gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Therapeutic Potentials of Localized Blood–Brain Barrier Disruption by Noninvasive Transcranial Focused Ultrasound: A Technical Review (2020)

The demands for region-specific, noninvasive therapies for neurologic/psychiatric conditions are growing. The rise of transcranial focused ultrasound technology has witnessed temporary and reversible disruptions of the blood-brain barrier in the brain with exceptional control over the spatial precisions and depth, all in a noninvasive manner. Starting with small animal studies about a decade ago, the technique is now being explored in nonhuman primates and humans for the assessment of its efficacy and safety. The ability to transfer exogenous/endogenous therapeutic agents, cells, and biomolecules across the blood-brain barrier opens up new therapeutic avenues for various neurologic conditions, with a possibility to modulate the excitability of regional brain function. This review addresses the technical fundamentals, sonication parameters, experimental protocols, and monitoring techniques to examine the efficacy/safety in focused ultrasound-mediated blood-brain barrier disruption and discuss its potential translations to clinical use.
Biorisk assessment of antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria isolated from swiftlet houses in Sarawak (2019)

The occurrence of antibiotic resistance in pathogens is a growing concern globally. Development of multiple antibiotic-resistant bacteria has overwhelmed new medical advancement and threatens patients with untreatable infections. The qualitative risk assessment study was carried out to investigate the relative effects of the main determinants of antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria and to estimate the risk of the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance among humans in the swiftlet's faeces and its indoor air to human health. The methodology applied focused mainly on three main sections namely the hazard identification, exposure assessment, and hazard assessment. Sources of data for bio risk assessment include published literature, data from on-going research projects and data collected from the industry. The results showed that the prevalence of isolating Gram-positive bacteria were higher in swiftlet houses. Over half of the pathogenic bacterial isolates were multidrug-resistant to a wide range of commonly used antibiotics such as Bacillus, Enterococcus, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus, Lysinibacillus, Paenibacillus and Sporosarcina. 80% of the bacteria isolates showed high MAR index of over 0.2. These emerging pathogenic antibiotic resistant bacteria are capable of causing life-threatening infections which pose a health hazard to our biodiversity.
Pro-phenol oxidase activating proteinase from an insect, <i>Manduca sexta:</i> A bacteria-inducible protein similar to <i>Drosophila</i> easter (1998)

Activation of pro-phenol oxidase (proPO) in insects and crustaceans is important in defense against wounding and infection. The proPO zymogen is activated by a specific proteolytic cleavage. PO oxidizes phenolic compounds to produce quinones, which may help to kill pathogens and can also be used for synthesis of melanin to seal wounds and encapsulate parasites. We have isolated from the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, a serine proteinase that activates proPO, and have cloned its cDNA. The isolated proPO activating proteinase (PAP) hydrolyzed artificial substrates but required other protein factors for proPO activation, suggesting that proPO-activating enzyme may exist as a protein complex, one component of which is PAP. PAP (44 kDa) is composed of two disulfide-linked polypeptide chains (31 kDa and 13 kDa). A cDNA for PAP was isolated from a hemocyte library, by using a PCR-generated probe based on the amino-terminal amino acid sequence of the 31-kDa catalytic domain. PAP belongs to a family of arthropod serine proteinases containing a carboxyl-terminal proteinase domain and an amino-terminal "clip" domain. The member of this family most similar in sequence to PAP is the product of the easter gene from Drosophila melanogaster. PAP mRNA was present at a low level in larval hemocytes and fat body, but became much more abundant in fat body after insects were injected with Escherichia coli. Sequence data and 3H-diisopropyl fluorphosphate labeling results suggest that the same PAP exists in hemolymph and cuticle.
A pneumatically actuated full in-channel microvalve with MOSFET-like function in fluid channel networks (2002)

