gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Von Willebrand Factor, ADAMTS13 Activity, TNF-Alpha, and Their Relationships in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (2011)

Abstract Abstract 5312 Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have increased risks of endothelial dysfunction and thrombosis. Systemic inflammation may contribute to the endothelial dysfunction and accelerated thrombosis observed in CKD patients. von Willebrand factor (VWF), a well-known index of endothelial damage, has been reported to increase both in CKD and inflammatory states. ADAMTS13 is a specific VWF-cleaving protease, and some reports suggested that the ratio of VWF and ADAMTS13 maybe more useful in the diagnosis and treatment evaluation of patients in the prothrombotic state. So we assessed the relationships among endothelial dysfunction, ADAMTS13 activity, and levels of inflammatory cytokines in CKD patients. CKD patients were classified into 3 groups: chronic glomerulonephritis group (CGN, n = 31), idiopathic nephritic syndrome group (NS, n = 32), and lupus nephritis group (LN, n = 41). We measured the plasma levels of TNF-α, VWF antigen (VWF:Ag), and ADAMTS13 activity by using an ELISA-based method in CKD patients (n = 104) and normal controls (n = 32). The ratio of the VWF:Ag level to ADAMTS13 activity was calculated. The VWF:Ag level was significantly higher and the ADAMTS13 activity was significantly lower in all the disease groups than in the controls (P < 0.01). ADAMTS13 activity was lower in the NS group than in the CGN and LN groups (P < 0.05) (Table 1). The TNF-α (pg/mL) level was higher in the CKD group than in the control group (CGN: 3.19 ± 1.01; NS: 3.26 ± 1.18; LN: 3.24 ± 1.24; Control: 2.27 ± 1.23; P < 0.01; P < 0.01). TNF-α was positively correlated with the VWF:Ag level (r = 0.242, P = 0.013) and negatively correlated with the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (r = −0.193, P = 0.049). ADAMTS13 activity was negatively correlated with the cholesterol level in CKD patients (r = −0.2, P = 0.042). TNF-α level in CKD was positively correlated with the VWF:Ag level and negatively correlated with GFR, which suggests that inflammation might be a major cause of endothelial dysfunction and an index for renal function. The VWF:Ag level increased and ADAMTS13 activity decreased in CKD patients, which indicates that CKD leads to a prothrombotic state. Table 1. The plasma VWF:Ag level, ADAMTS13 activity, and the VWF/ADAMTS13 ratio in the CGN, NS, LN, and control groups N VWF (%) ADAMTS13 (%) VWF/ADAMTS13 CGN 31 198.25 ± 140.20** 61.93 ± 22.47**# 3.83 ± 3.29** NS 32 149.94 ± 74.50** 48.87 ± 18.63** 3.42 ± 1.59** LN 41 234.75 ± 134.91**## 67.81 ± 22.30**## 3.79 ± 2.52** CONTROL 32 99.55 ± 21.37 94.37 ± 23.66 1.12 ± 0.37 vs. CONTROL ** P < 0.01; vs. NS ## p < 0.01, # P < 0.05 Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Biomimetic synthesis of titania nanoparticles induced by protamine (2008)

Protamine, a kind of cationic protein extracted from sperm nuclei, was employed for the first time in vitro to induce the formation of a titania/protamine nanoparticle composite from a water-stable titanium precursor, titanium(IV) bis(ammonium lactato) dihydroxide (Ti-BALDH). The resulting titania/protamine nanoparticle composite was extensively characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The titania/protamine nanoparticle composite was of amorphous structure, and exhibited a different morphology from those prepared by an alkali-catalyzed approach. The catalyzing and templating function of protamine involved in the synthesis of the nanoparticle composite is discussed, and a mechanism tentatively proposed. In addition, the effects of pH and temperature on the amount and size of as-prepared titania/protamine nanoparticle composite were systematically investigated.
A New Photolithography Technique with Antireflective Coating on Resist: ARCOR (1990)

A new photolithography technique called antireflective coating on resist (ARCOR) is described. This method improves linewidth accuracy and overlay accuracy by decreasing the multiple interference effect in a resist film. A clear anti‐reflective film is spun on a photoresist prior to alignment pattern detection and exposure. The film is subsequently removed and the resist developed in the conventional way. Multiple reflection in a resist film is suppressed by this antireflective film, thus enabling patterning and alignment without disturbance caused by multiple interference. With this method, linewidth accuracy becomes 0.03 μm, about one–tenth that of the conventional method, and the alignment signal is improved.
Audio feature extraction and analysis for scene classification (2002)

