gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Biobased Methacrylic Acid via Selective Catalytic Decarboxylation of Itaconic Acid (2017)

We report a biobased route to methacrylic acid via selective decarboxylation of itaconic acid utilizing catalytic ruthenium carbonyl propionate in an aqueous solvent system. High selectivity (>90%) was achieved at low catalyst loading (0.1 mol %) with high substrate concentration (5.5 M) at low temperature (200–225 °C) and pressure (≤425 psig) relative to previous contributions in this area. Direct decarboxylation of itaconic acid was achieved as opposed to the conjugate base reported previously, thereby avoiding basification and acidification steps. Also investigated was catalytic manganese(II) oxalate (5 mol %), but low yield (4.8%) and evolution of carbon monoxide via oxalate decomposition was problematic. Attempts at stabilization of the catalyst with triphenylphosphine were unsuccessful, but it exhibited greater catalytic efficacy (14.0% yield) than the manganese catalyst (4.8% yield) at 5 mol %. Neither carbon monoxide nor propylene (excessive decarboxylation) were detected during ruthenium-catalyzed decarboxylation. In addition, cosolvents such as tetraglyme lowered vapor pressures within the reaction vessel by >100 psig while minimizing decomposition of starting acids. In combination, these findings represent improvements over existing methodologies that may facilitate sustainable production of methacrylic acid, an important petrochemically based monomer for the plastics industry.
Industrial Inorganic Pigments (1998)

General Chemical and Physical Properties Behavior of Pigments in Binders White Pigments Titanium Dioxide Zinc Sulfide Colored Pigments Oxides and Hydroxides Cadmium Pigments Bismuth Pigments Ultramarine Pigments Iron Blue Pigments Carbon Black Properties Production Processes Specialty Pigments Magnetic Pigments Anticorrosive Pigments Luster Pigments Transparent Pigments.
Nanoscale Electrical Conductivity and Surface Spectroscopic Studies of Indium−Tin Oxide (2001)

Optically transparent indium−tin oxide (ITO) is a “universal” electrode for various optoelectronic devices such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). It is known that the performance of OLEDs improves significantly by exposing the ITO surface to an oxygen plasma. This study employs conducting atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) for unique nanometer-scale mapping of the local current density of a vapor-deposited ITO film. The local conductance is shown to increase by orders of magnitude and becomes more uniform after oxygen plasma treatment for measurements of the identical 200-nm2 regions. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements of separate regions of the same films suggest that the oxygen plasma removes a thin layer of insulating carbon-rich material from the surface. The extensive heterogeneity in interfacial electrical conductivity measured by C-AFM calls into question previous studies of STM-induced electroluminescence of polymer films on ITO as well as STM imaging of such films. The impact of this study on the future development of optoelectronic devices is discussed.
Initiated PECVD of Organosilicon Coatings: A New Strategy to Enhance Monomer Structure Retention (2012)

Abstract A new deposition method, initiated PECVD (iPECVD), is proposed for the formation of organosilicon polymers with enhanced monomer structure retention compared to conventional PECVD. The quasi‐selective fragmentation of an initiator is driven by a low power plasma discharge, as opposed to using a hot filament for initiator decomposition as in a standard, plasma‐free initiated CVD (iCVD). The weak peroxide bond (OO) in the initiator permits the formation of radical species at very low plasma power density (0.07 W · cm −2 ). Kinetic analysis of the deposition process indicates that the film formation rate follows the Arrhenius law, similarly to other iCVD process from organosilicon monomers. magnified image
Correlating overlay metrology precision to interlayer dielectric film properties (2008)

Current ITRS projections indicate that overlay metrology measurement uncertainty requirements will be less than 1 nm by the year 2009. The challenge in attaining this level of precision for semiconductor and thin-film head (TFH) applications is complicated by the use of increasingly complex multilayer dielectric stacks in the fabricated devices. This paper details results from a fundamental study designed to quantify and understand the effects of dielectric film optical properties on overlay metrology uncertainty. Overlay precision was measured for a series of advanced imaging metrology (AIM) targets having a region of interest (ROI) ranging from 2.8 - 19.5 μm and mark pitch ranging from 1.9 - 4.5 μm. The interlayer dielectric (ILD) film separating the layers of relevance was systematically varied in both thickness (0 - 5 μm) and refractive index (1.60 - 2.54). A reasonable correlation is observed between the measured precision values and the Rayleigh optical thickness, indicating that the optical clarity of ILD films contributes significantly to the minimum achievable overlay metrology precision.
Mitochondrially Targeted p53 Has Tumor Suppressor Activities <i>In vivo</i> (2005)