A pneumatically actuated silicon microvalve applicable to integrated microfluidic systems is presented. All the ports of this microvalve are in-channel, and connectable to any surface fluid channels in microfluidic systems. This microvalve controls fluid flow by means of the controlled gap between glass and silicon diaphragm actuated by a control pressure. In addition, the diaphragm is also deformed by the outlet pressure of the microvalve. Due to the feature, this microvalve shows saturation of flow rate like MOSFETs operated at saturation region. The fabricated microvalve device was evaluated focusing on analogous relationship between MOSFET and the microvalve. Fluids such as air and DI-water were well controlled by the control pressure. Fluid starts to flow in the microvalve when the control pressure exceeds its "threshold pressure." Hysteresis due to sticking of diaphragm was not observed in the characteristics. Air flow rate of the microvalve was gradually saturated with the increasing of the outlet pressure as expected. Through the evaluation, analogous relationship between this microvalve and MOSFET has been experimentally demonstrated.
Tobamovirus helper specificity of satellite tobacco mosaic virus involves a domain near the 5' end of the satellite genome (1993)

The molecular basis of the interactions between plant virus satellites and their helper viruses is not understood. The features of the satellite tobacco mosaic virus (STMV) genome that determine tobamovirus helper specificity were investigated using two independent strategies. The first tested the possible significance of regions of nearly identical sequence within the 3'-terminal 150 bases of the genomes of STMV and its natural helper virus, tobacco mild green mosaic virus (TMGMV). A chimeric STMV clone containing the 3' terminus of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV-U1) RNA was infectious in coinfections with TMGMV, but it did not replicate with TMV-U1. In the second strategy, populations of STMV adapted to replication with four alternative helper tobamoviruses were generated by serial passage in tobacco. RNase protection analyses of these RNA populations showed that in all cases there had been a genetic change 50 to 60 bases from the 5' terminus of the STMV genome. Similar changes were detected in several progenies of STMV clones replicated with TMV-U1, indicating that change at this site was essential for replication with a helper virus other than TMGMV. Sequence analyses of the changes at this 'helper adaptation domain' showed consistently the deletion of a single G from five consecutive Gs at bases 61 to 65. Infectivity experiments with STMV clones containing this G deletion showed that this change alone was not sufficient to modify helper specificity, so additional factors which remain to be identified must also be involved. Nevertheless, these experiments show the ability of STMV populations to undergo rapid, reproducible evolution by both selection of pre-existing variants and de novo mutation, and constitute the first molecular demonstration that the helper virus acts as a selection pressure on the evolution of satellite populations.
Field Evaluation of a Transport Medium and Enrichment Broth for Isolation of Campylobacter Species from Human Diarrheal Stool Samples (2013)

Campylobacter continues to be a major cause of bacteriamediated diarrheal diseases, both for Thai citizens and travelers to Thailand. For field epidemiological studies, appropriate methods for storage, intralaboratory transport of patients specimens and use of enrichment culture to isolate this organism is critical. Study A, represents patient stool specimens collected in Bangkok and processed for Campylobacter culture within three hours after collection. Study B, represents stool specimens collected from patients in northeast and Southern regions of Thailand in modified CaryBlair transport medium. These specimens were transported and processed for Campylobacter in Bangkok at varying intervals ranging from 1 to 7 days. Of 900 diarrheal samples examined in study A, a total of 158 were Campylobacter positive through culture. Of these, 145 and 141 isolates were cultured by direct plating and enrichment plating respectively (P = 0.5839). From 1,168 diarrheal stool samples examined in study B, 184 were positive for Campylobacter. Direct and enrichment plating resulted in 139 and 168 culture isolates; respectively (P = 0.0003). Samples from study B delayed in processing for 1 to 3 days, resulted in 46 and 50 isolated by direct and enrichment plating; respectively (P = 0.4545). However, among samples delayed in processing for 4 to 7 days, a total of 128 Campylobacter isolates were cultured, having cultured 93 and 118 isolates through direct and enrichment plating; respectively (P = 0.0003). At present these studies demonstrate that enrichment culture has no benefit when stool specimen collection and immediate processing occur and when there is a processing delay period of 1 - 3 days. However, enrichment culture was beneficial in instances where transport and processing was delayed 4 - 7 days.
Prebiotics Improve Gastric Motility and Gastric Electrical Activity in Preterm Newborns (2009)

