Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Surface Electromyographic Assessment of the Effect of Dynamic Activity and Dynamic Activity with Static Stretching of the Gastrocnemius on Vertical Jump Performance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of dynamic activity and dynamic activity/static stretching of the gastrocnemius muscle on vertical jump (VJ) performance. Additionally, muscle activity was recorded using electromyography. Thirteen healthy adults (7 men and 6 women) with a mean age of 26 ± 4 years served as subjects. The average jump height and muscle activity from 3 separate maximal VJ attempts were performed at the start of each session to be used as baseline measures using the Kistler force plate and the Noraxon telemetry EMG unit. Subjects then performed 1 of 2 protocols: dynamic activity only or dynamic activity with static stretching. Each protocol was followed by 3 maximal VJ trials. Average VJ height was analyzed using a 2 (time: pre, post) × 2 (prejump protocol: dynamic activity, dynamic activity + stretching) analysis of variance with repeated measures on both factors. A paired-samples t-test was used to compare the intraday difference scores for EMG activity between the 2 conditions. Jump height was not influenced by the interaction of pre-post and protocol (p = 0.0146. There was no difference for the main effects of time (p = 0.274) and pre-jump protocol (p = 0.595). Gastrocnemius muscle activity was likewise not different for the 2 prejump protocols (p = 0.413). The results from this study imply that the use of static stretching in combination with dynamic activity of the gastrocnemius muscle does not appear to have an adverse affect on VJ height performance. The practical importance concerns the warm-up routine that coaches and athletes employ; that is, they may want to consider including an aerobic component when statically stretching the gastrocnemius immediately prior to a vertical jumping event.
Nutraceutical Functions of Sesame: A Review

The results of recent food chemical and nutraceutical studies on the traditionally well-known health value of sesame are described, including some aspects of the utilization of sesame. The highly antioxidative activity of sesame oil was clarified and found to involve newly discovered lignans. The antiaging effect of sesame was elucidated to be due to the strong vitamin E activity caused by a novel synergistic effect of sesame lignans with tocopherols resulting from the inhibition of metabolic decomposition of tocopherols by sesame lignans. The specific inhibitory action of sesame lignans on Δ5 desaturase in polyunsaturated fatty acid synthesis was found in studies on the microbial production of polyunsaturated fatty acids. This effect of sesame lignans was extended to various effects on fatty acid metabolism involving lowering fatty acid concentration in liver and serum due to acceleration of fatty acid oxidation and suppression of fatty acid synthesis, and the controlling influence on the ratio of n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids under excess intake of either n-6 or n-3 fatty acids in the diet. Sesame lignans lowered the cholesterol concentration in serum, especially in combination with tocopherol, due to the inhibition of absorption from the intestine and suppression of synthesis in the liver. Sesame lignans also showed other useful functions such as acceleration of alcohol decomposition in the liver, antihypertensive activity, immunoregulatory activities, anticarcinogenic activity, and others.
Novel small molecule EGFR inhibitors as candidate drugs in non-small cell lung cancer

In the last decade, better understanding of the role of epidermal growth factor receptor in the pathogenesis and progression of non-small cell lung cancer has led to a revolution in the work-up of these neoplasms. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as erlotinib and gefitinib, have been approved for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, demonstrating an improvement in progression-free and overall survival, particularly in patients harboring activating EGFR mutations. Nevertheless, despite initial responses and long-lasting remissions, resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors invariably develops, most commonly due to the emergence of secondary T790M mutations or to the amplification of mesenchymal–epithelial transition factor (c-Met), which inevitably leads to treatment failure. Several clinical studies are ongoing (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov), aimed to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of combined approaches and to develop novel irreversible or multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors and mutant-selective inhibitors to overcome such resistance. This review is an overview of ongoing Phase I, II, and III trials of novel small molecule epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors and combinations in non-small cell lung cancer patients.
Pretreatment Expression of 13 Molecular Markers as a Predictor of Tumor Responses After Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation in Rectal Cancer

