Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
End points of lactate and glucose metabolism after exhausting exercise.

To determine the extent of metabolite oxidation, rats were injected with [U-14C]lactate, -glucose, or -bicarbonate (n = 5, each) during rest or after continuous (CE) and intermittent (IE) exercises to exhaustion. Tissue analyses of resting rats, or rats killed following CE and IE and pulse injection with [14C]lactate or -glucose (n = 72, each), were used to determine the metabolic pathways of these two substrates. Oxygen consumption (VO2) declined rapidly for the first 15 min after exercise; thereafter, VO2 declined slowly and remained elevated above resting levels for 120 min. The slow phase of decline in VO2 during recovery did not coincide with lactate removal, which occurred within 15 min. Two-dimensional radiochromatograms produced from blood, kidney, liver, skeletal muscle, and heart indicated a rapid incorporation of 14C into several amino acid pools, including alanine, glutamine, glutamate, and aspartate. Four-hour postexercise recoveries (means of CE and IE) of injected [14C]lactate were lactate (0.75%), glucose (0.52%), protein (8.57%), glycogen (18.30%), CO2 (45.18%), and HCO3- (17.72%). Greater (P < 0.05) incorporation of 14C into protein and glycogen constituents after exercise, compared with rest, was demonstrated. Incorporation of [14C]lactate into glycogen represented a significant but only minor fraction of the metabolism of lactate after exhausting exercise. It is suggested that classical explanations of excess postexercise O2 consumption (i.e., "O2 debt") are too simplistic.
The Improvement of Emotion and Attention Regulation after a 6-Week Training of Focused Meditation: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Self-regulatory trainings can be an effective complementary treatment for mental health disorders. We investigated the effects of a six-week-focused meditation training on emotion and attention regulation in undergraduates randomly allocated to a meditation, a relaxation, or a wait-list control group. Assessment comprised a discrimination task that investigates the relationship between attentional load and emotional processing and self-report measures. For emotion regulation, results showed greater reduction in emotional interference in the low attentional load condition in meditators, particularly compared to relaxation. Only meditators presented a significant association between amount of weekly practice and the reduction in emotion interference in the task and significantly reduced image ratings of negative valence and arousal, perceived anxiety and difficulty during the task, and state and trait-anxiety. For attention regulation, response bias during the task was analyzed through signal detection theory. After training, meditation and relaxation significantly reduced bias in the high attentional load condition. Importantly, there was a dose-response effect on general bias: the lowest in meditation, increasing linearly across relaxation and wait-list. Only meditators reduced omissions in a concentrated attention test. Focused meditation seems to be an effective training for emotion and attention regulation and an alternative for treatments in the mental health context.
Design and Management of Complex Technical Processes and Systems by means of Computational Intelligence Methods A New Framework for the Valuation of Algorithms for Black-Box-Optimization

Black-box optimization algorithms cannot use the specific parameters of the problem instance, i.e., of the fitness function f . Their run time is measured as the number of f -evaluations. This implies that the usual algorithmic complexity of a problem cannot be used in the black-box scenario. Therefore, a new framework for the valuation of algorithms for black-box optimization is presented allowing the notion of the black-box complexity of a problem. For several problems upper and lower bounds on their black-box complexity are presented. Moreover, it can can be concluded that randomized search heuristics whose (worst-case) expected optimization time for some problem is close to the black-box complexity of the problem are provably efficient (in the black-box scenario). The new approach is applied to several problems based on typical example functions and further interesting problems. Run times of general EAs for these problems are compared with the black-box complexity of the problem.
Evaluation of an STD/HIV Intervention Program Among Marine Security Guards

Abstract : Although military personnel are at high risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV, behavioral interventions to prevent STDs/HIV in U.S. military populations have been lacking. In this study, a behavioral intervention was implemented and evaluated in a sample of Marine Security Guards (MSGs). Participants were assessed prior to and following a 3-session intervention on a measure of STD/HIV knowledge and a number of psychosocial scales. Paired comparisons of pretest and posttest scores revealed that STD/HIV knowledge was significantly higher after the intervention. Significant pretest versus posttest differences were also found on Social Norms, Behavioral Intentions, Attitudes Toward Condoms, and Self-Efficacy/Impulse Control. On Social Norms and Behavioral Intentions, the differences were as expected; subjects perceived greater social norms supporting condom use and expressed stronger intentions to practice safe sex after the intervention than they had before. On Attitudes Toward Condoms and Self-Efficacy/Impulse Control, the differences were not as expected after the intervention. MSGs actually expressed less positive attitudes toward condoms and felt less confident about being able to use a condom in difficult situations. Psychosocial factors that correlated significantly with self-reported condom use were also identified. Implications of these findings were discussed.
Mechanism of Substrate Recognition and Insight into Feedback Inhibition of Homocitrate Synthase from Thermus thermophilus*

