Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Longitudinal decline of neuromuscular activation and power in healthy older adults.

BACKGROUND Weakness contributes to the decline of physical function that occurs with aging. Contradictory findings have been reported as to whether neuromuscular activation is impaired with aging, and the extent to which it contributes to weakness. The present study uses a longitudinal design to assess how potential age-related change of neuromuscular activation affects strength, power, and mobility function. METHODS Participants included 16 healthy older adults who were healthy and high functioning at baseline. Strength was measured by leg press one repetition maximum. Power production was measured during a maximal effort rapid leg press movement with resistance set to 70% of the one repetition maximum. During the same movement, neuromuscular activation was quantified as the rate of rise of the quadriceps surface electromyogram (rate of electromyogram rise). Thigh muscle cross-sectional area was measured by computed tomography. Mobility function was assessed by the Short Physical Performance Battery. RESULTS The time between baseline and follow-up testing was almost 3 years. Between these time points, rate of electromyogram rise decreased 28% (p = .004) and power decreased 16.5% (p = .01). There was a trend for reduced anterior thigh muscle cross-sectional area (3%, p = .05), but no change in posterior thigh muscle cross-sectional area (p = .84), one repetition maximum strength (p = .72), or Short Physical Performance Battery score (p = .17). Loss of power was strongly associated with reduction in the rate of electromyogram rise (R (2) = . 61, p < . 001), but not with reduction of anterior thigh muscle cross-sectional area (p = .83). CONCLUSIONS The present findings suggest that voluntary neuromuscular activation declines with advancing age, contributes to a reduction in power production, and precedes the decline of mobility function.
PREDICTION OF TENSILE CAPACITY OF BOND ANCHORAGES FOR FRP TENDONS

Past test data show that the bond stress distribution of bond anchorages is nonuniform along the bonded length and that the point of the peak bond strength shifts from the entry of the tendon to an inside point of the anchorage as the applied load increases. Based on these results, this paper analyzes the working mechanism of bond anchorages for fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) tendons and presents a conceptual model to calculate the bond stress at the tendon-grout interface and the tensile capacity of bond anchorages for FRP tendons. Experimental and analytical results show that the geometry of FRP tendon and steel sleeve and the mechanical properties of filling grout are the relevant parameters in the development of tendon-grout interface stresses. The characteristic bond strength depends mainly on the properties of the bonding agent-cement grout, the geometry and surface conditions of the tendon, and the radial stiffness of the confining medium. A comparison of the calculated and experimental results showed good agreement.
Chronic green tea extract supplementation reduces hemodialysis-enhanced production of hydrogen peroxide and hypochlorous acid, atherosclerotic factors, and proinflammatory cytokines.

BACKGROUND Oxidative stress increases in patients with end-stage renal disease and exaggerates the related comorbidities. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of supplementation with decaffeinated green tea extract (catechins) on hemodialysis-induced reactive oxygen species, atherosclerotic disease risk factors, and proinflammatory cytokines. DESIGN We enrolled 6 healthy subjects and 54 hemodialysis patients for the study. First, the pharmacokinetics of one oral dose of catechins was compared between healthy subjects (n = 6) and hemodialysis patients (n = 10). Second, in the 10 hemodialysis patients, we compared the antioxidant effects of 3 different doses (0, 455, and 910 mg) of oral catechins with that of oral vitamin C (500 mg) during a hemodialysis session. Third, the other 44 hemodialysis patients participated in a 7-mo interventional study, in which 30 patients received placebo throughout and 14 patients received catechins (455 mg/d) from the third to the fifth month. RESULTS After one oral dose, the hemodialysis patients (n = 10) had later peaks and slower decay of plasma catechins than did the healthy subjects. In the 10 hemodialysis patients, catechin supplementation reduced hemodialysis-enhanced plasma hypochlorous acid activity more effectively than did placebo or vitamin C. Between treatments with 455 or 910 mg catechins, no significant difference was found in the reduction of plasma hypochlorous acid activity. Catechins also significantly reduced proinflammatory cytokine expression enhanced by hemodialysis. In the 7-mo interventional study, the 14 patients who received daily supplementation of catechins for 3 mo had less predialysis plasma hydrogen peroxide activity, lower hypochlorous acid activity, and lower phosphatidylcholine hydroperoxide, C-reactive protein, and proinflammatory cytokine concentrations than did the 30 hemodialysis patients who received placebo. CONCLUSION Catechins reduce hemodialysis-induced production of hydrogen peroxide and hypochlorous acid, atherosclerotic disease risk factors, and proinflammation.
Comparison of In Sacco Rumen Dry Matter Degradability and Feeds intake and Digestion of Crossbred Dairy Cows (Holestian Friesian X Horro) Supplemented with Concentrate Diet