Complex proapoptotic functions are essential for the tumor suppressor activity of p53. We recently described a novel transcription-independent mechanism that involves a rapid proapoptotic action of p53 at the mitochondria and executes the shortest known circuitry of p53 death signaling. Here, we examine if this p53-dependent mitochondrial program could be exploited for tumor suppression in vivo. To test this, we engage Emu-Myc transgenic mice, a well-established model of p53-dependent lymphomagenesis. We show that exclusive delivery of p53 to the outer mitochondrial membrane confers a significant growth disadvantage on Emu-Myc-transformed B-cells of p53-deficient or alternate reading frame-deficient genotypes, resulting in efficient induction of apoptosis and impinged proliferation. Conversely, normal cells from thymus, spleen, and bone marrow showed poor infectivity with these viruses. This proof-of-principle experiment shows that exclusive reliance on the direct mitochondrial program exerts a significant tumor suppressor activity in vivo. Our in vivo data on the direct mitochondrial apoptotic p53 program lays the groundwork to further investigate its efficacy and safety and to address its possible therapeutic value in the future.
Evaluation of Selected Medicinal Plants Extracted in Different Ethanol Concentrations for Antibacterial Activity against Human Pathogens (2012)

Medicinal plant extracts prepared with selected ethanol concentrations from eight species, Peumus boldus (boldo leaf), Agathosma betulina (buchu leaf), Echinacea angustifolia (echinacea root), Humulus lupulus (hops strobile), Glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice root), Mahonia aquifolium (Oregon grape root), Usnea barbata (usnea lichen), and Anemopsis californica (yerba mansa root), were screened for antibacterial activity against four Gram-positive and four Gram-negative pathogens. The antibacterial activity of the extracts (50, 70, and 90% ethanol) was evaluated using a standard well assay and microbroth dilution method. Minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) were also determined for each extract. Plant extracts showed strong antibacterial action against Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Staphylococcus epidermidis and Streptococcus pyogenes, while negligible to no inhibitory activity against Gram-negative bacteria; Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella enteritidis was observed. Among the plant extracts, the boldo, hops, licorice and yerba mansa exhibited a strong antibacterial action at all three ethanol concentrations. Of these four, hops showed the strongest activity at 90% ethanol. Echinacea angustifolia extracts did not show any considerable antibacterial activity, while usnea showed strong activity only at 90% against S. epidermis. Except Echinacea angustifolia and usnea, the plant extracts were strongly inhibitory towards the MRSA strain. Buchu, yerba mansa and Oregon grape showed higher activity at 50% or 70% on MRSA. MBCs varied from 1/4 to >1/256 dilution levels and were in agreement with well assay results. The results suggest that the extracts of boldo, hops, licorice and yerba mansa could be considered as potentially effective antibacterial agents against Gram-positive bacteria including MRSA. For hops, buchu, Oregon grape and usnea, the activity is dependent on the concentration of ethanol used in the extraction procedure. The ratio of ethanol/water mixture used for extraction of medicinal plants is an important factor to obtain optimum antibacterial activity.
Characterization of Gmhsp26-A, a stress gene encoding a divergent heat shock protein of soybean: heavy-metal-induced inhibition of intron processing. (1988)

