Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Comparison of Three Training Programs With the Same Workload on Overhead Throwing Velocity With Different Weighted Balls

Van den Tillaar, R and Marques, MC. A comparison of three training programs with same workload on overhead throwing velocity with different weighted balls. J Strength Cond Res 25(8): 2316-2321, 2011—The purpose of this study was to determine if different throwing programs based upon velocity (throwing with a regular sized soccer ball), resistance (throwing with heavy medicine ball), or a combination of both with the same workload would enhance 2-handed overhead throwing velocity with different ball weights. Sixty-eight high-school students (16.5 ± 1.8 years, 57.8 ± 12 kg, 164 ± 9 cm), divided into 3 groups, participated in the study. The training programs were matched on total workload, which resulted in the velocity-training group performing 6 series of 14 reps per session with soccer balls, whereas the resistance-training group performed 3 series of 6 throws with a 3-kg medicine ball, and the combination-training group threw 9 times with a 3-kg medicine ball and 3 series of 14 reps with a soccer ball per session. Throwing velocity with a soccer ball, a 1- and 3-kg medicine ball was tested before and after a training period of 6 weeks with 2 sessions per week. A significant (p ≤ 0.05) increase in throwing velocity was found after the 6-week training period with the soccer ball (6.9%) and the 1-kg medicine ball (2.8%), but not with the 3-kg medicine ball (−2.5%). In contrast, no group interaction was found with the different balls indicating that velocity, resistance, or a combination as a form of training increased the throwing velocity. Different types of training with the same total workload can increase the throwing velocity in a similar way, which shows that workload is of importance in designing training programs and comparing training with each other. Therefore, those that train high-school soccer players could implement any one of these 3 6-week programs to increase 2-handed overhead soccer throw-in velocity. This could allow the throw-in to be harder or potentially thrown farther if the right trajectory is used.
Simulation of intrinsic parameter fluctuations in decananometer and nanometer-scale MOSFETs

Intrinsic parameter fluctuations introduced by discreteness of charge and matter will play an increasingly important role when semiconductor devices are scaled to decananometer and nanometer dimensions in next-generation integrated circuits and systems. In this paper, we review the analytical and the numerical simulation techniques used to study and predict such intrinsic parameters fluctuations. We consider random discrete dopants, trapped charges, atomic-scale interface roughness, and line edge roughness as sources of intrinsic parameter fluctuations. The presented theoretical approach based on Green's functions is restricted to the case of random discrete charges. The numerical simulation approaches based on the drift diffusion approximation with density gradient quantum corrections covers all of the listed sources of fluctuations. The results show that the intrinsic fluctuations in conventional MOSFETs, and later in double gate architectures, will reach levels that will affect the yield and the functionality of the next generation analog and digital circuits unless appropriate changes to the design are made. The future challenges that have to be addressed in order to improve the accuracy and the predictive power of the intrinsic fluctuation simulations are also discussed.
The transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) is active in a post-ER compartment

The translocation of cytosolic peptides into the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a crucial step in the presentation of intracellular antigen to T cells by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules. It is mediated by the transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) protein, which binds to peptide-receptive MHC class I molecules to form the MHC class I peptide-loading complex (PLC). We investigated whether TAP is present and active in compartments downstream of the ER. By fluorescence microscopy, we found that TAP is localized to the ERGIC (ER-Golgi intermediate compartment) and the Golgi of both fibroblasts and lymphocytes. Using an in vitro vesicle formation assay, we show that COPII vesicles, which carry secretory cargo out of the ER, contain functional TAP that is associated with MHC class I molecules. Together with our previous work on post-ER localization of peptide-receptive class I molecules, our results suggest that loading of peptides onto class I molecules in the context of the peptide-loading complex can occur outside the ER.
Association of population and primary healthcare factors with hospital admission rates for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in England: national cross-sectional study

Background Hospital admission rates for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are known to be strongly associated with population factors. Primary care services may also affect admission rates, but there is little direct supporting evidence. Objectives To determine associations between population characteristics, diagnosed and undiagnosed COPD prevalence, primary healthcare factors, and COPD admission rates primary care trust (PCT) and general practice levels in England. Design, setting, and participants National cross-sectional study (53,676,051 patients in 8,064 practices in 152 English PCTs), combining data on hospital admissions, populations, primary healthcare staffing, clinical practice quality and access, and prevalence. Main outcome measures Directly and indirectly standardised hospital admission rates for COPD, for PCT and practice populations. Results Mean annual COPD admission rates per 100 000 population varied from 124.7 to 646.5 for PCTs and 0.0 to 2175.2 for practices. Admissions were strongly associated with population deprivation at both levels. In a practice-level multivariate Poisson regression, registered and undiagnosed COPD prevalence, smoking prevalence and deprivation were risk factors for admission (p<0.001), while healthcare factors- influenza immunisation, patient-reported access to consultations within two days, and primary care staffing, were protective (p<0.05). Conclusion Associations of COPD admission rates with deprivation, primary healthcare access and supply highlight the need for adequate services in deprived areas. An association between admission rates and undiagnosed COPD prevalence suggests that case-finding strategies should be evaluated. Of the COPD clinical quality indicators, only influenza immunisation was associated with reduced admission rates. Patients' experience of access to primary care may also be clinically important.
The role of mortality in the European fertility transition: aggregate-level relations.