Objective:This study evaluated the predictive value of a number of tissue biomarkers, including proliferating cell nuclear antigen, survivin, thymidine phosphorylase, thymidylate synthase, bax, p53, nuclear factor-kappa B, vascular endothelial growth factor, matrix metalloproteinase-2, matrix metalloproteinase-9, CD133, CD44, and cyclooxygenase-2 with regard to preoperative chemoradiation in rectal cancer. Background:The ability to predict tumor response before treatment may significantly impact the selection of patients for preoperative chemoradiation therapy for rectal cancer. However, no definite predictive marker is known. Methods:Pretreatment biopsies from 123 patients who underwent preoperative chemoradiation were included. The mRNA levels of 13 biomarkers were analyzed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, with normalization relative to glyceraldehydes 3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Response to treatment was assessed by a 4-point tumor regression grade scale based on the ratio of fibrosis to residual cancer. Results:Among the 13 markers, no significant correlations in terms of T downstaging, N downstaging, and tumor-node-metastasis downstaging were observed. On multiple logistic regression analysis, only CD44 expression was found to be significant independent predictive factors for tumor regression grade response [odds ratio, 4.694 (1.155, 17.741), P = 0.030]. CD44 mRNA expression was significantly associated with expressions of the remaining 12 markers (all P < 0.05). Among the 118 patients receiving radical resection, proliferating cell nuclear antigen was the only independent factor to predict pathologic node negative status [odds ratio, 4.328 (1.078, 12.536), P = 0.037]. Conclusions:Elevated CD44 mRNA levels in pretreatment biopsies might be predictive of poor tumor regression after preoperative chemoradiation in rectal cancer. Moreover, the proliferating cell nuclear antigen mRNA level might be predictive of nodal regression.
Towards Semantic Interoperabilty - In-depth Comparison of Two Approaches to Solving Semantic Web Service Challenge Mediation Tasks

This paper overviews and compares the DERI and DEI-Cefriel approaches to the SWS-Challenge workshop mediation scenario in terms of the utilized underlying technologies and delivered solutions. In the mediation scenario one partner uses RosettaNet to define its B2B protocol while the other one operates on a proprietary solution. Goal of the workshop participants was to show how could these partners be semantically integrated.
Low Genetic Variation of Red-Crowned Cranes on Hokkaido Island, Japan, Over the Hundred Years

The red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis) is recognized internationally as an endangered species. Migratory populations breed in eastern Russia and northeastern China, whereas the resident population inhabits the island of Hokkaido, Japan. Although the population inhabiting Hokkaido had experienced a severe bottleneck by the end of the 19th century, the population size has recovered to about 1500 and continues to increase now thanks to conservation efforts. A previous study reported that no marked genetic differences were seen in the island population, and that the genetic variation of the whole population on Hokkaido was lower than that of the continental population. However, the precise genetic structure of the island population in the past or near present remains unclear. To better understand the spatiotemporal changes in the genetic structure of the island population, we performed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analyses using stuffed specimens (years 1878–2001) and tissue or blood samples (years 1970–2014). We found three haplotypes in the island population, one of which was a novel mtDNA haplotype in 1997 and 2007 samples. In addition, there was no clear difference in the haplotype frequency through the time span. These results suggest that the low genetic variation of the island population persisted for the last hundred years. It is thus nearly impossible for the island population to recover its genetic variation in isolation. Conservation plans for this species should therefore include the promotion of genetic exchanges between the continental and island populations, such as through artificial introduction to Hokkaido.
High Throughput Identification of Potential Arabidopsis Mitogen-activated Protein Kinases Substrates*S

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades are universal and highly conserved signal transduction modules in eucaryotes, including plants. These protein phosphorylation cascades link extracellular stimuli to a wide range of cellular responses. However, the underlying mechanisms are so far unknown as information about phosphorylation substrates of plant MAPKs is lacking. In this study we addressed the challenging task of identifying potential substrates for Arabidopsis thaliana mitogen-activated protein kinases MPK3 and MPK6, which are activated by many environmental stress factors. For this purpose, we developed a novel protein microarray-based proteomic method allowing high throughput study of protein phosphorylation. We generated protein microarrays including 1,690 Arabidopsis proteins, which were obtained from the expression of an almost nonredundant uniclone set derived from an inflorescence meristem cDNA expression library. Microarrays were incubated with MAPKs in the presence of radioactive ATP. Using a threshold-based quantification method to evaluate the microarray results, we were able to identify 48 potential substrates of MPK3 and 39 of MPK6. 26 of them are common for both kinases. One of the identified MPK6 substrates, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid synthase-6, was just recently shown as the first plant MAPK substrate in vivo, demonstrating the potential of our method to identify substrates with physiological relevance. Furthermore we revealed transcription factors, transcription regulators, splicing factors, receptors, histones, and others as candidate substrates indicating that regulation in response to MAPK signaling is very complex and not restricted to the transcriptional level. Nearly all of the 48 potential MPK3 substrates were confirmed by other in vitro methods. As a whole, our approach makes it possible to shortlist candidate substrates of mitogen-activated protein kinases as well as those of other protein kinases for further analysis. Follow-up in vivo experiments are essential to evaluate their physiological relevance.
Dialysis‐Induced Oxidative Stress: Biological Aspects, Clinical Consequences, and Therapy