Analysis and classification of the scene content of a video sequence are very important for content-based indexing and retrieval of multimedia databases. We report our research on using the associated audio information for video scene classification. We describe several audio features that have been found effective in distinguishing audio characteristics of different scene classes. Based on these features, a neural net classifier was quite successful in separating audio clips from different TV programs.
Palladium-Catalyzed Carbonylative Cross-Coupling Reaction of Arylboronic Acids with Aryl Electrophiles:  Synthesis of Biaryl Ketones (1998)

The carbonylative cross-coupling reaction of arylboronic acids with aryl electrophiles (ArI, ArBr, and ArOTf) to yield unsymmetrical biaryl ketones was carried out in anisole at 80 °C in the presence of a palladium catalyst and a base. The reaction selectively proceeded under an atmospheric pressure of carbon monoxide when PdCl2(PPh3)2 (3 mol %)/K2CO3 (3 equiv) were used for aryl iodides and PdCl2(dppf) (3 mol %)/K2CO3 (3 equiv)/KI (3 equiv) for the bromides or the triflates. The carbonylation of arylboronic acids with benzyl halides gave aryl benzyl ketones.
Free radical scavenging and anti-edematogenic activities of Paullinia elegans Cambess., Sapindaceae, leaves extracts (2010)

Ethanol extract of the leaves of Paullinia elegans Cambess., Sapindaceae, and its hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and hydroethanol fractions were evaluated for their antiedematogenic and free radical scavenging activities. The ethanol extract and the hexane fraction produced statistically significant inhibition (74.4 and 76.0%, respectively) of the ear edema induced by croton oil in mice, observed at doses of 5 mg/ear. The ethyl acetate and hydroethanol fractions showed significant radical scavenging effect in the DPPH assay, with IC50 of 36.7 and 30.1 µg/mL, respectively. Fractionation of the extracts through chromatographic methods afforded epifriedelanol, oleanolic acid 3-O-acetyl, a mixture of stigmasterol 3-β-O-glucopyranoside and sitosterol 3-β-O-glucopyranoside, kaempferol 3,7-O-α-dirhamnopyranoside, kaempeferol-3-O-α-rhamnopyranoside and 2-O-methyl-chiro-inositol. The compounds were identified on the basis of their NMR spectral data and comparison with those of literature.
Hepatitis B and Delta Virus: Advances on Studies about Interactions between the Two Viruses and the Infected Hepatocyte (2015)

The mechanisms determining persistence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and long-term pathogenesis of HBV-associated liver disease appear to be multifactorial. Although viral replication can be efficiently suppressed by the antiviral treatments currently available, viral clearance is generally not achieved since HBV has developed unique replication strategies, enabling persistence of its genome within the infected hepatocytes. Moreover, no direct antiviral therapy exists for the more than 15 million people worldwide that are also coinfected with the hepatitis delta virus (HDV), a defective virus that needs the HBV envelope proteins for propagation. The limited availability of robust HBV and HDV infection systems has hindered the understanding of the complex network of virus-virus and virus-host interactions that are established in the course of infection and slowed down progress in drug development. Since chronic HBV/HDV coinfection leads to the most severe form of chronic viral hepatitis, elucidation of the molecular mechanisms regulating virus-host interplay and pathogenesis are urgently needed. This article summarizes the current knowledge regarding the interactions among HBV, HDV, and the infected target cell and discusses the dependence of HDV on HBV activity and possible future therapeutic approaches.
Nuclear transplantation and the control of gene activity in animal development (1970)

Abstract The transplantation of nuclei from differentiated or determined somatic cells to enucleated frogs’ eggs consistently leads to a complete and clearly recognizable change of gene activity. Within 1 to 2 h of nuclear transfer, somatic nuclei have come to resemble in structure and metabolism the zygote nuclei of fertilized eggs. The change in gene activity therefore takes place very soon after nuclear transfer and results from an effect of egg cytoplasm. The induced change in gene activity is associated with a selective accumulation of cytoplasmic proteins in transplanted nuclei. Examples are given of various ways in which nuclear transplantation and microinjection can be used to elucidate the intracellular movement of proteins and the effect of known protein fractions on gene activity.
A high-temperature Kelvin probe for flow reactor studies (1995)