We determined the DNA sequence and mapped the corresponding transcripts of a genomic clone containing the Gmhsp26-A gene of soybean. This gene is homologous to the previously characterized cDNA clone pCE54 (E. Czarnecka, L. Edelman, F. Schöffl, and J. L. Key, Plant Mol. Biol. 3:45-58, 1984) and is expressed in response to a wide variety of physiological stresses including heat shock (HS). S1 nuclease mapping of transcripts and a comparison of the cDNA sequence with the genomic sequence indicated the presence of a soybean seedlings with either CdCl2 or CuSO4. Analysis of the 5' termini of transcripts indicated the presence of one major and at least two minor start sites. In each case, initiation occurred 27 to 30 base pairs downstream from a TATA-like motif, and thus each initiation site appears to be promoted by the activity of a separate subpromoter. The three subpromoters are all associated with sequences showing low homology to the HS consensus element of Drosophila melanogaster HS genes and are differentially induced in response to various stresses. Within the carboxyl-terminal half of the protein, hydropathy analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence indicated a high degree of relatedness to the small HS proteins. A comparison of the primary amino acid sequence of hsp26-A with sequences of the small HS proteins suggested that this stress protein is highly diverged and may therefore be specialized for stress adaptation in soybean.
Regulation of Human Osteocalcin Promoter in Hormone-independent Human Prostate Cancer Cells (2002)

Osteocalcin (OC) is a small (6 kDa) polypeptide whose expression was thought to be limited to mature osteoblasts. The discovery of OC expression in prostate cancer specimens led us to study the regulation of OC gene in androgen-independent metastatic human prostate PC3 cells. An 800-bp human OC (hOC) promoter-luciferase construct exhibited strong basal and vitamin D-induced activity in OC-positive human prostate and osteosarcoma cell lines. Through deletion analysis of the hOC promoter, the functional hierarchy of the cis-acting elements, OSE1, OSE2, and AP-1/VDRE, was established in PC3 cells (OSE1 > AP-1/VDRE > OSE2). By juxtaposing dimers of these 3 cis-elements, we produced a minimal hOC promoter capable of displaying high tissue specific activity in prostate cancer cells. Our study demonstrated three groups of transcription factors, Runx2, JunD/Fra-2, and Sp1, responsible for the high hOC promoter activity in PC3 cells by binding to the OSE2, AP-1/VDRE, and OSE1 elements, respectively. Among the three groups of transcription factors, the expression levels of Runx2 and Fra-2 are higher in the OC-positive PC3 cells and osteoblasts, compared with the OC-negative LNCaP cells. Interestingly, unlike the mouse OC promoter, the OSE1 site in hOC promoter is regulated by members of Sp1 family instead of the osteoblast-specific factor Osf1. The molecular basis for androgen-independent prostate cancer cells behaving like mature osteoblasts may be explained by the interplay and coordination of these transcription factors under the tight regulation of autocrine and paracrine mediators.
Tumour necrosis factor-α gene promoter polymorphism in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (2000)

Tumour necrosis factor(TNF)-alpha levels are elevated in airways of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and may contribute to its pathogenesis. A guanine to adenine substitution at position -308 of the TNF-alpha gene promoter (TNF1/2) has been associated with chronic bronchitis of various aetiologies in a Taiwanese population. The authors performed a study investigating association of the polymorphism with smoking-related COPD in Caucasians. Frequencies of TNF1/2 alleles in 86 Caucasians (52 males) with COPD were compared with 63 (52 males) asymptomatic smoker/exsmoker control subjects and a population control of 199 (99 males) blood donors. Genotyping was performed by the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism technique on genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) obtained from peripheral blood. There were no significant differences in TNF1/2 allele frequencies between groups: 0.85/0.15 in COPD, 0.85/0.15 in smoker control subjects, 0.83/0.17 in population control subjects. Within the COPD group there was no association of TNF1/2 alleles with indices of airflow obstruction (% predicted forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and % predicted FEV1/vital capacity ratio) nor gas transfer (% predicted carbon monoxide transfer coefficient and % predicted carbon monoxide diffusing capacity of the lung). It is concluded that: 1) the tumour necrosis factor gene promoter allele does not influence the risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a Caucasian population of smokers; and 2) there is no association of the tumour necrosis factor gene promoter genotype with severity of airflow obstruction nor degree of emphysema in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Huffman code based error screening and channel code optimization for error concealment in perceptual audio coding (PAC) algorithms (2002)

