Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of dietary quercetin supplementation on physical performance, mood, sleep, and illness during military physical training

Objective: To investigate the effects of 6 weeks of quercetin supplementation on physical performance in men and women enduring military physical training. Methods: Using a randomized, double-blind, repeated-measures, placebo-controlled design, 58 healthy, moderately-trained young men and women undergoing regular military physical training were randomly assigned to Quercetin (Q) and Placebo (P) groups. Peak oxygen uptake (V . O2peak) during maximal-effort uphill treadmill running, four physical performance measures [Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), Baumgartner Modified PullUp Test (BMPU), Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnT), and 36.6-m sprint], and a simple reaction time test [Walter Reed palm-held psychomotor vigilance test] were evaluated before and after 42-54 days of supplementation with 1 g/d of quercetin with vitamins and other substances in a soft chew or a placebo chew. Results: Pretreatment-toposttreatment changes in V . O2peak and performance on the APFT, BMPU, WAnT, and 36.6-m sprint were not significantly different (p > 0.05) in Q and P. Pre-, mid-, and posttreatment changes on the Walter Reed palm-held psychomotor vigilance test were not significantly different (p > 0.05) between groups. Conclusion: Six weeks of dietary quercetin supplementation in moderately-trained young men and women involved in regular military physical training does not improve V . O2peak, performance on the APFT, BMPU, WAnT, 36.6-m sprint, or simple reaction time.
‘It’s about using the full sanction catalogue’: on boundary negotiations in a multi-agency organised crime investigation

ABSTRACT Inter-organisational and inter-disciplinary investigations are increasingly deployed against criminal networks and cross-jurisdictional crimes. This study provides a unique empirical window into an inter-organisational investigation against a large organised crime network in Norway. Building on interview data from the participants in the multi-agency investigation team that was summoned for this case, the article discusses co-ordination issues that arise when organisations with different goals and interests collaborate to reach a common goal. The article studies co-ordination from inside of the investigation team and discusses the interchangeable use of criminal and administrative law. While bridging organisational boundaries enable agencies to pool powers, co-ordination across organisations may challenge the protection of sometimes conflicting aims and interests.
Experimental stress assessment in biomedical measurement class

Classes at Czech Technical University in Prague focused on biomedical engineering are mainly working with physiological aspects of human body. Nowadays it becomes more common to include also psychological effects on human body, because a mental state of a person can affect the way he or she behaves and approaches problems. This paper describes a class which shows how human body can be affected by its state [1],[3],[4]. The aim is make students realize, that people's mental state can influence state of body's function. It is important, because the psychological state can affect decision making skills and performance. In today's society is very important to consider a human as a part of the loop.
DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN CITRULLINE AND ARGININE TRANSPORT IN ACTIVATED MURINE MACROPHAGES : RECYCLING OF CITRULLINE TO ARGININE DOES NOT SUSTAIN MAXIMAL NO SYNTHESIS

1. The kinetics, specificity, pH-and Na +-dependency of L-citrulline transport were examined-2-in unstimulated and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) activated murine macrophage J774 cells. The dependency of nitric oxide production on extracellular arginine or citrulline was investigated in cells activated with LPS (1 μg ml-1) for 24 h. 2. In unstimulated J774 cells transport of citrulline was saturable (K t = 0.16 mM and V max = 32 pmol μg protein-1 min-1), pH-insensitive and partially Na +-dependent. In contrast to arginine (Baydoun et al., 1993), transport of citrulline was unchanged in LPS-activated (1 μg ml-1 , 24 h) cells. 3. Kinetic inhibition experiments revealed that arginine was a relatively poor inhibitor of citrulline transport, whilst citrulline was a more potent inhibitor (K i = 3.4 mM) of arginine transport but only in the presence of extracellular Na +. Neutral amino acids inhibited citrulline transport (K i = 0.2-0.3 mM), but were poor inhibitors of arginine transport. 4. Activated J774 cells did not release nitrite in the absence of exogenous arginine.
Body and social cognitions

This paper is a literature review about social cognitions and behaviors related to the body. Our goal is to present what is understood by body in the scope of social psychology, specifically in relation to social representation theory and phenomenon. In this perspective, the role of socially shared beliefs and values is taken in consideration as well as the psychological and individual dimensions so to comprehend the conceptions and social functions linked to the body, along with behaviors related to it. Empirical studies and theoretical essays published in the scientific literature nationally and internationally were used as a foundation. Social representation theory makes possible an amplified comprehension of the body and behaviors associated to it. It is known that the body mediates social relations and moreover the body has been considered over the last decades as a highlight in the media and scientific productions, mirroring the movement of society in relation to this object and values implicated in it. We are living an important social moment to think about the body, and the beliefs and cares related to it.
Amplifying Head Movements with Head-Mounted Displays

The head-mounted display (HMD) is a popular form of virtual display due to its ability to immerse users visually in virtual environments (VEs). Unfortunately, the user's virtual experience is compromised by the narrow field of view (FOV) it affords, which is less than half that of normal human vision. This paper explores a solution to some of the problems caused by the narrow FOV by amplifying the head movement made by the user when wearing an HMD, so that the view direction changes by a greater amount in the virtual world than it does in the real world. Tests conducted on the technique show a significant improvement in performance on a visual search task, and questionnaire data indicate that the altered visual parameters that the user receives may be preferable to those in the baseline condition in which amplification of movement was not implemented. The tests also show that the user cannot interact normally with the VE if corresponding body movements are not amplified to the same degree as head movements, which may limit the implementation's versatility. Although not suitable for every application, the technique shows promise, and alterations to aspects of the implementation could extend its use in the future.
Compromised fertility disrupts Peg1 but not Snrpn and Peg3 imprinted methylation acquisition in mouse oocytes

Growth and maturation of healthy oocytes within follicles requires bidirectional signaling and intercellular gap junctional communication. Aberrant endocrine signaling and loss of gap junctional communication between the oocyte and granulosa cells leads to compromised folliculogenesis, oocyte maturation, and oocyte competency, consequently impairing fertility. Given that oocyte-specific DNA methylation establishment at imprinted genes occurs during this growth phase, we determined whether compromised endocrine signaling and gap junctional communication would disrupt de novo methylation acquisition using ERβ and connexin37 genetic models. To compare mutant oocytes to control oocytes, DNA methylation acquisition was first examined in individual, 20–80 μm control oocytes at three imprinted genes, Snrpn, Peg3, and Peg1. We observed that each gene has its own size-dependent acquisition kinetics, similar to previous studies. To determine whether compromised endocrine signaling and gap junctional communication disrupted de novo methylation acquisition,individual oocytes from Esr2- and Gja4-deficient mice were also assessed for DNA methylation establishment. We observed no aberrant or delayed acquisition of DNA methylation at Snrpn, Peg3, or Peg1 in oocytes from Esr2-deficient females, and no perturbation in Snrpn or Peg3 de novo methylation in oocytes from Gja4-null females. However, Gja4 deficiency resulted in a loss or delay in methylation acquisition at Peg1. One explanation for this difference between the three loci analyzed is the late establishment of DNA methylation at the Peg1 gene. These results indicate that compromised fertility though impaired intercellular communication can lead to imprinting acquisition errors. Further studies are required to determine the effects of subfertility/infertility originating from impaired signaling and intercellular communication during oogenesis on imprint maintenance during preimplantation development.
Population-based study of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy and survival outcomes of breast cancer patients.

BACKGROUND Despite increased demand for contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM), the survival benefit of this procedure remains uncertain. METHODS We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database to identify 107 106 women with breast cancer who had undergone mastectomy for treatment between 1998 and 2003 and a subset of 8902 women who also underwent CPM during the same period. Associations between predictor variables and the likelihood of undergoing CPM were evaluated by use of chi(2) analyses. Risk-stratified (estrogen receptor [ER] status, stage, and age) adjusted survival analyses were performed by using Cox regression. Statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS In a univariate analysis, CPM was associated with improved disease-specific survival (hazard ratio [HR] of death = 0.63, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.57 to 0.69; P < .001). Risk-stratified analysis showed that this association was because of a reduction in breast cancer-specific mortality in women aged 18-49 years with stages I-II ER-negative cancer (HR of death = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.53 to 0.88; P = .004). Five year-adjusted breast cancer survival for this group was improved with CPM vs without (88.5% vs 83.7%, difference = 4.8%). Although rates of contralateral breast cancer among young women with stages I-II disease undergoing CPM were independent of ER status, women with ER-positive tumors in the absence of prophylactic mastectomy also had a lower overall risk for contralateral breast cancer than women with ER-negative tumors (0.46% vs 0.90%, difference = 0.44%; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS CPM is associated with a small improvement in 5-year breast cancer-specific survival mainly in young women with early-stage ER-negative breast cancer. This effect is related to a higher baseline risk of contralateral breast cancer.
Policy Distortions and Aggregate Productivity with Heterogeneous Plants

We formulate a version of the growth model in which production is carried out by heterogeneous plants and calibrate it to US data. In the context of this model we argue that differences in the allocation of resources across heterogeneous plants may be an important factor in accounting for cross-country differences in output per capita. In particular, we show that policies which create heterogeneity in the prices faced by individual producers can lead to sizeable decreases in output and measured TFP in the range of 30 to 50 percent. We show that these effects can result from policies that do not rely on aggregate capital accumulation or aggregate relative price differences. More generally, the model can be used to generate differences in capital accumulation, relative prices, and measured TFP.
The Relationship of Early Maladaptive Schemas, Attributional Styles and Learned Helplessness among Addicted and Non-Addicted Men

Background Addiction is considered as one of the major problems in family and community in the world. According to cognitive view, organizing the experiences determines how to behave. Due to their importance in interpretation of special situations, cognitive schemas and attributional styles have a significant role in cognitive theories. The aim of this study was to compare early maladaptive schemas and attributional styles in addicts and non-addicts to recognize their role in addiction. Methods In this causal-comparative study, 200 addicted and non-addicted men were randomly selected. Young early maladaptive schema and attributional styles questionnaires were used. Data analysis was performed by independent t-test, Pearson correlation and regression. Findings The study population included 81 addicted and 90 non-addicted men. There were significant differences between early maladaptive schemas and attributional styles in the two groups of addicted and non-addicted men (P < 0.001). In addition, addicts had higher levels of learned helplessness. A direct relationship was found between learned helplessness and frequency of addiction treatments (r ═ 0.234, P < 0.05). Conclusion Our study showed that addicts suffer from high levels of early maladaptive schemas. They had a more pessimistic attributional style. Moreover, addicts who developed higher levels of learned helplessness were less successful in addiction treatment and more likely to use drugs again after treatment. These issues show that addiction institutions and therapists have to pay attention to cognitive factors for addiction prevention.
Exclusive Leptoproduction of ρ 0 Mesons from Hydrogen at Intermediate Virtual Photon Energies

Measurements of the cross section for exclusive virtual-photoproduction of ρ mesons from hydrogen are reported. The data were collected by the HERMES experiment using 27.5 GeV positrons incident on a hydrogen gas target in the HERA storage ring. The invariant mass W of the photon-nucleon system ranges from 4.0 to 6.0 GeV, while the negative squared four-momentum Q of the virtual photon varies from 0.7 to 5.0 GeV. The present data together with most of the previous data at W > 4 GeV are well described by a model that infers the W -dependence of the cross section from the dependence on the Bjorken scaling variable x of the unpolarized structure function for deep-inelastic scattering. In addition, a model calculation based on Off-Forward Parton Distributions gives a fairly good account of the longitudinal component of the ρ production cross section for Q > 2 GeV.
Remora fish suction pad attachment is enhanced by spinule friction

ABSTRACT The remora fishes are capable of adhering to a wide variety of natural and artificial marine substrates using a dorsal suction pad. The pad is made of serial parallel pectinated lamellae, which are homologous to the dorsal fin elements of other fishes. Small tooth-like projections of mineralized tissue from the dorsal pad lamella, known as spinules, are thought to increase the remora's resistance to slippage and thereby enhance friction to maintain attachment to a moving host. In this work, the geometry of the spinules and host topology as determined by micro-computed tomography and confocal microscope data, respectively, are combined in a friction model to estimate the spinule contribution to shear resistance. Model results are validated with natural and artificially created spinules and compared with previous remora pull-off experiments. It was found that spinule geometry plays an essential role in friction enhancement, especially at short spatial wavelengths in the host surface, and that spinule tip geometry is not correlated with lamellar position. Furthermore, comparisons with pull-off experiments suggest that spinules are primarily responsible for friction enhancement on rough host topologies such as shark skin. Summary: The geometry of remora fish suction disc spinules increases passive friction on rough host surfaces such as shark skin.
A Site of Shifting Boundaries: Fostering and Limiting Mobility in the Ruhr Valley (1860–1910)

ABSTRACT In recent decades, our perception of borders has become increasingly complex: 30 years after the Schengen Agreement, EU citizens’ freedom to travel is largely taken for granted, yet contemporary debates on refugees and the external borders of the European Union suggest that borders resemble semi-permeable membranes, enabling the influx of “desired” persons while excluding “undesirable” migratory flows. However, these trends in “filtering” movements of people are hardly unique to the 21st century. This article treats the Ruhr Valley as an example of early migration to Germany and the associated rights and restrictions placed on movement there in the second half of the “long” 19th century. The author argues that limits on migration and settlement also shifted in zones of increasing mobility and migration like the Ruhr region, where they excluded Russian “Poles” in particular. However, migration control by the higher authorities was never total. The paper first shows how the actions of different groups (political authorities, entrepreneurs, migrants, and their networks) were intertwined with one another in a way that made the Ruhr region into a preferred destination for migrants within a transatlantic migration system. It then critically analyzes the hitherto little discussed expulsions and naturalization procedures as political means of population control and illuminates the importance of latent divergent interests at different levels of government. Overall, the study intends to contribute to a better understanding of the different social mechanisms on the local level that were part of migration control in the context of the nascent (nation) state.
Effects of Age and Mild Cognitive Impairment on the Pain Response System

Background: Both age and dementia have been shown to have an effect on nociception and pain processing. The question arises whether mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is thought to be a transitional stage between normal ageing and dementia, is also associated with alterations in pain processing. Objective: The aim of the present study was to answer this question by investigating the impact of age and MCI on the pain response system. Methods: Forty young subjects, 45 cognitively unimpaired elderly subjects and 42 subjects with MCI were investigated by use of an experimental multi-method approach. The subjects were tested for their subjective (pain ratings), motor (RIII reflex), facial (Facial Action Coding System) and their autonomic (sympathetic skin response and evoked heart rate response) responses to noxious electrical stimulation of the nervus suralis. Results: We found significant group differences in the autonomic responses to noxious stimulation. The sympathetic skin response amplitude was significantly reduced in the cognitively unimpaired elderly subjects compared to younger subjects and to an even greater degree in subjects with MCI. The evoked heart rate response was reduced to a similar degree in both groups of aged subjects. Regression analyses within the two groups of the elderly subjects revealed that age and, in the MCI group, cognitive status were significant predictors of the decrease in autonomic responsiveness to noxious stimulation. Except for the autonomic parameters, no other pain parameter differed between the three groups. Conclusion: The pain response system appeared to be quite unaltered in MCI patients compared to cognitively unimpaired individuals of the same age. Only the sympathetic responsiveness qualified as an indicator of early aging effects as well as of pathophysiology associated with MCI, which both seemed to affect the pain system independently from each other.
PRE-REIONIZATION FOSSILS, ULTRA-FAINT DWARFS, AND THE MISSING GALACTIC SATELLITE PROBLEM

We argue that, at least a fraction of the newly discovered population of ultra-faint dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Local Group constitute the fossil relic of a once ubiquitous population of dwarf galaxies formed before reionization with circular velocities smaller than vcrc ∼ 20 km s−1. We present several arguments in support of this model. The number of luminous Milky Way satellites inferred from observations is larger than the estimated number of dark halos in the Galaxy that have, or had in the past, a circular velocity greater than vcrc, as predicted by the “Via Lactea” simulation. This implies that some ultra-faint dwarfs are fossils. However, this argument is weakened by recent results from the “Aquarius” simulations showing that the number of Galactic dark matter satellites is 2.5 larger than previously believed. Secondly, the existence of a population of ultra-faint dwarfs was predicted by cosmological simulations in which star formation in the first minihalos is reduced—but not suppressed—by radiative feedback. Here, we show the statistical properties of the fossil galaxies in those simulations are consistent with observations of the new dwarf population and with the number and radial distribution of Milky Way satellites as a function of their luminosity. Finally, the observed Galactocentric distribution of dwarfs is consistent with a fraction of dwarf spheroidals being fossils. To make our case more compelling, future work should determine whether stellar chemical abundances of simulated “fossils” can reproduce observations and whether the tidal scenarios for the formation of Local Group dwarf spheroidals are equally consistent with all available observations.
Rethinking the generational gap in online news use: An infrastructural perspective

Our study investigates the role of infrastructures in shaping online news usage by contrasting use patterns of two social groups—millennials and boomers—that are specifically located in news infrastructures. Typically based on self-reported data, popular press and academics tend to highlight the generational gap in news usage and link it to divergence in values and preferences of the two age cohorts. In contrast, we conduct relational analyses of shared usage obtained from passively metered usage data across a vast range of online news outlets for millennials and boomers. We compare each cohort’s usage networks comprising various types of news websites. Our analyses reveal a smaller than commonly assumed generational gap in online news usage, with characteristics that manifest the multifarious effects of the infrastructures of the media environment, alongside those of preferences.
Transdimensional Markov Chains

The last 10 years have witnessed the development of sampling frameworks that permit the construction of Markov chains that simultaneously traverse both parameter and model space. Substantial methodological progress has been made during this period. In this article we present a survey of the current state of the art and evaluate some of the most recent advances in this field. We also discuss future research perspectives in the context of the drive to develop sampling mechanisms with high degrees of both efficiency and automation.
Reconstructing Dewey: Habit, Embodiment and Health and Well-Being

ABSTRACT This critical paper utilises selective education writings by John Dewey as the basis for considering how a strengths-based and personalised view of habit and embodiment could effectively thrive as part of an enhanced health and well-being focus in schools. The paper centres on Dewey’s belief that habits when allied to continuity and interaction could help children to integrate experiences in ways which enable them to constructively evaluate the contribution of health and well-being to their education. The paper concludes by reviewing how the connections between habit, embodiment and health and well-being could be pedagogically strengthened.