A vibrating capacitor device (Kelvin probe) has been developed for measurements of work-function changes ΔΦ during ongoing catalytic reactions up to high temperatures (750 K) and atmospheric pressure. The construction is based on the piezoelectric actuator principle, and utilizes a lever arrangement that transfers the vibrating motion of the actuator to the reference electrode. The lever arrangement eliminates a static load on the actuator, which therefore allows a large distance between the actuator and the vibrating reference electrode. This makes possible much higher temperatures in the reaction/sample zone than the piezoelectric actuator itself permits. The large actuator–electrode distance also reduces the risk of electromagnetic pickup in the ΔΦ measurements, from the driving circuit for the piezoelectric actuator. The reference electrode is a gold disk with 3 mm diameter and a thickness of 0.1 mm. The practical ΔΦ resolution is presently about 5 meV. The device has been combined with on-line mass spectrometric detection of reaction rates and its performance is illustrated by results from the H2/O2 and CO/O2 reactions on Pt.
The Effects of Drugs on Membrane Fluidity (1984)

Anesthetics almost always disorder or "fluidize" membranes, i.e. the drugs increase the mobility of spin labels and reduce order parameters. This effect is universal at high concentrations above the clinical range, but in some kinds of membranes low concentrations of drugs have an ordering effect. Drugs that carry charges, including many local anesthetics, often stiffen membranes, as do long-chain alcohols or fatty acids that mimic natural membrane components. The potencies of short-chain alcohols correlate well with lipid solubility, but a cutoff is reached at 10-12 carbons, where pharmacological actions become weak or absent despite a progressive increase in lipid solubility. The cutoff is partly explained by the ordering action of the long chains and partly by the difficulty of administering such water-insoluble drugs in vivo. The idea of membrane disorder does not exclude some specificity. Closely related drugs may have different molecular shapes and may be capable of forming hydrogen bonds with different orientations, affecting their ability to make membrane more fluid. Perhaps for this reason, there is a remarkable stereospecificity in the disordering effect of anesthetic steroids, chloralose, and long-chain alkenols. Some specificity is mediated by different membrane environments. The drug action may actually reverse from order to disorder on addition of cholesterol, but in other experimental systems cholesterol blocks a disordering effect, and we cannot yet explain the action of drugs in different biomembranes. Further, drugs may have differential solubilities in membranes of different composition. This cannot always be predicted from octanol:water partition coefficients because branched molecules are differentially excluded from structured bilayers. Charged drugs react quite differently with charged and neutral phospholipids and may have differential actions on the two sides of the bilayer because of the asymmetry of the phospholipid distribution. The deeper reaches of the membrane seem particularly sensitive to disordering, even by drugs that presumably reside near the surface. Thus, proteins whose midregions are sensitive to disordering may be especially disrupted by drugs. This is a new field of pharmacology, currently applied only to a small group of drugs. But an understanding of the physiocochemical actions of drugs in hydrophobic regions of cells will clearly be needed for full understanding of membrane-bound drug receptors, enzymes, and transport systems. This is just a beginning.
Reactions of co-ordinated nitriles. Part I. Reactions of cis-(aminoacetonitrile)bis(ethylenediamine)halogenocobalt(III) complexes in aqueous solution (1974)

In near neutral or basic solution, the ions [Co(en)2X(NH2CH2CN)]2+(X = Cl or Br; en = ethylenediamine) undergo rapid base-catalysed ring closure to give purple [Co(en){NH2·CH2·C(NH2):N·CH2·CH2·NH2}X]2+, (I), containing a tridentate amidine ligand. The kinetics of this process have been studied spectrophotometrically at 25 °C and I= 0·1 M in the pH range 5·9–7·0 (X = Cl, kOH= 2·57 × 104 l mol–1 s–1; X = Br, kOH= 4·50 × 104 l mol–1 s–1). Condensation in the ring-closed product (I) occurs at the nitrogen centre trans to the halide ion. Base hydrolysis of the halogeno-ligands in (I; X = Cl or Br) has been studied, both spectrophotometrically and by pH-stat at 25 °C and I= 0·1 M. The two methods give rate constants in excellent agreement, kClOH= 2·44, kBrOH= 1·18 × 101 l mol–1 s–1. The HgII catalysed aquation of (I; X = Cl or Br) has also been investigated. Both base hydrolysis and mercury(II)-catalysed aquation appear to occur with essentially complete retention of configuration. The mercury(II)-catalysed reactions of the chloro- and bromo-complexes[Co(en)2X(NH2CH2CN)]2+ in 0·537 M-HClO4 have been investigated. The product of these reactions is the chelated glycine amide complex [Co(en)2(NH2·CH2·CO·NH2)]3+, and the mechanism of this reaction is discussed.
Gene of the month: E-cadherin ( <i>CDH1</i> ) (2013)