An assessment is made based mainly on the early results of the Princeton European Fertility Project of the general statement that a decline in mortality was the initiating force in the European fertility transition in light of the historical vital experiences of areal aggregations of the European population. Attention is given to information relating to 3 operational questions each of which bears directly on standard arguments relating the fertility transition to reduced mortality: 1) did the onset of the decline in youthful mortality systematically precede the onset of the decline in fertility in Europe; 2) was there a steady-state balance of fertility and mortality in pretransition Europe; 3) is there evidence of an areal association in the amounts of change in fertility and mortality in the period of transition? It is concluded that the information reviewed does not go very far toward assessment of the causal role of mortality in the European fertility transition. There is little evidence of a general positive cross-sectional association of marital fertility and mortality in the pretransitional era. The relevant information in the national reports of the Princeton Project does not point to any general positive association of the vital forces in the years preceding the demographic transition. In the absence of such an equilibrium any causal connection must be understood in terms of events and relations more or less specific to the period of transition; for example the diffusion of contraception and the general process of modernization.
Reliable and efficient hop-by-hop flow control

Hop-by-hop flow control can be used to fairly share the bandwidth of a network among competing flows. No data is lost even in overload conditions; yet each flow gets access to the maximum throughput when the network is lightly loaded. However, some schemes for hop-by-hop flow control require too much memory; some of them are not resilient to errors. We propose a scheme for making hop-by-hop flow control resilient and show that it has advantages over schemes proposed by Kung. We also describe a novel method for sharing the available buffers among the flows on a link; our scheme allows us to potentially reduce the memory requirement (or increase the number of flows that can be supported) by an order of magnitude. Most of the work is described in the context of an ATM network that uses credit based flow control. However our ideas extend to networks in which flows can be distinguished, and to rate based flow control schemes.
Effects of raddoppiamento sintattico on tonal alignment in Italian

Raddoppiamento (Fono-) Sintattico (RS) is a phenomenon found in Central and Southern varieties of Italian, by which an oxytone word1 lengthens the initial consonant of word2. One possible interpretation is that RS is a resyllabification process, depending on the same constraints on syllable structure as within-word gemination. If this is correct, we also expect both phenomena to be signaled by the same cues. As a consequence of syllable structure and vowel length differences, in Neapolitan Italian the peak of the L*+H nuclear accent is later in words containing a geminate ( nonno ) than in words containing a singleton consonant ( nono ). This paper reports a pilot study on effects of RS on tonal alignment in Neapolitan Italian. The results show that, as in the case of items containing geminates, the H target is later when RS is applied. This suggests that RS can be regarded as a process of syllable restructuring.
CULTURE OF MIXED-SEX NILE TILAPIA WITH PREDATORY SNAKEHEAD

An experiment was conducted in eighteen 200-m fertilized earthen ponds at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, during March-October 2000. This experiment was designed to assess the efficiency of snakehead (Channa striata) in controlling recruitment of mixed-sex Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in ponds and to assess growth and production characteristics of Nile tilapia in monoculture and polyculture with snakehead. There were six treatments: (A) monoculture of sex-reversed all-male tilapia; (B) monoculture of mixed-sex tilapia; (C) polyculture of snakehead and mixed-sex tilapia at 1:80 ratio; (D) polyculture of snakehead and mixed-sex tilapia at 1:40 ratio; (E) polyculture of snakehead and mixed-sex tilapia 1:20 ratio; (F) polyculture of snakehead and mixed-sex tilapia at 1:10 ratio. Both generic types of Nile tilapia were stocked at 2 fish m at sizes of 10.5-11.6 g and 7.2-8.1 g, respectively. Results show that snakehead were able to completely control Nile tilapia recruitment at all tested predator:stocked-prey ratios and the best predator:stocked-prey ratio was 1:80. The addition of snakehead into Nile tilapia ponds did not result in significantly greater tilapia growth, but significantly lowered total net and gross yields of adult plus recruited tilapia. Snakehead growth was density-dependent, decreasing significantly with increasing stocking densities. While snakehead biomass gain was not significantly different at stocking density from 0.025 to 0.1 fish m, the gain was significantly lower at stocking density of 0.2 fish m. The present experiment demonstrates that snakehead were able to control Nile tilapia recruitment completely and provide an alternative technique for Nile tilapia culture.
Toward a Taxonomy of Projective Content