Homocitrate synthase (HCS) catalyzes aldol-type condensation of acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) and α-ketoglutarate (α-KG) to synthesize homocitrate (HC), which is the first and committed step in the lysine biosynthetic pathway through α-aminoadipate. As known in most enzymes catalyzing the first reactions in amino acid biosynthetic pathways, HCS is regulated via feedback inhibition by the end product, lysine. Here, we determined the crystal structures of HCS from Thermus thermophilus complexed with α-KG, HC, or lysine. In the HC complex, the C1-carboxyl group of HC, which is derived from acetyl-CoA, is hydrogen-bonded with His-292* from another subunit (indicated by the asterisk), indicating direct involvement of this residue in the catalytic mechanism of HCS. The crystal structure of HCS complexed with lysine showed that lysine is bound to the active site with rearrangement of amino acid residues in the substrate-binding site, which accounts for the competitive inhibition by lysine with α-KG. Comparison between the structures suggests that His-72, which is conserved in lysine-sensitive HCSs and binds the C5-carboxyl group of α-KG, serves as a switch for the conformational change. Replacement of His-72 by leucine made HCS resistant to lysine inhibition, demonstrating the regulatory role of this conserved residue.
Evaluation of a brief Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy for Psychological Distress among Female Icelandic University Students

A study of a brief cognitive behavioral group therapy intervention for psychologically distressed Icelandic female university students was conducted using a pre–post test quasi-experimental design with intervention and control group conditions. Students were randomly allocated to control and intervention group conditions (n = 30). The intervention group received four sessions of cognitive behavioral group therapy, delivered by two advanced practice psychiatric nurses. Assessment of distress included self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms. Students in the intervention group experienced significantly lower levels of depression and anxiety symptoms compared to the control group post-test providing preliminary evidence concerning intervention effectiveness for Icelandic students.
Population Resettlement in War

Why do combatants intentionally uproot civilians? The forcible relocation of families and communities to concentration camps, “protected villages,” and other special settlements is a regular feature of irregular war, occurring in almost a third of all counterinsurgency campaigns since 1816. Despite the historical regularity of these practices, most research has focused on individual decisions to flee, rather than the brute-force resettlement of civilians by combatants. Using a dynamic model of popular support and new micro-level data from Soviet secret police archives, I show that civilian resettlement is not simply a by-product of war but is a rational response to informational asymmetry. Combatants who cannot identify and selectively punish their opponents face incentives to control the population rather than earn its support. For strong governments with limited coercive leverage, civilian resettlement offers a way to reduce rebel activity without having to win hearts and minds.
Object-Oriented Modeling and Optimal Control: A Case Study in Power Plant Start-Up

Modeling and optimization of complex systems traditionally have required significant programming efforts in order to encode the model dynamics, the cost functions and the constraints in a format suitable for state of the art numerical algorithms. The availability of dedicated languages for physical modeling has made the design process simpler, but often tools have been limited to a particular optimization algorithm. In this paper, we present a case study where a combined cycle power plant model has been developed using first principles in the modeling language Modelica. Based on the model, an optimal control problem for the start-up of the power plant has been formulated in the Optimica extension and solved using the open source software JModelica.org. The results demonstrate how high-level modeling languages and tools can be used to bridge the gap between the engineering need for intuitive description formats and the interfaces of efficient numerical algorithms. (Less)
Atherosclerosis precursors in Finnish children and adolescents. VI. Serum apolipoproteins A‐I and B

ABSTRACT. The concentrations of apolipoproteins A‐I and B were determined in 1,341 3‐ to 18‐year‐old children and adolescents from five urban and 12 rural communities. The analyses were made with radial immunodiffusion. The mean concentrations (± S.D.) of apo A‐I and apo B were 152 ± 25 and 94 ± 22 mg/100 ml. respectively. 3‐year‐old children had the highest apo B levels which then decreased with advancing age in both sexes. Boys tended to have lower levels of apo B than girls. Apo A‐1 concentration was significantly higher in the 9‐ and 12‐year‐old boys than in the other age groups but showed no age‐bound trend in girls. The apo A‐I to apo B ratio increased with age in both sexes. The concentration of apo A‐I was significantly lower, and that of apo B higher, in children living in eastern Finland in comparison with those from the western part of the country. This difference and a higher HDL‐cholesterol to apo A‐I ratio in both sexes in eastern Finland may be asSociated with the regional differences in the prevalence of coronary heart disease in this country. Key words: adolescents, apolipoproteins, apo A‐I, apo B, children, serum lipids.
Fluid transport across the isolated porcine ciliary epithelium.