The class of perceptual audio coding (PAC) algorithms yields efficient and high-quality stereo digital audio bitstreams at bit rates from 16 kb/sec to 128 kb/sec (and higher). To avoid "pops and clicks" in the decoded audio signals, channel error detection combined with source error concealment, or source error mitigation, techniques are preferred to pure channel error correction. One method of channel error detection is to use a high-rate block code, for example, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code. Several joint source-channel coding issues arise in this framework because PAC contains a fixed-to-variable source coding component in the form of Huffman codes, so that the output audio packets are of varying length. We explore two such issues. First, we develop methods for screening for undetected channel errors in the audio decoder by looking for inconsistencies between the number of bits decoded by the Huffman decoder and the number of bits in the packet as specified by control information in the bitstream. We evaluate this scheme by means of simulations of Bernoulli sources and real audio data encoded by PAC. Considerable reduction in undetected errors is obtained. Second, we consider several configurations for the channel error detection codes, in particular CRC codes. The preferred set of formats employs variable-block length, variable-rate outer codes matched to the individual audio packets, with one or more codewords used per audio packet. To maintain a constant bit rate into the channel, PAC and CRC encoding must be performed jointly, e.g., by incorporating the CRC into the bit allocation loop in the audio coder.
Double sided surface stress cantilever sensor (2005)

Micromachined cantilevers, originally developed for use in atomic force microscopy, are gaining more and more interest as biochemical sensors, where the way in which the binding of chemical species changes the mechanical properties of the cantilever is utilized. Mass and stiffness changes are measured on resonating structures (Cherian and Thundat 2002 Appl. Phys. Lett. 80 2219–21; Gupta et al 2004 Appl. Phys. Lett. 84 1976–8), whereas changes in surface energy from the binding event are measured as static deflections of cantilevers (Savran et al 2004 Anal. Chem. 76 3194–8). The latter measurement type is referred to as a surface stress sensor and it is the description of a new and more sensitive cantilever surface stress measurement technique that is the topic of this paper.
Multimodal Vibration Harvester Using Inductive and Magnetostrictive Mechanisms (2011)

Multimodal energy harvester comprising of magnetostrictive and electromagnetic system was designed and analyzed with overall shape and size similar to AA battery. In the proposed design, magnetostrictive plates were mounted on the base and top cap of the harvester. The cylindrical shell housed a magnetic levitation cavity where center magnet was suspended between the top and bottom magnet attached to the base and top cover. This design allows the system to harvest energy from magnetostrictive material through Villari effect and from the oscillating permanent magnet within a hollow cavity through Faraday's effect. By specifying generator geometry and estimating system parameters, theoretical output power for the proposed design was determined for two different center magnet geometry. The output power and voltage was analyzed using the analytical and FEM modeling to identify the overall response of the multimodal structure.
Pilot Comparative Study of Different Deep Features for Palmprint Identification in Low-Quality Images (2018)

Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are widespread, efficient tools of visual recognition. In this paper, we present a comparative study of three popular pre-trained CNN models: AlexNet, VGG-16 and VGG-19. We address the problem of palmprint identification in low-quality imagery and apply Support Vector Machines (SVMs) with all of the compared models. For the comparison, we use the MOHI palmprint image database whose images are characterized by low contrast, shadows, and varying illumination, scale, translation and rotation. Another, high-quality database called COEP is also considered to study the recognition gap between high-quality and low-quality imagery. Our experiments show that the deeper pre-trained CNN models, e.g., VGG-16 and VGG-19, tend to extract highly distinguishable features that recognize low-quality palmprints more efficiently than the less deep networks such as AlexNet. Furthermore, our experiments on the two databases using various models demonstrate that the features extracted from lower-level fully connected layers provide higher recognition rates than higher-layer features. Our results indicate that different pre-trained models can be efficiently used in touchless identification systems with low-quality palmprint images.
Properties of Ultra-Thin Hafnium Oxide and Interfacial Layer Deposited by Atomic Layer Deposition (2004)