A study was conducted at Bako Agricultural Research Centre to evaluate the feeding value of Pennisetum purpureum Silage (PPS) as basal diet when offered sole or in mixture with Natural Grass Hay (NGH) on voluntary feed intake, digestibility, degradability, milk yield and composition of crossbred dairy cattle. Ten dairy cows (Horro X Friesian) with similar milk yield (6.2-8.5 kg d -1 ), initial body weight of 307.99±8.53 kg (mean ± SEM), early stage of lactation, but differing in parities were used in a switch over 5X5 double Latin square design. There were five periods each composed of 30 days, 15 days for adaptation and the remaining 15 days for data collection. Treatments were NGH and PPS at a ratio of 100:0 (T1), 75:25 (T2), 50:50 (T3), 25:75 (T4) and 0:100% (T5), respectively. The basal diets were fed ad libitum. All animals were fed concentrate mix (49.5% maize grain + 49.5% noug seed cake + 1% salt) at a level of 0.5 kg/l of milk and additional 100 gram mineral mixtures was added for each cows daily into feed trough. Results of chemical analysis and degradability studies of experimental feeds indicated that PPS (CP=13.85%, ME=10.22 (MJKg-1DM) had better nutritive value than NGH (CP=11.72% and ME=7.98 (MJKg-1 DM). Ruminal in Sacco degradation characteristics observed for PPS were good indicative of being better basal feed than NGH. The daily DM, CP, and ME intake were highly significant (P 0.05). Daily milk yield was higher (P 0.05) different among dietary treatments. Mean daily live weight loss was not significantly (P>0.05) different among treatments. Therefore, the result demonstrated that PPS had better feeding value as compared to the NGH for crossbred lactating dairy cows and can be conserved and used especially in the dry season when conventional roughages are in short supply and low in CP content.
Chicken Essence for Cognitive Function Improvement: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Chicken essence (CE) is a popular traditional remedy in Asia, which is believed to improve cognitive functions. CE company claimed that the health benefits were proven with research studies. A systematic review was conducted to determine the cognitive-enhancing effects of CE. We systematically searched a number of databases for randomized controlled trials with human subjects consuming CE and cognitive tests involved. Cochrane’s Risk of Bias (ROB) tool was used to assess the quality of trials and meta-analysis was performed. Seven trials were included, where six healthy subjects and one subject with poorer cognitive functions were recruited. One trial had unclear ROB while the rest had high ROB. For executive function tests, there was a significant difference favoring CE (pooled standardized mean difference (SMD) of −0.55 (−1.04, −0.06)) and another with no significant difference (pooled SMD of 0.70 (−0.001, 1.40)). For short-term memory tests, no significant difference was found (pooled SMD of 0.63 (−0.16, 1.42)). Currently, there is a lack of convincing evidence to show a cognitive enhancing effect of CE.
Gene–Dairy Food Interactions and Health Outcomes: A Review of Nutrigenetic Studies

