Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mitochondrial efficiency and exercise economy following heat stress: a potential role of uncoupling protein 3

Heat stress has been reported to reduce uncoupling proteins (UCP) expression, which in turn should improve mitochondrial efficiency. Such an improvement in efficiency may translate to the systemic level as greater exercise economy. However, neither the heat‐induced improvement in mitochondrial efficiency (due to decrease in UCP), nor its potential to improve economy has been studied. Determine: (i) if heat stress in vitro lowers UCP3 thereby improving mitochondrial efficiency in C2C12 myocytes; (ii) whether heat acclimation (HA) in vivo improves exercise economy in trained individuals; and (iii) the potential improved economy during exercise at altitude. In vitro, myocytes were heat stressed for 24 h (40°C), followed by measurements of UCP3, mitochondrial uncoupling, and efficiency. In vivo, eight trained males completed: (i) pre‐HA testing; (ii) 10 days of HA (40°C, 20% RH); and (iii) post‐HA testing. Pre‐ and posttesting consisted of maximal exercise test and submaximal exercise at two intensities to assess exercise economy at 1600 m (Albuquerque, NM) and 4350 m. Heat‐stressed myocytes displayed significantly reduced UCP3 mRNA expression and, mitochondrial uncoupling (77.1 ± 1.2%, P < 0.0001) and improved mitochondrial efficiency (62.9 ± 4.1%, P < 0.0001) compared to control. In humans, at both 1600 m and 4350 m, following HA, submaximal exercise economy did not change at low and moderate exercise intensities. Our findings indicate that while heat‐induced reduction in UCP3 improves mitochondrial efficiency in vitro, this is not translated to in vivo improvement of exercise economy at 1600 m or 4350 m.
Reinforcement learning for parameter control of text detection in images from video sequences

This work presents a generalized framework for approaching the problem of optimizing parameters for a multistep computer vision algorithm using reinforcement learning (RL) agent. We then focus on the specific task of text detection in images taken from video sequences for semantic indexing. Employing the fuzzy ARTMAP ANN is an effective way to manage and predict large state and action spaces. Image features in the state space will allow for optimization on a per-image.
Ligament-Derived Stem Cells: Identification, Characterisation, and Therapeutic Application

Ligament is prone to injury and degeneration and has poor healing potential and, with currently ineffective treatment strategies, stem cell therapies may provide an exciting new treatment option. Ligament-derived stem cell (LDSC) populations have been isolated from a number of different ligament types with the majority of studies focussing on periodontal ligament. To date, only a few studies have investigated LDSC populations in other types of ligament, for example, intra-articular ligaments; however, this now appears to be a developing field. This literature review aims to summarise the current information on nondental LDSCs including in vitro characteristics of LDSCs and their therapeutic potential. The stem cell niche has been shown to be vital for stem cell survival and function in a number of different physiological systems; therefore, the LDSC niche may have an impact on LDSC phenotype. The role of the LDSC niche on LDSC viability and function will be discussed as well as the therapeutic potential of LDSC niche modulation.
From IPO to M&A: Further Evidence

This study investigates the determinants of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for firms in the five years following their initial public offerings (IPOs). Specifically, the authors focus on the role of venture capital (VC) and the effect of asymmetric information on the probability of post-IPO M&A. The results indicate that VC reputation positively influences the likelihood that an IPO firm will engage in acquisition. They also find that a high extent of information asymmetry faced by both the acquirer and the target affects the choice of payment in a post-IPO M&A. Furthermore, they find that IPO firms with higher underpricing and proceeds, larger insider ownership dilution, and backed with reputable venture capitalists are more likely to be frequent acquirers after the IPO. Overall, the authors’ new findings confirm that an IPO represents an opportunity for new issuers to become single and even frequent acquirers.
The Productivity Effects of Privatization: Longitudinal Estimates from Hungary, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine

This paper estimates the effect of privatization on multifactor productivity using comprehensive panel data on initially state‐owned manufacturing firms in four economies. We exploit the data’s longitudinal dimension to control for preprivatization selection and estimate long‐run impacts. The estimates are robust to functional form but sensitive to selection controls. Our preferred random growth estimates imply positive multifactor productivity effects of 15 percent in Romania, 8 percent in Hungary, and 2 percent in Ukraine, but a −3 percent effect in Russia. The foreign privatization effect is larger (18–35 percent) in all countries. Positive domestic effects appear immediately in Hungary, Romania, and Ukraine and continue growing thereafter, but emerge only five years after privatization in Russia.
A Brief Description of the Biomechanics and Physiology of a Strongman Event: The Tire Flip