<b>Objectives</b> To examine variations in the registration of extremely low birthweight and early gestation births and to assess their effect on perinatal and infant mortality rankings of industrialised countries. <b>Design</b> Retrospective population based study. <b>Setting </b>Australia, Canada, European countries, and the United States for 2004; Australia, Canada, and New Zealand for 2007. <b>Population</b> National data on live births and on fetal, neonatal, and infant deaths. <b>Main outcome measures</b> Reported proportions of live births with birth weight/gestational age of less than 500 g, less than 1000 g, less than 24 weeks, and less than 28 weeks; crude rates of fetal, neonatal, and infant mortality; mortality rates calculated after exclusion of births under 500 g, under 1000 g, less than 24 weeks, and less than 28 weeks. <b>Results</b> The proportion of live births under 500 g varied widely from less than 1 per 10 000 live births in Belgium and Ireland to 10.8 per 10 000 live births in Canada and 16.9 in the United States. Neonatal deaths under 500 g, as a proportion of all neonatal deaths, also ranged from less than 1% in countries such as Luxembourg and Malta to 29.6% in Canada and 31.1% in the United States. Rankings of countries based on crude fetal, neonatal, and infant mortality rates differed substantially from rankings based on rates calculated after exclusion of births with a birth weight of less than 1000 g or a gestational age of less than 28 weeks. <b>Conclusions</b> International differences in reported rates of extremely low birthweight and very early gestation births probably reflect variations in registration of births and compromise the validity of international rankings of perinatal and infant mortality.
Carbon nanotube based nonvolatile memory (2005)

We propose the use of carbon-nanotube based vacuum microelectronics for a nonvolatile memory core. A design that can be implemented with state-of-the art nanotube fabrication techniques is presented and nonvolatile memory operation, up to 0.25 GHz, is shown to be feasible through circuit simulations. When integrated with flip-chip technology, this type of memory offers a possible solution to the problem of flash memory scaling coupled with the advantages of high density integrated circuitry and a faster speed of operation.
Abscission (1971)

The role of ethylene-mediated reduction of auxin transport in natural and ethylene-induced leaf abscission was studied in the cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L., cv. Stoneville 213) cotyledonary leaf system. The threshold level of ethylene required to cause abscission of intact leaves was between 0.08 and 1 mul/l with abscission generally occurring 12 to 24 hours following ethylene fumigation. The threshold level of ethylene required to reduce the auxin transport capacity in the cotyle-donary petiole paralleled that required for stimulation of abscission. In plants where cotyledons are allowed to senesce naturally there is a decline in auxin transport capacity of petioles and increase in ethylene synthesis of cotyledons. The visible senescence process which precedes abscission requires up to 11 days, and increases in ethylene production rates and internal levels were detected well before abscission. Ethylene production rates for entire cotyledons rose to 2.5 mmu1 g(-1) hr(-1) and internal levels of 0.7 mul/l were observed. These levels appear to be high enough to cause the observed decline in auxin transport capacity. These findings, along with those of others, indicate that ethylene has several roles in abscission control (e.g., transport modification, enzyme induction, enzyme secretion). The data indicate that ethylene modification of auxin transport participates in both natural abscission and abscission hastened by exogenous ethylene.
Redeeming Time: The Wisdom of Ancient Jewish and Christian Festal Calendars [review] / Bruce Chilton. (2005)