Each person differs from the next by an average of over 3 million genetic variations in their DNA. This genetic diversity is responsible for many of the interindividual differences in food preferences, nutritional needs, and dietary responses between humans. The field of nutrigenetics aims to utilize this type of genetic information in order to personalize diets for optimal health. One of the most well-studied genetic variants affecting human dietary patterns and health is the lactase persistence mutation, which enables an individual to digest milk sugar into adulthood. Lactase persistence is one of the most influential Mendelian factors affecting human dietary patterns to occur since the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution. However, the lactase persistence mutation is only one of many mutations that can influence the relationship between dairy intake and disease risk. The purpose of this review is to summarize the available nutrigenetic literature investigating the relationships between genetics, dairy intake, and health outcomes. Nonetheless, the understanding of an individual’s nutrigenetic responses is just one component of personalized nutrition. In addition to nutrigenetic responses, future studies should also take into account nutrigenomic responses (epigenomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic), and phenotypic/characteristic traits (age, gender, activity level, disease status, etc.), as these factors all interact with diet to influence health.
High-Resolution Underwater Mapping Using Side-Scan Sonar

The goal of this study is to generate high-resolution sea floor maps using a Side-Scan Sonar(SSS). This is achieved by explicitly taking into account the SSS operation as follows. First, the raw sensor data is corrected by means of a physics-based SSS model. Second, the data is projected to the sea-floor. The errors involved in this projection are thoroughfully analysed. Third, a probabilistic SSS model is defined and used to estimate the probability of each sea-floor region to be observed. This probabilistic information is then used to weight the contribution of each SSS measurement to the map. Because of these models, arbitrary map resolutions can be achieved, even beyond the sensor resolution. Finally, a geometric map building method is presented and combined with the probabilistic approach. The resulting map is composed of two layers. The echo intensity layer holds the most likely echo intensities at each point in the sea-floor. The probabilistic layer contains information about how confident can the user or the higher control layers be about the echo intensity layer data. Experimental results have been conducted in a large subsea region.
Notch1 controls development of the extravillous trophoblast lineage in the human placenta

Significance Progenitor trophoblast cells of the human placenta either fuse to form a syncytium or develop into invasive trophoblasts invading the maternal uterus. However, regulatory pathways controlling their development and distinct differentiation programs are poorly understood. In the present study, we demonstrate that Notch1 is a critical regulator of early pregnancy, promoting development of the invasive, extravillous trophoblast lineage and survival of its progenitors. In vivo, Notch1 is detected in extravillous trophoblast progenitors and clusters of villous trophoblast initiating the invasive differentiation program. In vitro, Notch1 repressed genes involved in self-renewal of fusogenic precursors, but induced genes specifically expressed by extravillous trophoblast progenitors. Our data delineate Notch1 as a key regulator promoting development of the human extravillous trophoblast lineage. Development of the human placenta and its different epithelial trophoblasts is crucial for a successful pregnancy. Besides fusing into a multinuclear syncytium, the exchange surface between mother and fetus, progenitors develop into extravillous trophoblasts invading the maternal uterus and its spiral arteries. Migration into these vessels promotes remodelling and, as a consequence, adaption of blood flow to the fetal–placental unit. Defects in remodelling and trophoblast differentiation are associated with severe gestational diseases, such as preeclampsia. However, mechanisms controlling human trophoblast development are largely unknown. Herein, we show that Notch1 is one such critical regulator, programming primary trophoblasts into progenitors of the invasive differentiation pathway. At the 12th wk of gestation, Notch1 is exclusively detected in precursors of the extravillous trophoblast lineage, forming cell columns anchored to the uterine stroma. At the 6th wk, Notch1 is additionally expressed in clusters of villous trophoblasts underlying the syncytium, suggesting that the receptor initiates the invasive differentiation program in distal regions of the developing placental epithelium. Manipulation of Notch1 in primary trophoblast models demonstrated that the receptor promotes proliferation and survival of extravillous trophoblast progenitors. Notch1 intracellular domain induced genes associated with stemness of cell columns, myc and VE-cadherin, in Notch1− fusogenic precursors, and bound to the myc promoter and enhancer region at RBPJκ cognate sequences. In contrast, Notch1 repressed syncytialization and expression of TEAD4 and p63, two regulators controlling self-renewal of villous cytotrophoblasts. Our results revealed Notch1 as a key factor promoting development of progenitors of the extravillous trophoblast lineage in the human placenta.
Treating All Rapid Responses as Errors (TARRE) Improves Estimates of Ability (Slightly)