The aim of this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study was to evaluate the effect of a prebiotic mixture on gastric motility in preterm newborns. After a feeding period of 15 days, gastric electrical activity was measured by electrogastrography, and the gastric emptying time was studied by ultrasound technique. No difference was seen in the daily increase of body weight, and no adverse events have been reported. The percentage of time in which propagation was detected in the electrogastrography signal was twice in newborns receiving formula with prebiotics with respect to placebo, and the gastric half-emptying time was 30% faster in the prebiotic group than the placebo group. Prebiotic oligosaccharides can modulate the electrical activity and the gastric emptying and may improve the intestinal tolerance of enteral feeding in preterm infants.
Wearable Self-Powered Diaper-Shaped Urinary-Incontinence Sensor Suppressing Response-Time Variation With 0.3 V Start-Up Converter (2015)

A wearable, wireless self-powered urinary-incontinence sensor has been developed that consists of a diaper-shaped urine-activated battery, an intermittent-power-supply circuit with a 0.3 V start-up converter, and a wireless transmitter. The battery is embedded in a diaper and consists of absorbent material sandwiched between an aluminum electrode and a spongiform carbon electrode, which are safe to wear. The intermittent-power-supply circuit with the start-up converter makes it possible to boost the 0.6 V output of the battery to 2 V. The boosting operation reduces the variation in the charging time of the storage capacitor among batteries, thereby reducing the variation in the delay time of the intermittent-power-supply circuit, which contains the storage capacitor. A design method for determining both the optimum input-voltage range, in which the variation in charging time is small, and also the capacitance of the storage capacitor is also described. A prototype urinary-incontinence sensor was fabricated to verify the effectiveness of our sensor. When 80 cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> of urine is poured onto a diaper, the sensor transmits an ID signal over a distance of 5 m. The response time of the sensor is 17 s, and the period of intermittent operation is 12-s long.
Equine Endothelial Cells Support Productive Infection of Equine Infectious Anemia Virus (1998)

Previous cell infectivity studies have demonstrated that the lentivirus equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) infects tissue macrophages in vivo and in vitro. In addition, some strains of EIAV replicate to high titer in vitro in equine fibroblasts and fibroblast cell lines. Here we report a new cell type, macrovascular endothelial cells, that is infectible with EIAV. We tested the ability of EIAV to infect purified endothelial cells isolated from equine umbilical cords and renal arteries. Infectivity was detected by cell supernatant reverse transcriptase positivity, EIAV antigen positivity within individual cells, and the detection of viral RNA by in situ hybridization. Virus could rapidly spread through the endothelial cultures, and the supernatants of infected cultures contained high titers of infectious virus. There was no demonstrable cell killing in infected cultures. Three of four strains of EIAV that were tested replicated in these cultures, including MA-1, a fibroblast-tropic strain, Th.1, a macrophage-tropic strain, and WSU5, a strain that is fibroblast tropic and can cause disease. Finally, upon necropsy of a WSU5-infected horse 4 years postinfection, EIAV-positive endothelial cells were detected in outgrowths of renal artery cultures. These findings identify a new cell type that is infectible with EIAV. The role of endothelial cell infection in the course of equine infectious anemia is currently unknown, but endothelial cell infection may be involved in the edema that can be associated with infection. Furthermore, the ability of EIAV to persistently infect endothelial cultures and the presence of virus in endothelial cells from a long-term carrier suggest that this cell type can serve as a reservoir for the virus during subclinical phases of infection.
Radio communication in subways and mines through repeater amplifiers and leaky transmission lines (1978)