Keogh, JWL, Payne, AL, Anderson, BB, and Atkins, PJ. A brief description of the biomechanics and physiology of a strongman event: The tire flip. J Strength Cond Res 24(5): 1223-1228, 2010-The purpose of this study was to (a) characterize the temporal aspects of a popular strongman event, the tire flip; (b) gain some insight into the temporal factors that could distinguish the slowest and fastest flips; and (c) obtain preliminary data on the physiological stress of this exercise. Five resistance-trained subjects with experience in performing the tire flip gave informed consent to participate in this study. Each subject performed 2 sets of 6 tire flips with a 232-kg tire with 3 minutes of rest between sets. Temporal variables were obtained from video cameras positioned 10 m from the tire, perpendicular to the intended direction of the tire flip. Using the “stopwatch” function in Silicon Coach, the duration of each tire flip and that of the first pull, second pull, transition, and push phases were recorded. Physiological stress was estimated via heart rate and finger-prick blood lactate response. Independent T-tests revealed that the 2 faster subjects (0.38 ± 0.17 s) had significantly (p < 0.001) shorter second pull durations than the 3 slower subjects (1.49 ± 0.92 s). Paired T-tests revealed that the duration of the second pull for each subject's fastest 3 trials (0.55 ± 0.35 s) were significantly (p = 0.007) less than their 3 slowest trials (1.69 ± 1.35 s). Relatively high heart rate (179 ± 8 bpm) and blood lactate (10.4 ± 1.3 mmol/L−1) values were found at the conclusion of the second set. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the duration of the second pull is a key determinant of tire flip performance and that this exercise provides relatively high degrees of physiological stress.
The Stochastic Dynamics of Speculative Prices

Within the framework of the heterogeneous agent paradigm, we establish a stochastic model of speculative price dynamics involving of two types of agents, fundamentalists and chartists, and the market price equilibria of which can be characterised by the invariant measures of a random dynamical system. By conducting a stochastic bifurcation analysis, we examine the market impact of speculative behaviour. We show that, when the chartists use lagged price trends to form their expectations, the market equilibrium price can be characterised by a unique and stable invariant measure when the activity of the speculators is below a certain critical value. If this threshold is surpassed, the market equilibrium can be characterised by more than two invariant measures, of which one is completely stable, another is completely unstable and the remaining ones may exhibit various types of stability. Also, the corresponding stationary measure displays a significant qualitative change near the threshold value. We show that the stochastic model displays behaviour consistent with that of the underlying deterministic model. However, when the time lag in the formation of the price trends used by the chartists approaches zero, such consistency breaks down. In addition, the change in the stationary distribution is consistent with a number of market anomalies and stylised facts observed in financial markets, including a bimodal logarithmic price distribution and fat tails.
The New Synthesis

This chapter discusses new understandings of humanity from the 1960s onward. It shows how a particular group of scientists struggled with the question of human nature by conceiving of natural and sexual selection as acting at the level of individuals, who in turn served as genetic-information processing units. A trait could not spread in a population unless it conferred some advantage to the individuals who possessed it, allowing them to contribute more copies of their genes to the next generation of that population than other individuals. These struggles are furthermore framed within a period when sociobiology was just starting to get a foothold in academics.
Factors that Affect Credit Rating: An Application of Ordered Probit Models

Corporate credit ratings have become more important after the 2008 financial crisis. To explore the mystery, we employ the ordered probit regression models to examine the relationship between the credit rating and financial ratios in electric utilities, chemicals and communications equipment companies whose credits were rated by the S&P between 2006 and 2010 in North America. Consistent with prior research, we show that credit ratings are positively related to EBITDA interest coverage, return on assets and total assets while negatively related to debt ratio and cash to current liabilities ratio. Furthermore, we show that all the models over-predict the low rating categories while under-predict the high rating categories. The result of our model is among the best in terms of predictive power.
No Equal Treatment for Antecedents in a Coherent Discourse

The Delay of Principle B Effect (DPBE) in language acquisition is a well-known effect that has motivated widely distinct views on the relation between grammar and other linguistic resources necessary for interpretation. However, in a recent paper entitled “Equal treatment for all antecedents: How children succeed with Principle B”, Conroy, Takahashi, Lidz and Phillips (2009) argue that this effect is mainly an experimental artifact arising from shortcomings in the experimental tasks used. This squib reviews their arguments and discusses recent empirical evidence showing that if the linguistic discourse of the experiment is controlled and all antecedents receive a truly equal treatment, the DPBE reappears again. This suggests, first of all, that the DPBE is a real effect and, second, that experimental tasks employed to assess children’s knowledge of grammar will need to take into account the structure of the preceding linguistic discourse.
Field Trials of Concretes Produced with Portland Limestone Cement: New CSA cement type performs well in an aggressive environment