Projective contents, which include presuppositional inferences and Potts's (2005) conventional implicatures, are contents that may project when a construction is embedded, as standardly identified by the FAMILY-OF-SENTENCES diagnostic (e.g. Chierchia & McConnell-Ginet 1990). This article establishes distinctions among projective contents on the basis of a series of diagnostics, including a variant of the family-of-sentences diagnostic, that can be applied with linguistically untrained consultants in the field and the laboratory. These diagnostics are intended to serve as part of a toolkit for exploring projective contents across languages, thus allowing generalizations to be examined and validated crosslinguistically. We apply the diagnostics in two languages, focusing on Paraguayan Guaraní (Tupí-Guaraní), and comparing the results to those for English. Our study of Paraguayan Guaraní is the first systematic exploration of projective content in a language other than English. Based on the application of our diagnostics to a wide range of constructions, four subclasses of projective contents emerge. The resulting taxonomy of projective content has strong implications for contemporary theories of projection (e.g. Karttunen 1974, Heim 1983, van der Sandt 1992, Potts 2005, Schlenker 2009), which were developed for the projective properties of particular subclasses and fail to generalize to the full set of projective contents.
Effects of variability in anatomical reconstruction techniques on models of synaptic integration by dendrites: a comparison of three internet archives

The first step in building a realistic computational neuron model is to produce a passive electrical skeleton on to which active conductances can be grafted. For this, anatomically accurate morphological reconstructions of the desired cell type are required. In this study compartmental models were used to compare from a functional perspective three on‐line archives of rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cell morphologies. The topological organization of cells was found to be similar for all archives, but several morphometric differences were observed. The three‐dimensional size of the cells, the diameter and tortuosity of dendrites, and the electrotonic length of the main apical dendrite and of the branches in stratum lacunosum moleculare were dissimilar. The experimentally measured kinetics of somatically recorded inhibitory postsynaptic currents evoked in the stratum lacunosum moleculare (data from the literature) could be reproduced only using the archives that contained cells with an electrotonically short main apical dendrite. In the amplitude attenuation of the simulated postsynaptic currents and the voltage escape from the command potential under voltage clamp conditions, a two‐ to three‐fold difference was observed among archives. Upon activation of a single model synapse on distal branches, cells with low dendritic diameter showed a voltage escape larger than 15 mV. The diameter of the dendrites influenced greatly the results, emphasizing the importance of methods that allow an accurate measurement of this parameter. Our results indicate that there are functionally significant differences in the morphometric data available in different archives even if the cell type, brain region and species are the same.
Health effects of selected nanoparticles in vivo: liver function and hepatotoxicity following intravenous injection of titanium dioxide and Na-oleate-coated iron oxide nanoparticles in rodents

Abstract The study determined the effect of intravenous administration of acutely toxic or sub-lethal doses of Na-oleate-coated Fe3O4 (OC-Fe3O4) nanoparticles (NPs) on liver structure and function in Wistar rats, compared to titanium dioxide (TiO2) NPs and saline-injected controls. The acute study, using a modified OECD 425 progressive dosing procedure, found LD50 values of 59.22 and 36.42 mg/kg for TiO2 and OC-Fe3O4 NPs, respectively. In the sub-lethal study, rats were either injected with saline (negative controls), a sub-lethal reference (0.592 mg/kgTiO2 NPs, equal to 1% of LD50 on a body weight basis) or OC-Fe3O4 NPs in doses equivalent to 0.1, 1 or 10% of the LD50, respectively (corresponding to 0.0364, 0.364 and 3.64 mg Fe3O4/kg body weight). Animals were sampled 24 h, 1, 2 and 4 weeks post-injection for adverse effects. Mitochondrial respiration was significantly increased 2 weeks after injection of 10% OC-Fe3O4 NPs compared to controls, but the effect was transient. Cholesterol and triacylglycerol concentrations in the liver tissue did not increase in any treatment. There were some disturbances to antioxidant enzymes after OC-Fe3O4 NPs treatment in the livers of animals 1 week post-exposure; with the most sensitive changes occurring in glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities. Lipidosis and mild necrosis with changes in sinusoid space were also observed in histological sections of the liver. Overall, these data suggest that the liver likely retains functional integrity with acute and sub-lethal doses of OC-Fe3O4 NPs, albeit with some stimulation of redox defences and evidence of some tissue injury.
Impacts of Climate Change on the Biogeography and Ecological Structure of Zelkova schneideriana Hand.-Mazz. in China