Response times can be modeled along with response accuracy to estimate ability. Models that do not use response times were compared with three models that do. The predictive accuracy of the models were assessed using leave-out-one-item cross-validation where for a $k$ item test each method is used $k$ times with $k-1$ items to create ability estimates and these estimates are used to predict responses on the remaining item. The conceptually simplest method using response times, which treats all rapid responses as errors (TARRE), produced the most predictive values. However, the increase was less than would be achieved by having one extra item on the test. Possible effects of changing the scoring algorithm on student test taking behavior need to be explored before implementing any such a change.
New Perspectives on Customer "Death" Using a Generalization of the Pareto/NBD Model

Several researchers have proposed models of buyer behavior in noncontractual settings that assume that customers are “alive” for some period of time and then become permanently inactive. The best-known such model is the Pareto/NBD, which assumes that customer attrition (dropout or “death”) can occur at any point in calendar time. A recent alternative model, the BG/NBD, assumes that customer attrition follows a Bernoulli “coin-flipping” process that occurs in “transaction time” (i.e., after every purchase occasion). Although the modification results in a model that is much easier to implement, it means that heavy buyers have more opportunities to “die. ” In this paper, we develop a model with a discrete-time dropout process tied to calendar time. Specifically, we assume that every customer periodically “flips a coin” to determine whether she “drops out” or continues as a customer. For the component of purchasing while alive, we maintain the assumptions of the Pareto/NBD and BG/NBD models. This periodic death opportunity (PDO) model allows us to take a closer look at how assumptions about customer death influence model fit and various metrics typically used by managers to characterize a cohort of customers. When the time period after which each customer makes her dropout decision (which we call period length) is very small, we show analytically that the PDO model reduces to the Pareto/NBD. When the period length is longer than the calibration period, the dropout process is “shut off,” and the PDO model collapses to the negative binomial distribution (NBD) model. By systematically varying the period length between these limits, we can explore the full spectrum of models between the “continuous-time-death” Pareto/NBD and the naive “no-death” NBD. In covering this spectrum, the PDO model performs at least as well as either of these models; our empirical analysis demonstrates the superior performance of the PDO model on two data sets. We also show that the different models provide significantly different estimates of both purchasing-related and death-related metrics for both data sets, and these differences can be quite dramatic for the death-related metrics. As more researchers and managers make managerial judgments that directly relate to the death process, we assert that the model employed to generate these metrics should be chosen carefully.
Dietary fiber intake and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in French adults.

BACKGROUND Increased consumption of dietary fiber is widely recommended to maintain or improve health, but knowledge of the relation between dietary fiber sources and cardiovascular disease risk factors is limited. OBJECTIVE We examined the relation between the source or type of dietary fiber intake and cardiovascular disease risk factors in a cohort of adult men and women. DESIGN In a cross-sectional study, quintiles of fiber intake were determined from dietary records, separately for 2532 men and 3429 women. Age- and multivariate-controlled logistic models investigated the odds ratios of abnormal markers for quintiles 2-5 of fiber intake compared with the lowest quintile. RESULTS The highest total dietary fiber and nonsoluble dietary fiber intakes were associated with a significantly (P < 0.05) lower risk of overweight and elevated waist-to-hip ratio, blood pressure, plasma apolipoprotein (apo) B, apo B:apo A-I, cholesterol, triacylglycerols, and homocysteine. Soluble dietary fiber was less effective. Fiber from cereals was associated with a lower body mass index, blood pressure, and homocysteine concentration; fiber from vegetables with a lower blood pressure and homocysteine concentration; and fiber from fruit with a lower waist-to-hip ratio and blood pressure. Fiber from dried fruit or nuts and seeds was associated with a lower body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, and fasting apo B and glucose concentrations. Fiber from pulses had no specific effect. CONCLUSION Dietary fiber intake is inversely correlated with several cardiovascular disease risk factors in both sexes, which supports its protective role against cardiovascular disease and recommendations for its increased consumption.
Characterization of the Residual Stresses and Strength of Ceramic-Metal Braze Joints