P ortland limestone cement (PLC) is produced by blending portland cement and limestone or inter-grinding portland cement clinker, limestone, and calcium sulfate. Replacement of portland cement with limestone results in a proportionate reduction in the amount of CO 2 associated with concrete production, and this reduction can be further enhanced through the use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as slag cement or fly ash. PLCs can, therefore, significantly minimize the concrete industry's carbon footprint. PLCs have been used in Europe for decades. Currently, European Committee for Standardization (CEN) Standard EN 197-1 allows CEM II portland-limestone cement or CEM II portland-composite cement to contain up to 35% limestone replacement levels. Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Standard A3001 has allowed the incorporation of up to 5% limestone in portland cement since 1983. In the U.S., ASTM C150 began allowing the use of up to 5% limestone in portland cements in 2004, and AASHTO M85 followed suit in 2007. In 2008, CSA responded to growing pressures to further reduce the clinker content in cement by revising CSA A3001 to allow PLCs containing up to 15% limestone, and in 2009, CSA A23.1 was revised to permit the use of PLCs in all classes of concrete except sulfate-exposure classes. Although limestone is often considered an inert filler when it is added to portland cement, it is not completely chemically inert and thus can contribute to the development of the concrete's microstructure— particularly when interground with portland cement clinker. First, because limestone is softer than clinker, it will achieve a finer particle size when interground, producing an improved particle size distribution and improving particle packing. 1 Secondly, the fine limestone particles act as nucleation sites, 2 thereby increasing the rate of hydration of the calcium silicates at early ages 3 and possibly improving the distribution of the hydrates. Finally, CaCO 3 will react chemically with aluminate phases to form carboaluminate phases. 4 The extent of this reaction should increase as the fineness of the limestone increases and when PLCs are combined with slag cement or fly ash. This article presents results from a recent demonstration of PLC concrete in the late-fall construction of a parking lot at a ready mixed concrete plant near Gatineau, QC, Canada. The performance of the plastic and hardened concretes produced with PLC at various levels of SCM replacement are compared with the performance of similar concrete mixtures produced with portland cement …
Gas Detection via Machine Learning

Abstract— We present an Electronic Nose (ENose), which is aimed at identifying the presence of one out of two gases, possibly detecting the presence of a mixture of the two. Estimation of the concentrations of the components is also performed for a volatile organic compound (VOC) constituted by methanol and acetone, for the ranges 40-400 and 22-220 ppm (parts-per-million), respectively. Our system contains 8 sensors, 5 of them being gas sensors (of the class TGS from FIGARO USA, INC., whose sensing element is a tin dioxide (SnO 2 ) semiconductor), the remaining being a temperature sensor (LM35 from National Semiconductor Corporation), a humidity sensor (HIH–3610 from Honeywell), and a pressure sensor (XFAM from Fujikura Ltd.). Our integrated hardware–software system uses some machine learning principles and least square regression principle to identify at first a new gas sample, or a mixture, and then to estimate the concentrations. In particular we adopt a training model using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) approach with linear kernel to teach the system how discriminate among different gases. Then we apply another training model using the least square regression, to predict the concentrations. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed multiclassification and regression scheme is effective in the identification of the tested VOCs of methanol and acetone with 96.61% correctness. The concentration prediction is obtained with 0.979 and 0.964 correlation coefficient for the predicted versus real concentrations of methanol and acetone, respectively.
Themes in Counseling Journals: A Decade of Changes Affecting 21st Century Counselor Education

A content analysis of 1799 articles published during the period of 1996-2006 in four counseling journals confirmed three major themes and four emerging themes that are likely to become trends in 21st century counseling. The major themes included Research, Multiculturalism, and Pedagogy. Research represents the top-ranked stable theme in the counseling literature. The coverage of Multiculturalism has dramatically increased, while attention to Pedagogy has declined. Emerging trends, in descending order, were Advocacy, Spirituality, Technology, and Globalization. The counseling profession has responded to momentous societal changes in the last decade. The results of the content analysis were discussed, highlighting some limitations and offering some recommendations for 21st century counselor education.
Mechanical Analysis of Overhead Throwing in Cricket

This paper considers the kinematic characteristics of over arm throwing with particular emphasis on the techniques of throwing in cricket. The technique is subdivided into: (1) Wind up phase, (2) late cocking Phase (3) arm acceleration and (4) instant of ball release. The study was used to form the samples as, 10 elite cricket players. The ages of the players were (mean ± 23.50). The physical characteristics of height (Mean: 1169.4-172.4cm)), weight (57.8-61.3). Each over head maximal and sub maximal successful attempt for each throwing distances 20m and 10m with 1800,1120 and 450 approach angle at 900 target angle from the stump were recorded using Sony DV cameras in a field setting with (1/2000 shutter speed and at 3060fps). The cameras were set-up on a rigid tripod and secured to the floor in the location. First camera was located to obtain maximum accuracy and second camera located to view the throwing performances, at given specified distance in the reconstruction of the two dimensional co-ordinate. The location of camera were chosen so that the optical axes of camera intersected perpendicularly to the designated plane . The accuracy of throwing performances were considered in identify the footage for addition and were subjected to analysis. Result revealed that the ball speed had to be high to carry the full distance of the throw in the shortest time. Using a lower angle of release can further reduce flight time, as for the 20-m throw, for which a much flatter projection was used.
Dynamic Epidemiological Models for Dengue Transmission: A Systematic Review of Structural Approaches

