gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Suppression of murine chronic relapsing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis by the oral administration of myelin basic protein (1996)

Chronic relapsing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), induced in mice by the injection of myelin basic protein (MBP), is a T cell-mediated autoimmune disease characterized by periods of paralysis and remission. We have shown previously that the oral administration of MBP or MBP peptides renders Lewis rats refractory to EAE. This study was undertaken to examine the conditions necessary to produce oral tolerance in a chronic relapsing model of EAE in B10.PL mice. The optimal tolerizing regimen for the mouse was found to be a single feeding of 20 mg of MBP suspended in PBS. To determine the ability to suppress chronic disease, a range of doses (0.4-100 mg) was administered orally in a single dose before challenge. Larger oral doses (20 or 100 mg) of MBP provided the best protection from EAE, while 0.4 mg exacerbated the clinical course of disease. Secretion of the proinflammatory cytokines, IL-2 and IFN-gamma, were lowest in the group fed 20 mg. A single feeding of MBP before challenge or as late as the first day of clinical signs showed significant protection over the relapsing disease course. Once relapsing EAE was established, multiple oral doses of MBP were required to achieve suppression of clinical signs of disease. These findings suggest that vehicle, dosage, and timing are important considerations in the successful application of oral tolerance strategies for suppression of chronic disease processes.
Statistical Theory and Research Design (1951)

There is clear evidence that parents can and do influence children. There is equally clear evidence that children’s genetic makeup affects their own behavioral characteristics, and also influences the way they are treated by their parents. Twin and ...Read More
Studies on immobilized <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i>. III. Physiology of growth and metabolism on various supports (1982)

In earlier communications general analyses of rapid ethanol fermentation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized on inert supports were described. In this article physiology of growth and metabolism (parameters like rates of CO(2) evolution and O(2) uptake, respiratory quotient, and generation time) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized on different supports are reported. Values of the ratio of specific oxygen uptake rate for immobilized cells to free cells have been found to be 0.732, 0.781 and 0.785 for carrier A, carrier B, and covalently crosslinked controlled pore glass (CPG, specific surface area of 439 m(2) g(-1)), respectively. Rates of specific CO(2) evolution for immobilized cells to free cells for these supports are 0.784, 0.822, and 0.783, respectively. Marked reduction in generation time of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on all the supports has been observed. No change in size (4.8-5 microm) and specific growth rate (micro(m) = 0.275 h(-1)) of cells leaving the reactor has been observed.
Ubiquitous Virtual Reality: Accessing Shared Virtual Environments through Videoconferencing Technology (2005)

This paper presents an alternative to existing methods for remotely accessing Virtual Reality (VR) systems. Common solutions are based on specialised software and/or hardware capable of rendering 3D content, which not only restricts accessibility to specific platforms but also increases the barrier for non expert users. Our approach addresses new audiences by making existing Virtual Environments (VEs) ubiquitously accessible. Its appeal is that a large variety of clients, like desktop PCs and handhelds, are ready to connect to VEs out of the box. We achieve this combining established videoconferencing protocol standards with a server based interaction handling. Currently interaction is based on natural speech, typed textual input and visual feedback, but extensions to support natural gestures are possible and planned. This paper presents the conceptual framework enabling videoconferencing with collaborative VEs as well as an example application for a virtual prototyping system.
Heart rate and oxygen consumption during walking on land and in deep water. (1990)

Oxygen consumption and heart rate were measured during treadmill walking and during walking in deep water in a group of women and in a group of men. In both groups predicted maximum oxygen uptakes were similar on land as in the water. However, there were obvious individual differences in the responses to land versus water exercise. These differences suggest that if deep water walking is used for training, the intensity of work should be assessed from preliminary fitness tests in water and not on land.
Robust automatic void detection in solder balls (2010)

