Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Preactivation on Torque Enhancement by the Stretch-Shortening Cycle in Knee Extensors

The stretch-shortening cycle is one of the most interesting topics in the field of sport sciences, because the performance of human movement is enhanced by the stretch-shortening cycle (eccentric contraction). The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the influence of preactivation on the torque enhancement by stretch-shortening cycle in knee extensors. Twelve men participated in this study. The following three conditions were conducted for knee extensors: (1) concentric contraction without preactivation (CON), (2) concentric contraction with eccentric preactivation (ECC), and (3) concentric contraction with isometric preactivation (ISO). Muscle contractions were evoked by electrical stimulation to discard the influence of neural activity. The range of motion of the knee joint was set from 80 to 140 degrees (full extension = 180 degrees). Angular velocities of the concentric and eccentric contractions were set at 180 and 90 degrees/s, respectively. In the concentric contraction phase, joint torques were recorded at 85, 95, and 105 degrees, and they were compared among the three conditions. In the early phase (85 degrees) of concentric contraction, the joint torque was larger in the ECC and ISO conditions than in the CON condition. However, these clear differences disappeared in the later phase (105 degrees) of concentric contraction. The results showed that joint torque was clearly different among the three conditions in the early phase whereas this difference disappeared in the later phase. Thus, preactivation, which is prominent in the early phase of contractions, plays an important role in torque enhancement by the stretch-shortening cycle in knee extensors.
Inequality in the Great Recession: The Case of the United States

In this chapter for an international study, "The Great Recession and the Distribution of Household Income," Jeffrey Thompson and Timothy Smeeding highlight the degree to which economic and social policies, such as the federal stimulus, unemployment insurance, food stamps, and Social Security shielded the general population from substantial increases in income inequality due to the recession. They examine the impact on households, such as job losses, increases in poverty, and increases in households “doubling up” as a coping mechanism. Thompson and Smeeding find that potential income inequality increases were suppressed in large part because of the effect of the elderly population, which saw public transfers boosted, and who worked more hours through the recession.The full study can be downloaded from the Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti.
Transfer effects of a cognitive strategy training for stroke patients with apraxia

The objective of this study was to evaluate transfer effects of cognitive strategy training for stroke patients with apraxia. During 8 weeks, 29 apraxic patients received cognitive strategy training to teach them how to perform activities of daily living (ADL) as independently as possible. ADL functioning was assessed at the rehabilitation centre at baseline and after 8 weeks of training. In addition, assessment took place at the patients' own homes after 8 weeks of training and 5 months after the start of the training. The performance of both trained and nontrained tasks was observed. Patients performed trained tasks and nontrained tasks at the same level of independency at the rehabilitation centre as well as at home, indicating transfer of training effects. These effects turned out to be stable over time.
An Association of Fragile X Associated Tremor/Ataxia Syndrome (FXTAS) with Three Common Neurological Problems: A Review

Aim: To study the association of Fragile X associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body Dementia. Method: A systematic search was performed in various data bases and journals of Neurology. In total over 600 articles were reviewed and out of those, 39 were selected based on selection criteria. Results: FXTAS is associated with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body dementia because so many symptomatic and pathophysiological similarities are found between FXTAS and these two neurodegenerative diseases. Conclusion: The association of FXTAS with neurodegenerative illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body dementia is present because of many similarities between them. However, some dissimilarity does exist and some questions remain in addressing the pathophysiology of this association. Therefore we recommend more research in the near future to understand this association to develop and utilize wide-reaching therapies. *Corresponding author: Hassaan Tohid, Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, 95618, United States, E-mail: hassaantohid@hotmail.com Received Date: Feb 26, 2016 Accepted Date: July 21, 2016 Published Date: July 25, 2016 Citation: Tohid, H. , et al. An Association of Fragile X Associated Tremor/Ataxia Syndrome (FXTAS) with Three Common Neurological Problems: A Review. (2016) Int J Neurol Brain Disord 3(2): 6771. Int J Neurol Brain Disord | Volume 3: Issue 2 www.ommegaonline. org
Do ethical and sustainable practices matter?: Effects of corporate citizenship on business performance in the hospitality industry

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of Maignan et al.’s (1999) four-dimension model of corporate citizenship (based on economic, ethical, legal and discretionary responsibilities) on business performance in the hospitality sector. Design/methodology/approach – This study obtained its empirical evidence from international tourist hotels in Taiwan and applied structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses. Findings – The results show that ethical and sustainable practices of corporate citizenship have positive effects on employee affective organizational commitment, organizational innovation and customer loyalty, while affective organizational commitment, innovation and customer loyalty all have positive effects on business performance. Most important of all, bootstrap estimations based on SEM show that corporate citizenship has indirect positive effects on business performance through the mediating roles of affective organizational commitment, innovation and customer loyalty.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN ONLINE STOCK TRADING SERVICES : EXAMINING THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCE OF FLOW EXPERIENCE