Dengue is a vector-borne disease recognized as the major arbovirose with four immunologically distant dengue serotypes coexisting in many endemic areas. Several mathematical models have been developed to understand the transmission dynamics of dengue, including the role of cross-reactive antibodies for the four different dengue serotypes. We aimed to review deterministic models of dengue transmission, in order to summarize the evolution of insights for, and provided by, such models, and to identify important characteristics for future model development. We identified relevant publications using PubMed and ISI Web of Knowledge, focusing on mathematical deterministic models of dengue transmission. Model assumptions were systematically extracted from each reviewed model structure, and were linked with their underlying epidemiological concepts. After defining common terms in vector-borne disease modelling, we generally categorised fourty-two published models of interest into single serotype and multiserotype models. The multi-serotype models assumed either vector-host or direct host-to-host transmission (ignoring the vector component). For each approach, we discussed the underlying structural and parameter assumptions, threshold behaviour and the projected impact of interventions. In view of the expected availability of dengue vaccines, modelling approaches will increasingly focus on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of vaccination options. For this purpose, the level of representation of the vector and host populations seems pivotal. Since vector-host transmission models would be required for projections of combined vaccination and vector control interventions, we advocate their use as most relevant to advice health policy in the future. The limited understanding of the factors which influence dengue transmission as well as limited data availability remain important concerns when applying dengue models to real-world decision problems.
A new small-signal modeling approach applied to GaN devices

A new small-signal modeling approach applied to GaN-based devices is presented. In this approach, a new method for extracting the parasitic elements of the GaN device is developed. This method is based on two steps, which are: 1) using cold S-parameter measurements, high-quality starting values for the extrinsic parameters that would place the extraction close to the global minimum of the objective function for the distributed equivalent circuit model are generated and 2) the optimal model parameter values are searched through optimization using the starting values already obtained. The bias-dependent intrinsic parameter extraction procedure is improved for optimal extraction. The validity of the developed modeling approach and the proposed small-signal model is verified by comparing the simulated wide-band small-signal S-parameter, over a wide bias range, with measured data of a 0.5-/spl mu/m GaN high electron-mobility transistor with a 2/spl times/50 /spl mu/m gatewidth.
Random regular graphs of high degree

Random d‐regular graphs have been well studied when d is fixed and the number of vertices goes to infinity. We obtain results on many of the properties of a random d‐regular graph when d=d(n) grows more quickly than $\sqrt{n}$. These properties include connectivity, hamiltonicity, independent set size, chromatic number, choice number, and the size of the second eigenvalue, among others. ©2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 18: 346–363, 2001.
Evidence of Development Impact from Institutional Change : A Review of the Evidence on Open Budgeting

Despite the growing body of literature examining the effectiveness of transparency and accountability initiatives, there remains limited substantiation for whether and how open budgeting contributes to reductions in poverty and improvements in the lives of the poor. In this paper, we review available evidence and conclude that institutional changes can contribute to higher-level outcomes in certain contexts. Our findings highlight the importance of measuring budget transparency, accountability, and participation and tracing their outcomes along an incremental non-linear results chain. Rather than establishing standard indicators, we begin to identify which aspects of the institutional change are valid for measurement and what contextual factors to consider. Overall, this review serves as a starting point and underscores the need for further investigation to establish effective measurement practices of institutional change and build an evidence base for understanding the relative robustness of institutional change paths and the context in which they are likely to matter.
Influence of personality and military membership on relationship satisfaction

Purpose: Previous research has shown that men in the military have less relationship satisfaction then civilian men, regardless of being married or not (McLeland & Sutton, 2005). Other research has shown that military training does change service members’ personality (Thoemmes, Jonkmann, Lüdtke, & Trautwein, 2012). The purpose of this study was to see how United States military service members’ relationship satisfaction changes between the time before they enter into service and during their time in service, as well as to examine the relationship between personality and relationship satisfaction in the military population. Method: Sixty-nine participants took an online survey through Qualtrics that assessed their personalities and relationship satisfaction using the OCEAN.20 Inventory and ENRICH Assessment. Results: Results showed no significant correlations between personality characteristics and relationship satisfaction or between the two different time points.