Voids in solder balls can cause board failures. The detection and assessment of voids in solder balls can help in reducing board yield issues caused by incorrect scrapping and rework. X-ray imaging machines make voids visible to the operator for manual inspection. Some existing x-ray inspection systems have void detection algorithms that require the use of intensive manual tuning operations that are time consuming, and inaccurate due to the inability to examine balls overshadowed with other components. In this paper, a robust automatic void detection algorithm is proposed. The proposed method is able to detect voids with different sizes inside the solder balls, including the ones that are overshadowed by board components and under different brightness conditions. Results show that the proposed method achieves a correlation squared in the range of 91% to 97% with ground truth data from a 3D x-ray scan. The proposed algorithm is fully automated and benefits the manufacturing process by reducing operator effort and by providing a cost effective solution to improve output quality.
Protective effect of leukotriene receptor antagonist montelukast on smoking-induced lung injury in Wistar rats. (2003)

Increased activation of alveolar macrophage, neutrophil and mast cell has been proven in cigarette smoking (CS)-related lung disorders (CSLD). An increased production of cysteinyl-leukotrienes (LTs), which are mediators secreted from the mentioned cells, in response to CS has been shown in humans. The protective effect of LT1 receptor-1 antagonist (LTR-1AT) on CSLD is, however, not known. In this study we aimed to determine whether there is any protective effect of a LTR-1AT, montelukast (MK), on CSLD in Wistar rats. Nine controls and twenty-three smoke-exposed rats were enrolled into this study. Controls were exposed to non-filtered air, and the smoke-exposed rats were exposed to CS for 6 h/day, 6 days/week for three weeks. The CS-exposed rats were also treated with 0.1 mg/kg/day of MK or saline. Morphometric criteria for lung injury were determined as the mean linear intercept of alveolar septa (Lm), the volume density of alveolar septa (Vvspt) and the density of the alveolar surface area per unit volume of lung parenchyma (Sva.pa). Lung mast cells (LMC), which are a major source of LTs, were also counted. Results showed that Lm of the control group was significantly lower and Vvspt, Sva.pa of the controls were significantly higher compared to those of the CS-exposed groups. Animals treated with MK had significant protection against CSLD. Lm was significantly higher and Vvspt, Sva.pa were lower in the saline group than in the MK-treated group. The number of LMC in the CS-exposed groups was also significantly higher than that in the control group. Based on these results, one can suggest that some part of the pathogenesis of CSLD may be related to an enhanced LTs synthesis and LTR-1AT. Therefore, montelukast may protect against active or passive smoking-induced lung injury and related disorders.
The Effect of Growth Conditions on the Respiratory System of a Succinoglucan-producing Strain of Agrobacterium radiobacter (1987)

SUMMARY: The respiratory system of Agrobacterium radiobacter NCIB 11883, a producer of succinoglucan exopolysaccharide under ammonia-limited conditions, was studied following growth in continuous culture (D = 0·045 h-1)under glucose, oxygen and ammonia limitation. The respiratory chain contained b- and c-type cytochromes, plus two terminal oxidases (aa 3 and co) under all growth conditions, and exhibited a low transhydrogenase activity. An inactive apoenzyme form of the quinoprotein glucose dehydrogenase was also present which could be activated by adding pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) to cell suspensions. The activity of the terminal region of the respiratory chain increased approximately fourfold following growth under oxygen limitation, and this was accompanied by a significant increase in the concentration of cytochrome oxidaseco. Whole cells exhibited →H+/O quotients of 5·5-6·3 for the oxidation of endogenous substrate depending on the nature of the growth-limiting nutrient. It is concluded that the respiratory chain energy conservation system of this organism is not significantly modified during ammonia-limited growth to offset the increased energy demands for exopolysaccharide synthesis.
The preparation and phospholipid binding property of the C2 domain of human factor VIII (2003)

The C2 domain of human factor VIII was expressed in a yeast secretion system and its binding properties were studied. A cDNA coding the C2 domain sequence of human factor VIII with a N-terminal six amino acids extension (C-C2) was constructed, transformed into Pichia pastoris cells and expressed. The product was purified by ammonium sulfate fractionation and anion exchange chromatography. It emerged as a single peak from both ion exchange and gel filtration columns, indicating C-C2 is a homogenous monomer. The binding activity of C-C2 to phosphatidylserine-containing phospholipid vesicles was measured by competitive binding with annexin V. The values of IC50 were approximately 70nM for both factor VIII and its light chain, but were about 7000nM for C-C2. These results indicated C-C2 has 100-fold less binding affinity than factor VIII or the light chain. Direct binding to solidified phosphatidyl-serine-containing phospholipids also showed that C-C2 has approximately 50-fold less binding affinity than does the light chain. C-C2 poorly inhibited Xase activity. These results together clearly show that the C2 domain alone does not have full membrane binding activity, and suggest that the other light chain domains, A3 and/or C1, are also involved in the phospholipid binding activity of factor VIII.
Extended Normalized Mutual Information for Lung SPECT - CT Registration (2009)

In this paper an extension of the normalized mutual information is proposed to register standalone obtained low dose CT with already superimposed lung inhalation SPECT and perfusion SPECT images. In order to validate our method, superimposed inhalation SPECT, perfusion SPECT and low dose CT image triples were collected obtained by a hybrid SPECT/CT camera at the same time. A known transformation was applied to the low dose CT to simulate a misalignment, followed by an optimal transformation search performing our extended normalized mutual information-based (eNMI) method. For comparison and evaluation, the low dose CT was also registered to both inhalation and perfusion images one-by-one applying a dual-normalized mutual information-based (dNMI) method. Comparative results have shown that our eNMI method worked with minimal registration error and number of iterations, hence it can be successfully applied to stand alone performed low dose CT - SPECT registrations.
Fabrication of Gas Chromatography Glass Capillary Columns with Silica Gel Layer on the Inner Surface Utilizing Sol-Gel Phase Separation (2005)

Glass capillaries with silica gel layer on the inner surface were prepared by applying phase separation during sol-gel reaction of tetraethyl orthosilicate in the presence of poly (ethylene glycol) with number-average molecular weight of 20000. According to this technique, we can coat the internal surface with uniform silica gel layer for silica capillary with diameter up to 0.1 mm. In the gas chromatographic analysis of hydrocarbons using the capillary column with silica gel layer, light hydrocarbons up to C4 can be analyzed with high resolution and within short experimental time at ambient temperature.
Optimal stochastic estimation with exponential cost criteria (2005)

The expected value of the exponential of a weighted quadratic sum of the squares of the estimation error is minimized with respect to the state estimate subject to a Gauss-Markov system. The state estimates are assumed to be a function of the measurement history up to the stage time of the state vector. The estimator which optimizes this exponential cost criterion is linear but is not a conditional mean estimator such as the Kalman filter. This shows that the implications of Sherman's theorem are restricted to functions of the estimates which have access to the same measurement history such as in smoothing problems. In the solution process the expectation operation is replaced by an extremization operation allowing the formulation of a deterministic discrete time game. The saddle point estimator resulting from this game is the same as that obtained from the solution of an associated disturbance attenuation problem. This optimal stochastic estimator which generalizes the Kalman filter can feature the estimation error of certain states over others by the choice of the quadratic weighting matrices in the cost criterion. Correlation between the measurement and process noises is included.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>
Purification, Characterization, and Localization of Aspartoacylase from Bovine Brain (1991)

Canavan disease, an autosomal recessive disorder, is characterized biochemically by N-acetylaspartic aciduria and aspartoacylase (N-acyl-L-aspartate amidohydrolase; EC 3.5.1.15) deficiency. However, the role of aspartoacylase and N-acetylaspartic acid in brain metabolism is unknown. Aspartoacylase has been purified to apparent homogeneity with a specific activity of approximately 19,000-20,000 nmol of aspartate released/mg of protein. The native enzyme is a 58-kDa monomer. The purified aspartoacylase activity is enhanced by divalent cations, nonionic detergents, and dithiothreitol. Low levels of dithiothreitol or beta-mercaptoethanol are required for enzyme stability. Aspartoacylase has a Km of 8.5 x 10(-4) M and a Vmax of 43,000 nmol/min/mg of protein. Inhibition of aspartoacylase by glycyl-L-aspartate and amino derivatives of D-aspartic acid suggests that the carbon backbone of the substrate is primarily involved in its interaction with the active site and that a blocked amino group is essential for the catalytic activity of aspartoacylase. Biochemical and immunocytochemical studies revealed that aspartoacylase is localized to white matter, whereas the N-acetylaspartic acid concentration is threefold higher in gray matter than in white matter. Our studies so far indicate that aspartoacylase is conserved across species during evolution and suggest a significant role for aspartoacylase and N-acetylaspartic acid in normal brain biology.
Irreversible Inactivation of Protein Kinase C by a Peptide-Substrate Analog (1995)

Protein kinase C (PKC) is a phospholipid-dependent isozyme family that plays a pivotal role in mammalian signal-transduction pathways that mediate cell growth and differentiation and pathological developments, such as the acquisition of drug resistance by cancer cells. Several peptide-substrate analogs have been shown to reversibly inhibit PKC with high potency and selectivity, but peptide-substrate analogs that antagonize PKC by forming a covalent complex with the enzyme have not been reported. The development of active site-directed irreversible inactivators of PKC could provide new insights into the catalytic mechanism and might ultimately lead to the design of novel therapeutics targeted at PKC. In this report, we show that the peptide-substrate analog Arg-Lys-Arg-Cys-Leu-Arg-Arg-Leu (RKRCLRRL) irreversibly inactivates PKC in a dithiothreitol-sensitive manner. The inactivation mechanism most consistent with our results is the formation of a covalent linkage between the inhibitor-peptide and the enzyme at its active-site. Limited proteolysis of PKC produces a catalytic-domain fragment that is independent of the phospholipid cofactor. RKRCLRRL antagonized the histone kinase activity of PKC and its catalytic-domain fragment with similar efficacies, achieving > 50% inactivation at an RKRCLRRL concentration of 10 microM. In contrast, RKRCLRRL analogs with single amino acid substitutions at Cys were non-inhibitory. The inactivated complex of the catalytic-domain fragment and RKRCLRRL was stable upon dilution, and the inactivation of PKC and the catalytic-domain fragment by RKRCLRRL was quenched by dithiothreitol, providing evidence that the enzyme and the synthetic peptide may be covalently linked in an inactivated complex by a disulfide bond. Substrates and substrate analogs protected the catalytic-domain fragment against inactivation by RKRCLRRL, providing evidence that inactivation entailed binding of RKRCLRRL at the active-site of the enzyme. S-Thiolation is the formation of mixed disulfides between proteins and low molecular weight thiols. PKC is thought to have a highly reactive Cys residue in its active-site, and Cys residues that are flanked by basic residues, as is the case in RKRCLRRL, display enhanced reactivity. Our results support an inactivation mechanism that entails S-thiolation of the active-site of PKC by RKRCLRRL. This is the first report of irreversible inactivation of PKC by an active site-directed peptide.
Significant Natural Product Biosynthetic Potential of Actinorhizal Symbionts of the Genus Frankia, as Revealed by Comparative Genomic and Proteomic Analyses (2011)

Bacteria of the genus Frankia are mycelium-forming actinomycetes that are found as nitrogen-fixing facultative symbionts of actinorhizal plants. Although soil-dwelling actinomycetes are well-known producers of bioactive compounds, the genus Frankia has largely gone uninvestigated for this potential. Bioinformatic analysis of the genome sequences of Frankia strains ACN14a, CcI3, and EAN1pec revealed an unexpected number of secondary metabolic biosynthesis gene clusters. Our analysis led to the identification of at least 65 biosynthetic gene clusters, the vast majority of which appear to be unique and for which products have not been observed or characterized. More than 25 secondary metabolite structures or structure fragments were predicted, and these are expected to include cyclic peptides, siderophores, pigments, signaling molecules, and specialized lipids. Outside the hopanoid gene locus, no cluster could be convincingly demonstrated to be responsible for the few secondary metabolites previously isolated from other Frankia strains. Few clusters were shared among the three species, demonstrating species-specific biosynthetic diversity. Proteomic analysis of Frankia sp. strains CcI3 and EAN1pec showed that significant and diverse secondary metabolic activity was expressed in laboratory cultures. In addition, several prominent signals in the mass range of peptide natural products were observed in Frankia sp. CcI3 by intact-cell matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS). This work supports the value of bioinformatic investigation in natural products biosynthesis using genomic information and presents a clear roadmap for natural products discovery in the Frankia genus.
Primary Mouse Small Intestinal Epithelial Cell Cultures (2012)

The intestinal epithelium is the most rapidly self-renewing tissue in adult mammals. We have recently shown that Lgr5 (Leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor) is expressed in intestinal stem cells by an in vivo genetic lineage tracing strategy. In the past, extensive efforts have been made to establish primary small intestinal culture systems. However, no defined, reproducible and robust culture system had been developed. To establish such a system, we screened for optimal growth factor combinations based on genetic evidence of self-renewal regulation, differentiation, and carcinogenesis of intestinal stem cells. Here, we describe methods that we have established for the isolation and culture of primary small intestinal epithelial stem cells. In this culture system, isolated crypts form "organoid structures" with a histological hierarchy recapitulating in vivo small intestinal epithelium. Single isolated Lgr5+ intestinal stem cells also form these organoid structures, in which stem cells are maintained by self-renewal and give rise to all lineages of the intestinal epithelium. This culture system is particularly useful for studying the regulation of intestinal stem cell self-renewal and differentiation.
Essential Role of Trace Elements in Continuous Anaerobic Digestion of Food Waste (2012)

The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of long-term sustainable anaerobic digestion of food waste in semi-continuous single-stage reactors by supplementing trace elements. Compared with the failure of anaerobic digestion of food waste after prolonged operation, a clearly enhancement of process performance was observed by supplementing a model trace element solution. Although the sustainable continuous anaerobic digestion of food waste could not be achieved by supplementing a model trace element solution, the correlation of process performance and trace element profile during continuous operating period revealed that the declining performance was highly likely due to the decreasing trace element concentrations, especially Co, Mo, Ni and Fe. This finding was expected to provide a promising strategy for sustainable anaerobic digestion of food waste.
Therapeutic Benefit of Intravenous Administration of Bone Marrow Stromal Cells After Cerebral Ischemia in Rats (2001)

Background and Purpose—We tested the hypothesis that intravenous infusion of bone marrow derived–marrow stromal cells (MSCs) enter the brain and reduce neurological functional deficits after stroke in rats. Methods—Rats (n=32) were subjected to 2 hours of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). Test groups consisted of MCAO alone (group 1, n=6); intravenous infusion of 1×106 MSCs at 24 hours after MCAO (group 2, n=6); or infusion of 3×106 MSCs (group 3, n=7). Rats in groups 1 to 3 were euthanized at 14 days after MCAO. Group 4 consisted of MCAO alone (n=6) and group 5, intravenous infusion of 3×106 MSCs at 7 days after MCAO (n=7). Rats in groups 4 and 5 were euthanized at 35 days after MCAO. For cellular identification, MSCs were prelabeled with bromodeoxyuridine. Behavioral tests (rotarod, adhesive-removal, and modified Neurological Severity Score [NSS]) were performed before and at 1, 7, 14, 21, 28, and 35 days after MCAO. Immunohistochemistry was used to identify MSCs or cells derived from MSCs in bra...