This paper is a report of the Author's visits to London Transport, the National Coal Board's Mining Research Establishment and the Cadley Hill Coal Mine where a "daisy chain" radio repeater and leaky feeder system is used for underground communication. A considerable amount of research and development of "daisy chain" radio repeater systems using leaky transmission lines has been accomplished in the United Kingdom by Dr. D. J. R. Martin of the National Coal Board's Mining and Research Establishment and Mr. Q. V. Davis of the University of Surrey. The basic "daisy chain" repeater system is similar in concept to coaxial cable telephone repeater and submarine communications cable systems which use amplifiers spaced at intervals to compensate for the attenuation of the cable. London Transport also has developed a prototype "daisy chain" radio repeater system which was commissioned into regular operation on a three mile section of the Bakerloo Underground railway in August, 1977. This system uses twenty-two 400 milliwatt repeater amplifiers spaced approximately 500 meters apart along leaky coaxial transmission lines which are supported from the walls of the subway tunnels and under the platforms of passenger stations. The other half of the Bakerloo Underground is equipped with three conventional twenty-five watt base stations feeding tee sections of leaky coaxial transmission line. While both systems perform satisfactorily, the section that is equipped with "daisy chain" amplifiers does not have transition zones between the tee sections of leaky cable, requires fewer telephone control lines and uses a simpler control system. By combining the techniques of the on-channel signal booster and the "daisy chain" repeater system using selective filters and wide band linear amplifiers it should be possible to extend signals received from base stations above ground into subways. This would satisfy the requirements for providing, at a much reduced cost, multi-channel radio communications for not only the transit system but also police, fire, para-medical and paging services.
High-Performance Bi-2212 Round Wires Made With Recent Powders (2019)

Multifilamentary Bi<sub>2</sub>Sr<sub>2</sub>CaCu<sub>2</sub>O<sub>x</sub> (Bi-2212) wire made by the powder-in-tube technique is the only high temperature superconductor made in the round shape preferred by magnet builders. The critical current density (<i>J</i> <sub><i>C</i></sub> ) of Bi-2212 round wire was improved significantly by the development of overpressure heat treatment in the past few years. Bi-2212 wire is commercially available in multiple architectures and kilometer-long pieces and a very promising conductor for very high field NMR and accelerator magnets. We studied the effects of precursor powder and heat treatment conditions on the superconducting properties and microstructure of recent Bi-2212 wires. Short samples of recent wire with optimized overpressure processing showed <i>J</i> <sub><i>C</i></sub> (4.2 K, 15 T) = 6640 A/mm<sup>2</sup> and <i>J</i> <sub><i>C</i></sub> (4.2 K, 30 T) = 4670 A/mm<sup>2</sup>, which correspond to engineering critical current densities <i>J</i> <sub><i>E</i></sub> (4.2 K, 15 T) = 1320 A/mm<sup>2</sup> and <i>J</i> <sub><i>E</i></sub> (4.2 K, 30 T) = 930 A/mm<sup>2</sup>.
Integrated flow sensing for focal biochemical stimulation (2008)

A microfluidic platform for focal stimulation of cells and tissue allows precise biochemical control of the extracellular microenvironment. This interface consists of a polymer microchannel having a single pore through which chemicals are selectively diffused or ejected. Towards the realization of realtime feedback control of focal biochemical stimulation, integrated thermal flow sensors were used to monitor fluid release. Delivery of fluorescent dye to rat retina is also presented.
Asynchronous parallel simulation of parallel programs (2000)

Parallel simulation of parallel programs for large datasets has been shown to offer significant reduction in the execution time of many discrete event models. The paper describes the design and implementation of MPI-SIM, a library for the execution driven parallel simulation of task and data parallel programs. MPI-SIM can be used to predict the performance of existing programs written using MPI for message passing, or written in UC, a data parallel language, compiled to use message passing. The simulation models can be executed sequentially or in parallel. Parallel execution of the models are synchronized using a set of asynchronous conservative protocols. The paper demonstrates how protocol performance is improved by the use of application-level, runtime analysis. The analysis targets the communication patterns of the application. We show the application-level analysis for message passing and data parallel languages. We present the validation and performance results for the simulator for a set of applications that include the NAS Parallel Benchmark suite. The application-level optimization described in the paper yielded significant performance improvements in the simulation of parallel programs, and in some cases completely eliminated the synchronizations in the parallel execution of the simulation model.
Calcineurin is essential in cyclosporin A- and FK506-sensitive yeast strains. (1994)

