phi of 50-80 microm) was determined using VEGF Elisa. Endogenous VEGF release from pancreatic rat cell lines was also determined. Light microscopy study was performed on H&E-stained paraffin sections of the islet-polymer samples. The vascular density of rhVEGF-loaded chitosan constructs was increased fourfold 2 weeks after subcutaneous transplantation compared with rhVEGF-unloaded controls (465 +/- 144 vs. 104 +/- 80 vessels per mm2, p < 0.05). Protein leakage occurred, but was not observed after 2 weeks. Higher insulin content was detected in rat islet grafts transplanted following VEGF application. More than 50% of total rhVEGF was released on the first day of in vitro culture of PLGA microspheres. rhVEGF secretion had another, but smaller, peak on the third day followed by a constant release. By comparison, endogeneous VEGF secretion of pancreatic tumor cells was measured within a 3-day culture period. Biodegradable polymer scaffolds and hydrogels may have potential use as solid supports to induce angiogenesis for pancreatic cell transplantation.
Coming: set-top box recording - [News] (2002)

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS - Arguably the most touted announcement at the 2002 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held the second week of January in Las Vegas and attended by some 110 000 people, was the Moxi Media Center. Developed by Steve Perlman, who founded WebTV Networks Inc. and then sold it in 1997 to Microsoft Corp. for US $425 million, the Moxi Media Center is in essence a highly elaborated set-top box.
Removal of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate and phenol from water by a combined PAC adsorption and cross‐flow microfiltration process (2004)

Abstract The removal of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) and phenol from water by a combined process of PAC (powdered activated carbon) adsorption and cross‐flow microfiltration (PAC–MF) was investigated. Batch PAC adsorption studies were made to obtain the isotherm data. The PAC–MF experiments were performed as a function of PAC dose (0.2–1.0 g dm −3 ), solution pH (2.5–11.2), transmembrane pressure (10–30 psi), and cross‐flow velocity (4.7–8.3 mm s −1 ). A compromise between removal efficiency of the organics and the permeate flux in the PAC–MF process was needed to select a suitable PAC dose. The role of pH in the PAC–MF process mainly depended on the acid–base nature of the organics being removed. A comparison of PAC–MF and fixed bed processes was also made, and the application potential of this PAC–MF process for continuous removal of relatively high‐molar‐mass organics such as SDBS from waste effluents was demonstrated. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry