Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness and exercise on the autonomic and arterial systems of healthy adolescents

2 Acknowledgements 4 Publications 14 Conference Presentation 15 List of Figures 16 List of Tables 20 List of Equations 22 Abbreviations 23 Chapter 1: Introduction 26 Chapter 2: Literature Review 32 2.1 Cardiovascular diseases 32 2.2 Childhood origins of cardiovascular diseases 34 2.2.1 Traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors 35 2.3 Cardiovascular risk reduction via physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness and exercise 38 2.3. 1 Physical activity 39 2.3. 2 Physical activity intensity 41 2.3. 3 Cardiorespiratory fitness 45 2.3. 4 The risk factor gap 48 2.4 Autonomic function 52 2.4. 1 Assessment of autonomic function 52 2.4. 2 Physical activity and autonomic function 58 2.4. 3 Cardiorespiratory fitness and autonomic function 60 2.5 Arterial function 61 2.5. 1 Assessment of arterial stiffness 62 2.5. 2 Physical activity and arterial function 68 2.5. 3 Cardiorespiratory fitness and arterial function 71 2.6 Interaction between autonomic and vascular systems 72 2.6. 1 Baroreflex sensitivity 72 2.7 Cardiovascular risk in the postprandial state 84 2.7. 1 Hyperglycaemia 87 2.7. 2 Hyperlipaemia 90
Risk factors associated with cerebral palsy in preterm infants

Objective. To examine pregnancy outcomes in preterm delivered children with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods. A retrospective population-based cohort study of children born in California (January 1, 1991 and December 31, 2001) with CP were identified (State databases) and compared to children without CP. We examined demographic data and pregnancy outcomes by gestational age groups controlling for multiple co-founders. Results. Of 2733 preterm infants (total of 8397, 33% <37 weeks of gestation) with CP, delivery <28 weeks had the largest impact upon the development of CP (Odds ratio (OR) 18.2 95%CI (16.7, 19.9)) with delivery 28–31 6/7 weeks having less impact (OR 8.8 (8.0, 9.7) when compared to term deliveries. Birth asphyxia (OR 5.9 (5.3, 6.6) was associated with the future development of CP as were birth defects (OR 4.3 (4.1. 4.5), cord prolapse (OR 2.0 (1.6, 2.4)) and fetal distress (OR 2.1 (1.9, 2.2)) the latter 2 being less so. Conclusion. Prematurity had the greatest impact upon the future development of CP; however, birth asphyxia, birth defects and adverse labor events contributed significantly to the future development of CP as well, suggesting that the cause of CP in the preterm infant is most likely multifactorial.
Altered T-Cell Responses by the Periodontal Pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis

Several studies support an association between the chronic inflammatory diseases periodontitis and atherosclerosis with a crucial role for the periodontal pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis. However, the interplay between this pathogen and the adaptive immune system, including T-cells, is sparsely investigated. Here we used Jurkat T-cells to determine the effects of P. gingivalis on T-cell-mediated adaptive immune responses. We show that viable P. gingivalis targets IL-2 expression at the protein level. Initial cellular events, including ROS production and [Ca2+]i, were elevated in response to P. gingivalis, but AP-1 and NF-κB activity dropped below basal levels and T-cells were unable to sustain stable IL-2 accumulation. IL-2 was partially restored by Leupeptin, but not by Cathepsin B Inhibitor, indicating an involvement of Rgp proteinases in the suppression of IL-2 accumulation. This was further confirmed by purified Rgp that caused a dose-dependent decrease in IL-2 levels. These results provide new insights of how this periodontal pathogen evades the host adaptive immune system by inhibiting IL-2 accumulation and thus attenuating T-cell proliferation and cellular communication.
On the Eeectiveness of Set Covering Formulations for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

The Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW) is one of the most important problems in distribution and transportation. A classical and recently popular technique that has proven eeective for solving these problems is based on formulating them as a set covering problem. The method starts by solving its linear programming relaxation, via column generation, and then uses a branch and bound strategy to nd an integer solution to the set covering problem: a solution to the VRPTW. An empirically observed property is that the optimal solution value of the set covering problem is very close to its linear programming relaxation which makes the branch and bound step extremely eecient. In this paper, we explain this behavior by demonstrating that for any distribution of service times, time windows, customer loads and locations, the relative gap between fractional and integer solutions of the set covering problem becomes arbitrarily small as the number of customers increases. The Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW) can be stated as follows: a set of customers dispersed in a geographic region has to be served by a eet of vehicles initially located at a given depot. Each customer has a demand that must be picked up and each speciies a period of time, called a time window, in which this pick up must occur. The total load carried by each vehicle can be no more than the vehicle capacity. The objective is to nd a set of routes for the vehicles, where each route begins and ends at the depot, serves a subset of the customers without violating the capacity and time window constraints, while minimizing the total length of the routes. Due to the wide applicability and the economic importance of the problem in the service industry , variants of it have been extensively studied in the vehicle routing literature; for a review see
Structural Polymorphism and Diversifying Selection on the Pregnancy Malaria Vaccine Candidate Var2csa

VAR2CSA is the main candidate for a pregnancy malaria vaccine, but vaccine development may be complicated by sequence polymorphism. Here, we obtained partial or full-length var2CSA sequences from 106 parasites and applied novel computational methods and three-dimensional modeling to investigate VAR2CSA geographic variation and selection pressure. Our analysis reveals structural patterns of VAR2CSA sequence variation in which polymorphic sites group into segments of limited diversity. Within these segments, two or three basic types characterize a substantial majority of the parasite samples. Comparison to the primate malaria Plasmodium reichenowi shows that these basic types have ancient origins. Globally, var2CSA genes are comprised of a mosaic of these ancestral polymorphic segments that have recombined extensively between var2CSA alleles. Three-dimensional modeling reveals that polymorphic segments concentrate in flexible loops at characteristic locations in the six VAR2CSA Duffy binding-like (DBL) adhesion domains. Individual DBL domain surfaces have distinct patterns of diversifying selection, suggesting that limited and differing portions of each DBL domain are targeted by host antibody. Since standard phylogenetic tree analysis is inadequate for highly recombining genes like var2CSA, we developed a novel phylogenetic approach that incorporates recombination and tracks new mutations in segment types. In the resulting tree, P. reichenowi is confirmed as an outlier and African and Asian P. falciparum isolates have slightly diverged. These findings validate a new approach to modeling protein evolution in the presence of frequent recombination and provide a clearer understanding of how var gene products function as immunoevasive binding ligands.
Biomarkers for combat-related PTSD: focus on molecular networks from high-dimensional data

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other deployment-related outcomes originate from a complex interplay between constellations of changes in DNA, environmental traumatic exposures, and other biological risk factors. These factors affect not only individual genes or bio-molecules but also the entire biological networks that in turn increase or decrease the risk of illness or affect illness severity. This review focuses on recent developments in the field of systems biology which use multidimensional data to discover biological networks affected by combat exposure and post-deployment disease states. By integrating large-scale, high-dimensional molecular, physiological, clinical, and behavioral data, the molecular networks that directly respond to perturbations that can lead to PTSD can be identified and causally associated with PTSD, providing a path to identify key drivers. Reprogrammed neural progenitor cells from fibroblasts from PTSD patients could be established as an in vitro assay for high throughput screening of approved drugs to determine which drugs reverse the abnormal expression of the pathogenic biomarkers or neuronal properties.
Local search for the Traveling Salesman Problem: A comparative study

The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is one of the most well-studied combinatorial optimization problems. Best heuristics for solving the TSP known today are Lin-Kernighan (LK) local search methods. Recently, Multi-Neighborhood Search (MNS) has been proposed and was demonstrated to outperform Variable Neighborhood Search based methods on the TSP. While LK performs a variable k-opt based search operation, MNS is able to carry out multiple 2-, 3-, or 4-opt moves at once, which are discovered by a highly efficient scan of the current solution. Apart from LK and MNS, many other modern heuristics for TSPs can be found in the relevant literature. However, existing studies rarely use robust statistics for the heuristic algorithms in comparison, let alone investigate their progress over time. This leads to flawed comparisons of simple end-of-run statistics and inappropriate or even incorrect conclusions. In this paper, we thoroughly compare LK and MNS as well as their hybrid versions with Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) and Population-based Ant Colony Optimization (PACO). This work, to the best of our knowledge, is the first statistically sound comparison of the two efficient heuristics as well as their hybrids with EAs and PACO over time based on a large-scale experimental study. We not only show that hybrid PACO-MNS and PACO-LK are both very efficient, but also find that the full runtime behavior comparison provides deeper and clearer insights whereas a focus of final results could indeed have led to a deceitful conclusion.
Stereotype threat-effects for Turkish-origin migrants in Germany: Taking stock of cumulative research evidence

Turkish-origin migrants on average show lower academic performance than Germans. This achievement gap cannot be fully explained by socio-economic differences between the groups. Negative competence stereotypes about Turkish-origin students predict the causal attributions that German preservice teachers make for migrants’ academic underperformance. Specifically, the more strongly preservice teachers endorse negative competence stereotypes, the more likely they are to attribute academic underperformance of Turkish-origin migrants to the migrants themselves and less to the educational system. Stereotype threat theory posits that the activation of stereotypes in test situations can reduce the performance of members of the negatively stereotyped group. Based on this theory, we propose that negative stereotypes provide a social-psychological explanation for the academic underperformance of Turkish-origin migrants compared to Germans. A series of six experiments conducted within a research project funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research investigated stereotype threat effects for Turkish-origin migrants. Two new moderator variables were identified: implicit theory of intelligence and vertical collectivism. A meta-analysis of the six studies showed a small, non-significant mean effect for stereotype threat main effects, but a significant medium-sized mean effect for moderated stereotype threat effects. Limitations and practical implications of stereotype threat effects in educational settings are discussed.
A Pictorial Key for Culex pipiens Complex (Diptera: Culicidae) In Iran

Background: The aim of this study was to design pictorial key and taxonomic literature of Culex pipiens complex in Iran. Methods: Larvae were collected using standard dipping methods in 13 randomly selected areas of Bushehr, Hamedan, Kerman, Khorasan-e-Razavi, Khuzistan, Mazandaran, Tehran, Sistan and Baluchistan and Yazd Provinces from April 2009 to October 2010. The data were analyzed using SPSS Ver. 11.5. Results: Culex pipiens larvae were identified based on the Seta 1 of the abdominal segments III–IV in north and central parts of Iran. This diagnostic character had some variation among the Cx. quinquefasciatus collected from south of the country. The identification value of intersection of costa, subcosta and bifurcation of R2+3 of female veins, was calculated as 90–100 % for Cx. pipiens. This diagnostic character was varied among the Cx. quinquefasciatus specimens. The male genitalia found as the main characters to distinguish of Cx. quinquefasciatus from Cx. pipiens. Conclusion: It is necessary more studies on the behavior and genetic variations of Cx. pipiens complex in Iran.
Supervisory Mentoring and Newcomers' Work Engagement: The Mediating Role of Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction

We aimed to determine the extent to which the 3 dimensions of basic psychological need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) explain the association between supervisory mentoring and newcomers' work engagement. Participants were 438 work newcomers living in a large coastal city in eastern China. We assessed supervisory mentoring, basic psychological need satisfaction, and work engagement in 3 time waves, each spaced 1 month apart. Findings indicated that supervisory mentoring was positively related to newcomers' work engagement, and that this relationship was mediated by the 3 dimensions (need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness) of basic psychological need satisfaction. This provides a perspective for supervisors to improve newcomers' work engagement by enhancing the satisfaction of their basic needs.
Sleep Pattern and Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students

There have been studies that demonstrate the impact of sleep on both implicit and explicit memory. Of particular interest is that sleep has been shown to aid memory consolidation. This holds some implication for students, most of whom sleep for considerably very little amount of time, whereas they require sufficient amount of sleep to consolidate memory for material learned during the day. This study was therefore designed to investigate the possible impact of sleep on the academic achievement of undergraduate students. The study participants were 300 undergraduate students drawn from about twenty Department of a private university in Nigeria. 152 of the participants were female and the rest were male. The School Sleep Survey Habit Scale previously validated in Nigeria by one of the authors (IDO) was used to measure sleep habit, while academic performance was measured as self-reported grade. The result of Analysis of variance using SPSS XX showed a significant effect of Sleepiness on Academic Performance F (8, 211)=3.73, P<. 01, and on Cumulative Grade Point Average, F (4, 190) = 3.82, P<. 005. The study also showed that stimulant intake significantly impacted on Sleep habit. It was concluded that to enhance student's academic achievement counseling centres should endeavour to include sleep in their orientation programme for students. Besides, it would be necessary not to cram up the programme in such a manner that would rob the students of adequate rest and sleep.
An FPGA implementation of a long short-term memory neural network

Our work proposes a hardware architecture for a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Neural Network, aiming to outperform software implementations, by exploiting its inherent parallelism. The main design decisions are presented, along with the proposed network architecture. A description of the main building blocks of the network is also presented. The network is synthesized for various sizes and platforms, and the performance results are presented and analyzed. Our synthesized network achieves a 251 times speed-up over a custom-built software network, running on an i7–3770k Desktop computer, proving the benefits of parallel computation for this kind of network.
Polydrug use among police detainees

This paper investigates the extent of polydrug use and recent polydrug trends among police detainees. Forty-one percent of detainees reported having used more than one illicit drug in the 30 days before detention. Fifty-nine percent of these used two drugs. The most common combination of polydrug use was cannabis and methamphetamine, and the proportion of detainees reporting this combination has more than doubled since 2009. Urinalysis data suggested that detainees under-reported polydrug use. The results indicate that more detainees may be at risk of the harms associated with polydrug use than survey data suggest.
Presynaptic Selectivity of a Ligand for Serotonin 1A Receptors Revealed by In Vivo PET Assays of Rat Brain

A novel investigational antidepressant with high affinity for the serotonin transporter and the serotonin 1A (5-HT1A) receptor, called Wf-516 (structural formula: (2S)-1-[4-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)piperidin-1-yl]-3-[2-(5-methyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)benzo[b]furan-4-yloxy]propan-2-ol monohydrochloride), has been found to exert a rapid therapeutic effect, although the mechanistic basis for this potential advantage remains undetermined. We comparatively investigated the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of Wf-516 and pindolol by positron emission tomographic (PET) and autoradiographic assays of rat brains in order to elucidate their molecular interactions with presynaptic and postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors. In contrast to the full receptor occupancy by pindolol in PET measurements, the binding of Wf-516 to 5-HT1A receptors displayed limited capacity, with relatively high receptor occupancy being achieved in regions predominantly containing presynaptic receptors. This selectivity was further proven by PET scans of neurotoxicant-treated rats deficient in presynaptic 5-HT1A receptors. In addition, [35S]guanosine 5′-O-[γ-thio]triphosphate autoradiography indicated a partial agonistic ability of Wf-516 for 5-HT1A receptors. This finding has lent support to reports that diverse partial agonists for 5-HT1A receptors exert high sensitivity for presynaptic components. Thus, the present PET data suggest a relatively high capacity of presynaptic binding sites for partial agonists. Since our in vitro and ex vivo autoradiographies failed to illustrate these distinct features of Wf-516, in vivo PET imaging is considered to be, thus far, the sole method capable of pharmacokinetically demonstrating the unique actions of Wf-516 and similar new-generation antidepressants.
Evolution of the superconductivity dome in the two-dimensional Hubbard model

In a recent publication [Chen et al., Phys. Rev. B 86, 165136 (2012)], we identified a line of Lifshitz transition points separating the Fermi liquid and pseudogap regions in the hole-doped two-dimensional Hubbard model. Here, we extend the study to further determine the superconducting transition temperature in the phase diagram. By means of large-scale dynamical cluster quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we are able to identify the evolution of the $d$-wave superconducting dome in the hole-dope side of the phase diagram, with next-nearest-neighbor hopping (${t}^{\ensuremath{'}}$), chemical potential, and temperature as control parameters. To obtain the superconducting transition temperature ${T}_{c}$, we employ two-particle measurements of the pairing susceptibilities. As ${t}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ goes from positive to negative values, we find the $d$-wave projected irreducible pairing vertex function is enhanced, and the curvature of its doping dependence changes from convex to concave, which fixes the position of the maximum superconducting temperature at the same filling ($n\ensuremath{\approx}0.85$) and constraints the dome from precisely following the Lifshitz line. We furthermore decompose the irreducible vertex function into fully irreducible, charge and spin components via the parquet equations, and consistently find that the spin component dominates the pairing vertex function in the doping range where the dome is located. Our investigations deepen the understanding of the phase diagram of the two-dimensional Hubbard model and, more importantly, pose new questions to the field. For example, we found as ${t}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ goes from positive to negative values, the curvature of the pairing strength as a function of doping changes from convex to concave, and the nature of the dominant fluctuations changes from charge degree of freedom to spin degree of freedom. The study of these issues will lead to further understanding of the phase diagram of the two-dimensional Hubbard model and also the physics of the hole-doped cuprate high-temperature superconductors.
Serendipitous Discovery of a Cataclysmic Variable in the Globular Cluster NGC 6624

Despite indications that classical cataclysmic variable (CV) stars are rare in globular clusters in general, and in the cluster NGC 6624 in particular, we have serendipitously discovered such a star ∼6″ from the cluster center. A Hubble Space Telescope spectrum of the m ∼ 22 object shows strong, broad emission lines typical of numerous field CVs, and the inferred optical and UV luminosity are also similar. Our accidental observation also provides the first high-quality ultraviolet spectrum of a globular cluster CV. That we have detected such an object in an observation that includes just a few percent of the central area of the cluster may indicate that cluster CVs are more common than previously thought, at least near the core.
Thermotolerance and rapid cold hardening ameliorate the negative effects of brief exposures to high or low temperatures on fecundity in the ̄ esh ̄ y , Sarcophaga crassipalpis

Although the immediate effects of temperature stress are well documented, the longer-term effects of such stresses are more poorly known. In these experiments, we investigate the effects of suboptimal and supraoptimal temperatures during pharate adult development on fecundity in the ̄esh ̄y, Sarcophaga crassipalpis Macquart. A 1 h cold shock at ±10°C during the red-eye pharate adult stage decreases the fecundity of both sexes. Induction of rapid cold hardening by pre-treatment at 0°C for 2 h partially prevents reproductive impairment. Heat shock of pharate adults for 1 h at 45°C also reduces fecundity in both sexes, but inducing thermotolerance by pre-treatment at 40°C for 2 h affords protection only to females. Males heat shocked at 45°C or ®rst pre-treated at 40°C consistently fail to transfer sperm to the females. The injury in ̄icted on males by heat shock is most pronounced when the stress is administered to pharate adults or adults; wandering larvae and true pupae are unaffected. The implications of these data for naturally occurring populations are discussed.