Residual stress relief in ceramic-metal joints produced by active brazing depends primarily on the plastic response of the filler metal. A procedure for the production and mechanical characterization of bulk active filler alloy specimens is developed. In parallel ceramic-metal joints are produced and tested. Residual stresses are measured by X-ray diffraction while the joint strength is assessed by four-point bend tests. The obtained elastoplastic properties of the filler are introduced into finite element models to predict the residual stresses in the joints and their behavior in bending. The results of the simulations show good agreement both with the residual stress measurements and with the results of four-point bend tests.
Contrasting demographic history and gene flow patterns of two mangrove species on either side of the Central American Isthmus

Comparative phylogeography offers a unique opportunity to understand the interplay between past environmental events and life-history traits on diversification of unrelated but co-distributed species. Here, we examined the effects of the quaternary climate fluctuations and palaeomarine currents and present-day marine currents on the extant patterns of genetic diversity in the two most conspicuous mangrove species of the Neotropics. The black (Avicennia germinans, Avicenniaceae) and the red (Rhizophora mangle, Rhizophoraceae) mangroves have similar geographic ranges but are very distantly related and show striking differences on their life-history traits. We sampled 18 Atlantic and 26 Pacific locations for A. germinans (N = 292) and R. mangle (N = 422). We performed coalescence simulations using microsatellite diversity to test for evidence of population change associated with quaternary climate fluctuations. In addition, we examined whether patterns of genetic variation were consistent with the directions of major marine (historical and present day) currents in the region. Our demographic analysis was grounded within a phylogeographic framework provided by the sequence analysis of two chloroplasts and one flanking microsatellite region in a subsample of individuals. The two mangrove species shared similar biogeographic histories including: (1) strong genetic breaks between Atlantic and Pacific ocean basins associated with the final closure of the Central American Isthmus (CAI), (2) evidence for simultaneous population declines between the mid-Pleistocene and early Holocene, (3) asymmetric historical migration with higher gene flow from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans following the direction of the palaeomarine current, and (4) contemporary gene flow between West Africa and South America following the major Atlantic Ocean currents. Despite the remarkable differences in life-history traits of mangrove species, which should have had a strong influence on seed dispersal capability and, thus, population connectivity, we found that vicariant events, climate fluctuations and marine currents have shaped the distribution of genetic diversity in strikingly similar ways.
Blood Pressure Trajectory, Gait Speed, and Outcomes: The Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study.

BACKGROUND The present study aimed to (i) evaluate previous observations that the association of blood pressure (BP) with outcomes varies by gait speed and (ii) evaluate the association of subsequent changes in BP and cardiovascular risk. METHODS Participants included 2,669 adults aged 70-79 years in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study. Gait speed was dichotomized at ≥1.0 m/s over a 20-m test at baseline. BP was measured at baseline, and changes in BP over 5 years were evaluated using (i) population-based trajectory models and (ii) intraindividual mean and slope. RESULTS Over a mean of 10 years, there were 1,366 deaths, 336 first myocardial infarctions, and 295 first strokes. There was a differential pattern of association between baseline systolic BP and diastolic BP and outcomes among brisk and moderate speed walkers. For example, the association between higher diastolic BP and mortality was in the protective direction for moderate speed walkers (hazard ratio = 0.75; 95% confidence interval: 0.63, 0.91) per 10 mmHg higher, whereas it was null in brisk walkers (hazard ratio = 1.05; 95% confidence interval: 0.98, 1.11), p value for interaction . 01. The 5-year population-based trajectories did not add important information beyond baseline BP. Individual slopes in both systolic BP and diastolic BP did not appear to have important associations with the outcomes. CONCLUSIONS In this study, we found that the overall level of BP was associated with myocardial infarction, stroke, and death, and this association differed by baseline gait speed, whereas changes in BP were not associated with these outcomes.