While prior research has examined customer satisfaction in retailing and e-commerce settings, online trading services has received little research attention. To understand customer satisfaction better in this fast-growing service, we investigated the role of flow experience, a sensation that occurs with significant cognitive involvement in the online trading process. We focused on experience clues and flow construct and examined how experience clues affect the cognitive states of flow experience, which in turn determine customer satisfaction. Building on flow construct and total experience design, we proposed a structural model and empirically tested relevant hypotheses using the responses from online investors. Our data supported the model and most of the hypotheses it suggests. Our results shed light on important antecedents and consequences of experience flows in online stock trading services.
Bounded Bureaucracy and the Budgetary Process in the United States

Bureaucracies have been criticized from various perspectives and blamed for a variety of failings. Critics have claimed that bureaucracies are too focused on conforming to rules rather than achieving an organization's core mission. Bureaucracies are said to oppress human freedom because of their orientation toward hierarchical control. Bureaucratic organizations are also said to be unable to deal effectively with public problems that span multiple administrative jurisdictions; they do not reach beyond their own organizational boundaries. This book provides solid data on how bureaucracies can expedite information processing and reduce organizational conflicts. Jay Eungha Ryu finds that the functions of bureaucracies are highly dependent upon external political conditions. Whether the executive and legislative branches are dominated by the same party significantly influences the ability of bureaucracies to function effectively. Ryu notes that the merits of bureaucratic centralization are worth close attention. Numerous attempts, including performance budgeting systems, have been made to improve bureaucratic malfunctions. However, such reform initiatives are doomed to failure, he argues, unless they employ a core feature of bureaucracy itself, centralization. Ryu defines bureaucratic centralization at its best as bounded bureaucracy. If well managed, bounded bureaucracy can substantially improve the rational behavior of organizations and reduce institutional frictions.
Temporal Dynamics of Religion as a Determinant of HIV Infection in East Zimbabwe: A Serial Cross-Sectional Analysis

Background Religion is an important underlying determinant of HIV spread in sub-Saharan Africa. However, little is known about how religion influences changes in HIV prevalence and associated sexual behaviours over time. Objectives To compare changes in HIV prevalence between major religious groups in eastern Zimbabwe during a period of substantial HIV risk reduction (1998–2005) and to investigate whether variations observed can be explained by differences in behaviour change. Methods We analysed serial cross-sectional data from two rounds of a longitudinal population survey in eastern Zimbabwe. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were developed to compare differences in sexual behaviour and HIV prevalence between religious groups and to investigate changes over time controlling for potential confounders. Results Christian churches were the most popular religious grouping. Over time, Spiritualist churches increased in popularity and, for men, Traditional religion and no religion became less and more common, respectively. At baseline (1998–2000), HIV prevalence was higher in Traditionalists and in those with no religion than in people in Christian churches (men 26.7% and 23.8% vs. 17.5%, women: 35.4% and 37.5% vs. 24.1%). These effects were explained by differences in socio-demographic characteristics (for Traditional and men with no religion) or sexual behaviour (women with no religion). Spiritualist men (but not women) had lower HIV prevalence than Christians, after adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics (14.4% vs. 17.5%, aOR = 0.8), due to safer behaviour. HIV prevalence had fallen in all religious groups at follow-up (2003–2005). Odds of infection in Christians reduced relative to those in other religious groups for both sexes, effects that were mediated largely by greater reductions in sexual-risk behaviour and, possibly, for women, by patterns of conversion between churches. Conclusion Variation in behavioural responses to HIV between the major church groupings has contributed to a change in the religious pattern of infection in eastern Zimbabwe.
Externalities and Interdependent Growth: Theory and Evidence

I formulate and estimate a model of externalities within countries and technological interdependence across countries. I find that external returns to scale to physical capital within countries are 8 percent; that a 10 percent increase of total factor productivity of a country's neighbors raises its total factor productivity by 6 percent; and that a 2 percent annual growth rate of labor productivity can be explained as an endogenous response to an exogenous 0.2 percent annual growth rate of total factor productivity in the steady-state.
Transcriptome analysis of trigeminal ganglia following masseter muscle inflammation in rats