The immunophilin-immunosuppressant complexes cyclophilin-cyclosporin A (CsA) and FKBP12-FK506 inhibit the phosphatase calcineurin to block T-cell activation. Although cyclophilin A, FKBP12, and calcineurin are highly conserved from yeast to man, none had previously been shown to be essential for viability. We find that CsA-sensitive yeast strains are FK506 hypersensitive and demonstrate that calcineurin is required for viability in these strains. Mutants lacking cyclophilin A or FKBP12 are resistant to CsA or FK506, respectively. Thus, both the immunosuppressive and the antifungal actions of CsA and FK506 result from calcineurin inhibition by immunophilin-drug complexes. In yeast strains in which calcineurin is not essential, calcineurin inhibition or mutation of calcineurin confers hypersensitivity to LiCl or NaCl, suggesting that calcineurin regulates cation transport.
Biochemical and immunological properties of two forms of pertactin, the 69,000-molecular-weight outer membrane protein of Bordetella pertussis (1993)

Two apparent isoforms of the virulence-associated 69,000-molecular-weight protein pertactin were purified from Bordetella pertussis. Mass spectrometry showed a difference of 2,060 Da, which may result from differential C-terminal cleavage of a larger precursor. Both forms were protective in a mouse model, eliciting bactericidal antibodies and reducing respiratory tract colonization.
Robust chinese traffic sign detection and recognition with deep convolutional neural network (2015)

Detection and recognition of traffic sign, including various road signs and text, play an important role in autonomous driving, mapping/navigation and traffic safety. In this paper, we proposed a traffic sign detection and recognition system by applying deep convolutional neural network (CNN), which demonstrates high performance with regard to detection rate and recognition accuracy. Compared with other published methods which are usually limited to a predefined set of traffic signs, our proposed system is more comprehensive as our target includes traffic signs, digits, English letters and Chinese characters. The system is based on a multi-task CNN trained to acquire effective features for the localization and classification of different traffic signs and texts. In addition to the public benchmarking datasets, the proposed approach has also been successfully evaluated on a field-captured Chinese traffic sign dataset, with performance confirming its robustness and suitability to real-world applications.
Formulation and evaluation of taste masked fast dissolving tablets of zolpidemtartrate by direct compression technique (2014)

The main objective of the present investigation was undertaken to formulate taste masked fast dissolving tablets of an intensely bitter tasting hypnotic drug Zolpidem Tartrate (ZMT) using a simple, rapid, cost effective and highly efficient Inclusion Complex process for improved patient compliance. The bitterless complex was prepared by complexing drug with HP-Beta Cyclodextrin. Taste masked complex was further evaluated with FTIR, DSC and XRD. The Zolpidem Tartrate complex was further formulated into Fast dissolving tablet by direct compression technique using Croscarmellose Sodium (Ac-Di-Sol), Sodium Starch Glycolate (Explotab) and Crospovidone (Polyplasdone XL-10) in different concentrations (3 - 5%) as superdisintegrants and Aspartame as sweetening agent. Tablets were tested for Hardness, Thickness, Weight Variation, Drug Content, water absorption ratio, Invitro Dispersion Test in Simulated Salivary Fluid pH 6.8 and Invitro dissolution test in Phosphate Buffer pH 6.8. Among batches of F3, F6 & F9 containing microcrystalline cellulose and 3 - 5% wt/wt of Croscarmellose Sodium (Ac-Di-Sol), Sodium Starch Glycolate (Explotab) and Crospovidone (Polyplasdone XL-10), F6 containing Crospovidone at 5% wt/wt showed faster disintegration with in 14sec and drug release (t90, 12min) in Phosphate Buffer pH 6.8. The inclusion complex interaction and reduced crystallinity may be reason for increased dissolution rate. Thus results conclusively demonstrate successful masking of taste, disintegration and dissolution of the formulated tablets.