This study utilized the platform for ensemble forecasting of species distributions, biomod2, to predict and quantitatively analyze the distribution changes of Zelkova schneideriana Hand. -Mazz. under different climate scenarios (SSP1-2.6 and SSP5-8.5) based on climate and land-use data. This study evaluated the geographic range changes in future distribution areas and the results indicated that, under both SSP1-2.6 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios, the distribution area of Zelkova schneideriana would be reduced, showing a trend towards migration to higher latitudes and elevations. Particularly, in the more extreme SSP5-8.5 scenario, the contraction of the distribution area was more pronounced, accompanied by more significant migration characteristics. Furthermore, the ecological structure within the distribution area of Zelkova schneideriana also experienced significant changes, with an increasing degree of fragmentation. The variables of Bio6 (minimum temperature of the coldest month), Bio2 (mean diurnal temperature range), Bio15 (precipitation seasonality), and elevation exhibited important influences on the distribution of Zelkova schneideriana, with temperature being particularly significant. Changes in land use, especially the conversion of cropland, had a significant impact on the species’ habitat. These research findings highlight the distributional pressures faced by Zelkova schneideriana in the future, emphasizing the crucial need for targeted conservation measures to protect this species and similar organisms.
PeakSegJoint: fast supervised peak detection via joint segmentation of multiple count data samples

Joint peak detection is a central problem when comparing samples in genomic data analysis, but current algorithms for this task are unsupervised and limited to at most 2 sample types. We propose PeakSegJoint, a new constrained maximum likelihood segmentation model for any number of sample types. To select the number of peaks in the segmentation, we propose a supervised penalty learning model. To infer the parameters of these two models, we propose to use a discrete optimization heuristic for the segmentation, and convex optimization for the penalty learning. In comparisons with state-of-the-art peak detection algorithms, PeakSegJoint achieves similar accuracy, faster speeds, and a more interpretable model with overlapping peaks that occur in exactly the same positions across all samples.
Assessment of different control methods for the control of maize stem borer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) in maize crop at Nowshera-Pakistan

Insect pests pose heavy threat to maize crop each year in Nowshera-Pakistan. Efficient control of pests utilizes a combination of different control methods. Two years studies on the assessment of different control methods for the control of maize stem borer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) in maize crop were conducted during the cropping seasons of 2008 and 2009 at the Cereal Crops Research Institute Pirsabak, Nowshera, Pakistan. Different control methods such as cultural, mechanical, biological and chemical alone and in combination of all as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) were tested in comparison with control for controlling of C. partellus. The results showed that all the control methods were significantly effective in reducing C. partellus infestation in maize crop. C. partellus infestation was significantly lower in IPM treatment with 2.32% and 2.77%, as compared to check 12.92% and 7.70% during 2008 and 2009, respectively. The highest maize yield of 8.64 and 5.81 ton/ha was obtained in IPM treatments during 2008 and 2009, respectively. It is concluded that IPM is the most effective control methods against C. partellus and obtaining the highest maize yield.
Antimicrobial activity of Hymenaea martiana towards dermatophytes and Cryptococcus neoformans

The biological activity of crude extract and fractions of Hymenaea martiana was evaluated against a panel of human pathogenic fungi. The crude extracts and hydroalcoholic fractions (E) showed a high activity against Cryptococcus neoformans species complex isolates with MICs between 2 and 64 μg ml−1. The methanolic (C) and butanolic (D) fractions were the most active against Trichopyton rubrum, Trichopyton mentagrophytes and Microsporum canis with MICs between 8 and 256 μg ml−1. None of the extracts was active against the yeast Malassezia furfur, Malassezia obtusa and Malassezia sympodialis.
A Disseminated Cryptococcus gattii VGIIa Infection in a Citron-Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea citrinocristata) in Québec, Canada

Abstract Cryptococcus gattii infection in mammals and birds has been confined historically to tropical and subtropical regions in Australia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America. Since the early 2000s, numerous reports describe the emergence of C. gattii on the Pacific Coast of North America. We report on a C. gattii infection in an 8-year-old male citron-crested cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea citrinocristata) hatched on the Canadian Pacific Coast and raised in the province of Québec, Canada. The bird developed a slow growing ulcerated, fleshy, crusty, and hemorrhagic mass infiltrating the left lower rhamphotheca. Cryptococcus gattii infection was confirmed by cytologic examination of a fine needle aspirate of the mass, and results of fungal culture and sequencing. The genotype of the strain was determined to be VGIIa sequence type 20, the strongly overrepresented subgroup found on the Canadian Pacific coast. Minimum inhibitory concentrations for multiple antifungal drugs were determined. The bird received fluconazole but died acutely 55 days after initial presentation. Postmortem examination revealed a disseminated infection, with involvement of the beak, lungs, spleen, and brain.