Background Chronic pain in masticatory muscles is a major medical problem. Although mechanisms underlying persistent pain in masticatory muscles are not fully understood, sensitization of nociceptive primary afferents following muscle inflammation or injury contributes to muscle hyperalgesia. It is well known that craniofacial muscle injury or inflammation induces regulation of multiple genes in trigeminal ganglia, which is associated with muscle hyperalgesia. However, overall transcriptional profiles within trigeminal ganglia following masseter inflammation have not yet been determined. In the present study, we performed RNA sequencing assay in rat trigeminal ganglia to identify transcriptome profiles of genes relevant to hyperalgesia following inflammation of the rat masseter muscle. Results Masseter inflammation differentially regulated >3500 genes in trigeminal ganglia. Predominant biological pathways were predicted to be related with activation of resident non-neuronal cells within trigeminal ganglia or recruitment of immune cells. To focus our analysis on the genes more relevant to nociceptors, we selected genes implicated in pain mechanisms, genes enriched in small- to medium-sized sensory neurons, and genes enriched in TRPV1-lineage nociceptors. Among the 2320 candidate genes, 622 genes showed differential expression following masseter inflammation. When the analysis was limited to these candidate genes, pathways related with G protein-coupled signaling and synaptic plasticity were predicted to be enriched. Inspection of individual gene expression changes confirmed the transcriptional changes of multiple nociceptor genes associated with masseter hyperalgesia (e.g., Trpv1, Trpa1, P2rx3, Tac1, and Bdnf) and also suggested a number of novel probable contributors (e.g., Piezo2, Tmem100, and Hdac9). Conclusion These findings should further advance our understanding of peripheral mechanisms involved in persistent craniofacial muscle pain conditions and provide a rational basis for identifying novel genes or sets of genes that can be potentially targeted for treating such conditions.
Monitoring the Visual World: Hemispheric Asymmetries and Subcortical Processes in Attention

Hemispheric specialization and subcortical processes in visual anention were investigated in callosotomy (split-brain) patients by measuring reaction times to lateralized stimuli in a spatial cuing paradigm. Cuing effects were obtained for targets presented to the right hemisphere (left visual hemifield) but not for those presented to the left hemisphere. These cuing effects were manifest as faster reaction times when the cue correctly indicated the location of the subsequent target (valid trials), as compared to trials in which the cue and target appeared in opposite hemifields (invalid trials). This pattern suggests that the right hemisphere allocated attention to cued locations in either visual hemifield, whereas the left hemisphere allocated attention predominantly to the right hemifield. This finding is consistent with a body of evidence from studies in patients with cortical lesions who display different attentional deficits for right versus left hemisphere damage. Because the present pattern occurs in patients whose cerebral hemispheres are separated at the cortical level, it suggests that right hemisphere attentional allocation to events in the ipsilateral visual half-field is mediated in part via intact subcortical systems.
The Real Cost of Capital: A Business Field Guide to Better Financial Decisions

Author's acknowledgements Publisher's acknowledgements Prologue: The cost of capital world is a real world Chapter 1: Risk and Return Revisited Chapter 2: CAPM @ Work Chapter 3: The Great EMRP Debate Chapter 4: CAPM is Dead: Long Live CAPM Chapter 5: The Cost of Debt and Optimal Capital Structure Chapter 6: International WACC and Country Risk Chapter 7: Cash Flows, the Dot.Com Bubble, and All That Chapter 8: Using the Cost of Capital in Business Valuations Chapter 9: International Valuation and Appraisal Chapter 10: Premia and Discounts Epilogue Index
Activity-induced changes in synaptic release sites at the crayfish neuromuscular junction

Crustacean motor axons provide a model in which activity-dependent changes in synaptic physiology and synaptic structure can be concurrently observed in single identifiable neurons. In response to a train of stimulation, crustacean neuromuscular junctions undergo pronounced facilitation of transmitter release. The effects of maintained high-frequency stimulation may persist for at least several hours (“long-term facilitation”). Electrophysiological studies suggest that the number of “active” synapses contributing transmitter quanta at low frequencies of stimulation increases during and after a train of high-frequency stimulation. However, at different terminal recording sites the effect of stimulation varies, and it was observed that not all released quanta produce a voltage change in the postsynaptic muscle cell. Electron microscopic examinations of serial sections from nerve terminals subjected to stimulation were made to determine whether changes in synaptic structure could be correlated with activity-induced long-lasting enhancement of transmission. A procedure was introduced for marking a recorded terminal with fluorescent polystyrene microspheres, which are visible in electron micrographs of the recording site. Crustacean nerve terminals possess a large number of discrete synapses, a small fraction of which have multiple presynaptic “active zones” (dense bodies with clustered synaptic vesicles, thought to represent sites of evoked transmitter release). In terminals previously stimulated, the proportion of synapses with multiple “active zones” is greater than in control unstimulated terminals. Total synaptic vesicle counts and readily releasable vesicles at synapses are not significantly different in previously stimulated terminals and controls. In terminals fixed during stimulation a few synapses show evidence of division in “active zones,” and synaptic vesicle counts are lower than in controls. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Cathelicidin-like Helminth Defence Molecules (HDMs): Absence of Cytotoxic, Anti-microbial and Anti-protozoan Activities Imply a Specific Adaptation to Immune Modulation