PURPOSE To quantify spontaneous fluid transport across the isolated porcine ciliary epithelium and determine its sensitivity to the electrolyte transport inhibitors ouabain and bumetanide, as well as bath Cl(-) and HCO(3)(-) levels. METHODS A complete annulus of ciliary body was mounted in a custom-designed chamber appropriate for quantifying net fluid movement, as well as the transepithelial potential difference (PD) across the in vitro ciliary epithelium. RESULTS A spontaneous and stable fluid flow (FF) in the blood-to-aqueous direction was measured over a 4-hour period. This flux solely reflected the secretory activity of the isolated ciliary epithelium (CE), given the absence of externally applied osmotic or pressure gradients. In contrast to FF, the PD declined during the 4 hours in vitro, suggesting that the integrity of the tight junctions may have been compromised during this time so that an increased movement of counter ions via the paracellular pathway could have shunted the PD, while at the same time transcellular fluid transport remained unaffected. The FF in the blood-to-aqueous direction (2.3 +/- 0.2 muL/hr; n = 7) was eliminated by a unilateral reduction in the bath Cl(-) levels on the blood side of the preparation and restored on reintroducing the anion to the bathing medium. This linkage between FF and blood side [Cl(-)] is consistent with the existence of a net Cl(-) flux across the porcine CE in the same direction as the fluid transport. Addition of bumetanide to the blood-side bath inhibited FF by approximately 40%, whereas the removal of CO(2)/HCO(3)(-) from the blood-side bathing solution elicited a approximately 50% reduction in FF. Ouabain inhibited the FF from either side of the preparation, although the effects were more rapid when the glycoside was applied to the blood side of the tissue. Overall, these findings indicate the dependence of FF on active ionic transport by the isolated CE. CONCLUSIONS Isolated porcine ciliary epithelial preparations transport fluid in the blood-to-aqueous direction, indicating that measurements of volumetric fluid flow across this preparation may serve as a suitable model for future studies directed toward the pharmacological control of secretion.
Androgens in relationship to cardiovascular risk factors in the menopausal transition

Objective To establish the relationship between androgens and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in the menopausal transition. Methods A total of 124 women were divided into four groups: 29 premenopausal (PreM), 35 women in the menopausal transition still menstruating (MTM), 29 women in the menopausal transition with 3–6 months amenorrhea (MTA), and 31 postmenopausal women (PostM). Levels of triglycerides, low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, glucose and insulin were assayed in all samples and waist circumference was measured. In a subgroup of 83 women (19 PreM, 21 MTM, 28 MTA and 15 PostM), levels of total testosterone, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) and estradiol were determined. The free androgen index, Homeostasis Model Assessment (HOMA) index, Quantitative Insulin Sensitivity Check Index (QUICKI) and McAuley index, estradiol/total testosterone and triglyceride/HDL cholesterol ratios were calculated. Results Androstenedione was higher in MTA vs. PostM women (p < 0.05); DHEAS was higher in PreM women vs. the other three groups (p < 0.05). Sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) in MTM women was higher than in MTA women (p < 0.05); the free androgen index was lower in MTM women than in MTA and PostM women. SHBG and the free androgen index showed negative and positive correlations, respectively with waist circumference, insulin resistance and lipids. In a multiple regression analysis, considering waist circumference, neither free androgen index nor SHBG showed significant differences between groups. The waist circumference correlated only with SHBG (p = 0.022) and correlations between SHBG and insulin resistance markers continued to be significant, but relationships between SHBG and lipoproteins and all correlations found with free androgen index were lost. Conclusions An increment in the androgenic milieu that correlates with abdominal fat, insulin resistance and atherogenic lipoproteins becomes evident after the menopausal transition and suggests that evaluation of cardiovascular disease risk in these women should include androgens, considering that abdominal obesity is one of the main determinants of the relationship between androgenic parameters and cardiovascular risk factors.
‘Globalizing’ regional development: a global production networks perspective