Ultra-thin hafnium-oxide gate dielectric films deposited by atomic layer deposition technique using HfCl4 and H2O precursor on a hydrogen-terminated Si substrate were investigated. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicates that the interface layer is Hf-silicate rather than phase separated Hf-silicide and silicon oxide structure. The Hf-silicate interfacial layer partially changes into SiOx after high temperature annealing, resulting in a complex HfO2-silicate-SiOx dielectric structure. Electrical measurements confirms that HfO2 on Si is stable up to 700 ℃ for 30 s under N2 ambient.
Role of electron transport in the regulation of the lyase activity of C21 side-chain cleavage P-450 from porcine adrenal and testicular microsomes. (1986)

The C21 side-chain cleavage enzymes from porcine adrenal and testicular microsomes have been purified and shown to resemble each other very closely (Nakajin, S., Shinoda, M., Hanui, M., Shively, J.E., and Hall, P.F. (1984) J. Biol. Chem. 259, 3971-3976). We have investigated the reason for the low levels of lyase activity shown by adrenal microsomes as compared to testicular microsomes. Competition for substrate with 21-hydroxylase in adrenal microsomes was excluded by studies showing that antibodies to 21-hydroxylase do not increase lyase activity in spite of almost complete inhibition of 21-hydroxylation. Reconstitution of the purified testicular enzyme in lipids extracted from adrenal and testicular microsomes excluded a specific effect of lipids on lyase activity. On the other hand, addition of porcine hepatic P-450 reductase to microsomes from adrenal and testis increased the activity of lyase relative to hydroxylase. The same effect is seen when reductase is added to the pure enzymes. As the concentration of reductase increases, lyase activity increases relative to hydroxylase until the rates of the activities become almost equal. Vmax is the same for both activities (hydroxylase and lyase) of the two enzymes (6.3-6.5 nmol/min/nmol of P-450). Km for reductase is approximately the same for the hydroxylase activities (0.4-0.6 microM) and for the lyase activities (1.7-2.0 microM) of the two enzymes. Antibodies to reductase, when added to testicular microsomes, inhibit both activities, but inhibition of lyase is greater than that of hydroxylase. The enzyme activity of reductase in testicular microsomes is 3-4 times higher than that of adrenal microsomes (0.29 and 0.08 nmol/min/mg of protein, respectively). These findings may account for the greater activity of lyase in testicular as opposed to adrenal microsomes.
Diagnostic Yield of a PCR Assay in Focal Complications of Brucellosis (2001)

In order to evaluate the diagnostic yield of a PCR assay for patients with focal complications of brucellosis, we studied by PCR and by conventional microbiological techniques 34 nonblood samples from 32 patients with different focal forms of brucellosis. The samples from patients with brucellosis were paired to an equal number of control samples from the same locations of patients whose illnesses had different etiologies. Thirty-three of the 34 nonblood samples (97%) from the brucellosis patients were positive by PCR, whereas Brucella spp. were isolated from only 29.4% of the conventional cultures. For 11.4% of the patients, the confirmatory serological tests were either negative or showed titers below the diagnostic range. Two patients (6.2%) from the control group, both with tuberculous vertebral osteomyelitis, had a positive PCR result. The brucella PCR of blood from these two patients was also positive, and the two strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated were analyzed by the brucella PCR, with no evidence of amplification. These results show that the PCR assay is far more sensitive than conventional cultures, and this, coupled with its speed and reduction in risk to laboratory workers, makes this technique a very useful tool for the diagnosis of focal complications of brucellosis.
Non-viral gene transfer therapy for cystic fibrosis (2003)

Non-viral methods of gene transfer are being investigated to treat cystic fibrosis (CF) and include naked DNA, lipid–DNA complexes and complexes of DNA with polycations such as poly-L-lysine (poly K) or polyethylenimine (PEI), all of which can carry the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. The most recent promising strategy is the use of polycation–DNA complexes, particularly those prepared with poly-K and substituted with polyethylene glycol. These complexes produced partial correction of the CF defect in a mouse model with minimal toxicity, and have advanced to clinical trial. Improvements in this and other non-viral methods are in process and include i) targeting the complexes to the desired cells using receptor ligands, ii) lessening toxicity by changing the mix of lipids or adding protective molecules to polycations, iii) modifying the plasmid DNA to reduce inflammatory CpG sequences and enhance intensity, duration and tissue specificity of expression, and iv) modification of the complexes to improve nuclear access.