Host defence peptides (HDPs) are expressed throughout the animal and plant kingdoms. They have multifunctional roles in the defence against infectious agents of mammals, possessing both bactericidal and immune-modulatory activities. We have identified a novel family of molecules secreted by helminth parasites (helminth defence molecules; HDMs) that exhibit similar structural and biochemical characteristics to the HDPs. Here, we have analyzed the functional activities of four HDMs derived from Schistosoma mansoni and Fasciola hepatica and compared them to human, mouse, bovine and sheep HDPs. Unlike the mammalian HDPs the helminth-derived HDMs show no antimicrobial activity and are non-cytotoxic to mammalian cells (macrophages and red blood cells). However, both the mammalian- and helminth-derived peptides suppress the activation of macrophages by microbial stimuli and alter the response of B cells to cytokine stimulation. Therefore, we hypothesise that HDMs represent a novel family of HDPs that evolved to regulate the immune responses of their mammalian hosts by retaining potent immune modulatory properties without causing deleterious cytotoxic effects.
History of Economic Analysis

Part I: Introduction: Scope and Method Introduction and plan. Interlude I: The techniques of economic analysis. Interlude II: Contemporaneous developments in other sciences. The sociology of economics. Part II: From the Beginnings to the First Classical Situation (to about 1790) Graeco-Roman economics. The scholastic doctors and the philosophers of natural law. The consultant administrators and the pamphleteers. The econometricians and Turgot. Population, returns, wages, and employment. Value and money. The "Mercantilist" literature. Part III: From 1790 to 1870 Introduction and Plan. Socio-political backgrounds. The intellectual scenery. Review of the troops. General economics: A cross section. General economics: Pure theory. Money, credit, and cycles. Part IV: From 1870 to 1914 (and later) Introduction and plan. Background and patterns. Some developments in neighbouring fields. Sozialpolitik and the historical method. The general economics of the period: Men and groups. General economics: Its character and contents. Equilibrium analysis. Money, credit, and cycles. Part V: Conclusion: A Sketch of Modern Development Introduction and plan. Developments stemming from the Marshall- Wicksell apparatus. Economics in the "Totalitarian" countries. Dynamics and business cycle research. Keynes and modern macroeconomics.
Identifying Demand in Ebay Auctions

This paper presents assumptions and identification results for eBay type auctions. These results are for private value auctions covering three major issues; censoring bias, auction heterogeneity and dynamic bidding. The first section of the paper presents two identification results for second price open call auctions with private values and unobserved participation (eBay type auctions). The second section presents identification results for eBay type auctions that have either observed bidder heterogeneity, observed and unobserved item heterogeneity or unobserved auction heterogeneity. In particular it is shown that a traditional demand estimation model is identified. The third section presents identification results when bidders face an infinite sequence of eBay type auctions for a single item.
Quantitative Determination of Flavonoids and Chlorogenic Acid in the Leaves of Arbutus unedo L. Using Thin Layer Chromatography

The plant species Arbutus unedo shows numerous beneficial pharmacological effects (antiseptic, antidiabetic, antidiarrheal, astringent, depurative, antioxidant, antihypertensive, antithrombotic, and anti-inflammatory). For the medicinal use, standardization of extracts is a necessity, as different compounds are responsible for different biological activities. In this paper, we analyze monthly changes in the content of quercitrin, isoquercitrin, hyperoside, and chlorogenic acid. Methanolic extracts of the leaves are analyzed by HPTLC for the identification and quantification of individual polyphenol, and DPPH test is used to determine antioxidant activity. Based on the results obtained, the leaves should be collected in January to obtain the highest concentrations of hyperoside and quercitrin (0.35 mg/g and 1.94 mg/g, resp.), in June, July, and October for chlorogenic acid (1.45–1.46 mg/g), and for the fraction of quercitrin and isoquercitrin in November (1.98 mg/g and 0.33 mg/g, resp.). Optimal months for the collection of leaves with the maximum recovery of individual polyphenol suggested in this work could direct the pharmacological usage of the polyvalent herbal drugs.
Mars exploration rovers entry, descent, and landing trajectory analysis

The Mars Exploration Rover mission successfully landed two rovers “Spirit” and “Opportunity” on Mars on January 4th and 25th of 2004, respectively. In this paper, the trajectory analysis performed to define the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) scenario is described. The entry requirements and constraints are presented, as well as uncertainties used in a Monte Carlo dispersion analysis to statistically assess the robustness of the entry design to off-nominal conditions. In the analysis, six-degree-of-freedom and three-degree-offreedom trajectory results are compared to assess the entry characteristics of the capsule. Comparison of the pre-entry results to preliminary post-landing reconstruction data shows all EDL parameters were within the requirements. In addition, the final landing locations for both Spirit and Opportunity were within 15 km from the target.