Recent literature concerning regional development has placed significant emphasis on local institutional structures and their capacity to ‘hold down’ the global. Conversely, work on inter-firm networks – such as the global commodity chain approach – has highlighted the significance of the organizational structures of global firms’ production systems and their relation to industrial upgrading. In this paper, drawing upon a global production networks perspective, we conceptualize the connections between ‘globalizing’ processes, as embodied in the production networks of transnational corporations, and regional development in specific territorial formations. We delimit the ‘strategic coupling’ of the global production networks of firms and regional economies which ultimately drives regional development through the processes of value creation, enhancement and capture. In doing so, we stress the multi-scalarity of the forces and processes underlying regional development, and thus do not privilege one particular geographical scale. By way of illustration, we introduce an example drawn from recent research into global production networks in East Asia and Europe. The example profiles the investments of car manufacturer BMW in Eastern Bavaria, Germany and Rayong, Thailand, and considers their implications for regional development.
Essays on validation and estimation of agent-based models and on overconfidence measures

The unifying theme of this thesis is the study built around individual heterogeneity. When analyzing the behaviour of economic agents and institutions, the role of individual heterogeneity, various behavioural characteristics receive more attention in scientific research. This thesis can be divided into two parts, presenting two ways for studying individual heterogeneity in financial markets and economy. One way to study the behaviour of heterogeneous individuals is building models based on microsimulations where one can model agents with different preferences and behavioural rules and investigate behavioural characteristics and individual interactions which lead to the behaviour of the market as a whole. Another way to study the behaviour of heterogeneous individuals is studying the observed individual behaviour with the help of micro-level data retrieved from various surveys. When studying individual behaviour using survey responses, a researcher often needs to create reliable measures which may represent a behavioural characteristic under consideration. Sometimes a researcher encounters many alternatives when approaching a specific question. Therefore, it is also necessary to investigate the relations between these alternatives and whether they might represent the same underlying behavioural factor.
Sleep disturbance and obesity: changes following surgically induced weight loss.

BACKGROUND Obesity causes sleep disturbance and is the most significant risk factor for sleep apnea. Only surgical methods provide substantial sustained weight loss for most severely obese subjects. OBJECTIVE To study sleep disturbance in patients undergoing laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding with a commercially available product (Lap-Band). METHODS In this study, 313 consecutive patients with severe obesity (body mass index [calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters] >35) completed a preoperative sleep questionnaire and clinical assessment. One hundred twenty-three patients completed the same assessment 12 months after surgery. The characteristics of sleep disturbance and changes in responses to weight loss have been assessed. RESULTS There was a high prevalence of significantly disturbed sleep in men (59%) and women (45%), with women less likely to have had their sleep disturbance investigated. Observed sleep apnea was more common in men, but daytime sleepiness was not affected by sex. Waist circumference was the best clinical measure predicting observed sleep apnea (R = 0.36; P<.001). The group lost an average of 48% (SD, 16%) of excess weight by 12 months. There was a significant improvement in the responses to all questions at follow-up, with habitual snoring reduced to 14% (preoperative value, 82%), observed sleep apnea to 2% (preoperative value, 33%), abnormal daytime sleepiness to 4% (preoperative value, 39%), and poor sleep quality to 2% (preoperative value, 39%) (P<.001 for all). CONCLUSIONS Obesity-related sleep disorders improve markedly with weight loss. Sustainable weight loss should be a primary aim in the management of severely obese patients with significant sleep disturbance, including sleep apnea. Low-risk laparoscopic obesity surgery should be considered for selected patients with this important comorbidity.
University student and teacher perceptions of teacher roles in promoting autonomous language learning with technology outside the classroom

Helping students to become autonomous learners, who actively utilize technologies for learning outside the classroom, is important for successful language learning. Teachers, as significant social agents who shape students’ intellectual and social experiences, have a critical role to play. This study examined students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the specific roles teachers may play in promoting autonomous language learning with technology outside the classroom. Interviews were conducted with 15 language learners and 10 language teachers at a university in Hong Kong. The study found mismatches between students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the degree of teacher involvement and the specific roles teachers could play. On the one hand, students expected teachers to play a greater role in supporting their autonomous learning with technology by recommending a variety of technological resources and sharing metacognitive and cognitive strategies for effective use of the resources. On the other hand, teachers expected to play a minimal role due to their overestimation of students’ capacities and their concern over their limited abilities to provide such support. The research findings indicate the importance of raising teachers’ awareness of the various roles their students expect them to play and of equipping teachers with the knowledge and skills to advise and support students in making use of technological resources outside the classroom for language learning.
Coulomb oscillation in the hydrogen atom and molecule ion

Semiclassical oscillation of the electron through the nucleus of the H atom yields both the exact energy and the correct orbital angular momentum for l=0 quantum states. Similarly, electron oscillation through the nuclei of H2+ accounts for a stable molecule ion with energy close to the quantum mechanical solution. The small discrepancy arises from the neglect of the electron's wave nature.