Bruce Chilton, a noted scholar of early Christianity and Judaism, attempts to analyze time philosophically and aesthetically through the eyes of the ancient Jewish and Christian festal calendars.He begins in chapters I and 2 with a discussion of two aspects of time in our contemporary world: constraint and rhythm.The constraint of time results in a feeling of busyness and emptiness, and is a profoundly disturbing feature of our lives.Time as rhythm is more enjoyable and involves recurring, patterned expressions of events.Rhythm is dichotomized into recurrence (cyclical time) and interval b e a r h e ) .The problem facing today's society is the sense of growing constraint and decreasing rhythm, which results in a feeling that time crushes us rather than develops who we are.The solution to this dilemma, according to Chilton, is found in the sacrificial systems as expressed in the ancient Jewish and Christian calendars with their explanations of time's rhythms of festal joy and intervals of communal memories.In this context, the author's purpose is to help human beings better understand themselves in time.Chapters 3 and 4 analyze respectively festal Judaism (with emphasis on Pe~ach, Shavuoth, and Sakkoth) and festal Christianity (in the context of the Gospels, Acts, and Pauline thought).In reading through these pages, one will encounter historical-critical
Optical control of insulin release using a photoswitchable sulfonylurea (2014)

Sulfonylureas are widely prescribed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Through their actions on ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels, sulfonylureas boost insulin release from the pancreatic beta cell mass to restore glucose homeostasis. A limitation of these compounds is the elevated risk of developing hypoglycemia and cardiovascular disease, both potentially fatal complications. Here, we describe the design and development of a photoswitchable sulfonylurea, JB253, which reversibly and repeatedly blocks KATP channel activity following exposure to violet-blue light. Using in situ imaging and hormone assays, we further show that JB253 bestows light sensitivity upon rodent and human pancreatic beta cell function. Thus, JB253 enables the optical control of insulin release and may offer a valuable research tool for the interrogation of KATP channel function in health and T2DM.
Wavelet-based space-frequency compression of ultrasound images (2001)

This paper describes the compression of grayscale medical ultrasound images using a recent compression technique, i.e., space-frequency segmentation (SFS). This method finds the rate-distortion optimal representation of an image from a large set of possible space-frequency partitions and quantizer combinations and is especially effective when the images to code are statistically inhomogeneous, which is the case for medical ultrasound images. We implemented a compression application based on this method and tested the algorithm on representative ultrasound images. The result is an effective technique that performs better than a leading wavelet-transform coding algorithm, i.e., set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT), using standard objective distortion measures. To determine the subjective qualitative performance, an expert viewer study was run by presenting ultrasound radiologists with images compressed using both SFS and SPIHT. The results confirmed the objective performance rankings. Finally, the performance sensitivity of the space-frequency codec is shown with respect to several parameters, and the characteristic space-frequency partitions found for ultrasound images are discussed.
Sialyl Lewis X expression in vascular permeating lesions as a factor for predicting colorectal cancer metastasis. (1999)

To evaluate the potential of sialyl Lewis X (SLX) expression for predicting residual liver recurrence, we examined the vascular permeating lesions surrounding the metastatic liver tumors for SLX as a marker of residual liver recurrence.Twenty-eight cases of metastatic liver tumors of colorectal cancers were examined using SLX monoclonal antibody for SLX expression in surrounding vascular permeating lesions.The cumulative residual liver recurrence rate in cases positive for SLX (SLX(+)) expression in the vascular permeating lesions surrounding the metastatic liver tumor was significantly higher than in the negative cases (p < 0.05). Furthermore, logistic regression analysis revealed that SLX positivity in the lesions surrounding the metastatic liver tumor was an important discriminant for residual liver recurrence (p = 0.0197).These results indicated that SLX expression in vascular permeating lesions surrounding the metastatic liver tumor is a predictive factor for residual liver recurrence.
The thalamus as a monitor of motor outputs (2002)

Many of the ascending pathways to the thalamus have branches involved in movement control. In addition, the recently defined, rich innervation of 'higher' thalamic nuclei (such as the pulvinar) from pyramidal cells in layer five of the neocortex also comes from branches of long descending axons that supply motor structures. For many higher thalamic nuclei the clue to understanding the messages that are relayed to the cortex will depend on knowing the nature of these layer five motor outputs and on defining how messages from groups of functionally distinct output types are combined as inputs to higher cortical areas. Current evidence indicates that many and possibly all thalamic relays to the neocortex are about instructions that cortical and subcortical neurons are contributing to movement control. The perceptual functions of the cortex can thus be seen to represent abstractions from ongoing motor instructions.