Oxidative stress, which results from a rupture in the natural balance between pro‐ and antioxidant systems, is considered as a major factor in dialysis‐associated morbidity and mortality. Emerging pharmacologic and dialytic antioxidant therapeutic and dialysis strategies should enable us to reduce the harmful consequences of oxidative stress in dialysis patients. Moreover, since there is increasing evidence of oxidative stress long before the initiation of maintenance dialysis, antioxidant therapeutic strategies should probably be developed very early in the course of renal failure.
Disappearance of gender‐related difference in the toxicity of benzotriazole ultraviolet absorber in juvenile rats

2‐(2′‐hydroxy‐3′,5′‐di‐tert‐butylphenyl)benzotriazole (HDBB) is an ultraviolet absorber used in plastic resin products, such as building materials and automobile components. In oral repeated dose toxicity studies using 5‐ or 6‐week‐old rats, this chemical induced hepatic histopathological changes, such as hypertrophy accompanied with eosinophilic granular changes and focal necrosis of hepatocytes, and male rats showed nearly 25 times higher susceptibility to the toxic effects than females. Castration at approximately 4 weeks of age markedly reduced the sex‐related variation in HDBB toxicity, but some difference, less than five times, remained between male and female castrated rats. Following oral HDBB administration to male and female juvenile rats from postnatal days 4–21, such gender‐related difference in toxic susceptibility was not detected; therefore, it is speculated that the determinants of susceptibility to HDBB toxicity are differentiated between sexes after weaning. In young rats given HDBB, there was no gender‐related difference in plasma HDBB concentration, and no metabolites were detected in the plasma of either sex. HDBB induced lauric acid 12‐hydroxylase activity in the liver and this change was more pronounced in males than in females. These findings indicate that HDBB could show hepatic peroxisome proliferation activity, and the difference in the susceptibility of male and female rats to this effect might lead to marked gender‐related differences in toxicity.
Aligning a Parallel English-Chinese Corpus Statistically With Lexical Criteria

We describe our experience with automatic alignment of sentences in parallel English-Chinese texts. Our report concerns three related topics: (1) progress on the HKUST English-Chinese Parallel Bilingual Corpus; (2) experiments addressing the applicability of Gale & Church's (1991) length-based statistical method to the task of alignment involving a non-Indo-European language; and (3) an improved statistical method that also incorporates domain-specific lexical cues.
A Model for Slew Evaluation for On-Chip RC Interconnects using Gamma Distribution Function

As technology scales down, timing verification of digital integrated circuits becomes an extremely difficult task due to statistical variations in the gate and wire delays. Statistical timing analysis techniques are being developed to tackle this problem. The variations of critical dimensions in modern VLSI technologies lead to variability in interconnect performance that must be fully accounted for the timing verification. However, handling a multitude of inter-die/intra-die variations and assessing their impacts on circuit performances can dramatically complicate the timing analysis. For optimizations like physical synthesis and static timing analysis, efficient interconnect delay and slew computation is critical. Slew indicates the rate of change of input/output signals. Slew rate determines the ability of a device to handle the varying signals. Determination of slew rate to a good proximity is thus very much essential for efficient design of high speed CMOS integrated circuits as the increase in waveform slew directly enhances the delay of the interconnections. This work presents an accurate and efficient model to compute the slew metric of on-chip interconnect of high speed CMOS circuits. Our slew metric assumption is based on the Gamma Distribution Function. The gamma distribution is used to characterize the normalized homogeneous portion of the step response. For a generalized RC interconnect model, the stability of the Gamma Distribution model is guaranteed. The better accuracy is proved by comparing our approach with the established methods and SPICE results. It is shown that our approach could result in the error in slew calculation as low as 2% with lower value of driver resistance when compared with the SPICE results.
Changes in mitochondrial function and mitochondria associated protein expression in response to 2-weeks of high intensity interval training

Purpose: High-intensity short-duration interval training (HIT) stimulates functional and metabolic adaptation in skeletal muscle, but the influence of HIT on mitochondrial function remains poorly studied in humans. Mitochondrial metabolism as well as mitochondrial-associated protein expression were tested in untrained participants performing HIT over a 2-week period. Methods: Eight males performed a single-leg cycling protocol (12 × 1 min intervals at 120% peak power output, 90 s recovery, 4 days/week). Muscle biopsies (vastus lateralis) were taken pre- and post-HIT. Mitochondrial respiration in permeabilized fibers, citrate synthase (CS) activity and protein expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator (PGC-1α) and respiratory complex components were measured. Results: HIT training improved peak power and time to fatigue. Increases in absolute oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) capacities and CS activity were observed, but not in the ratio of CCO to the electron transport system (CCO/ETS), the respiratory control ratios (RCR-1 and RCR-2) or mitochondrial-associated protein expression. Specific increases in OXPHOS flux were not apparent after normalization to CS, indicating that gross changes mainly resulted from increased mitochondrial mass. Conclusion: Over only 2 weeks HIT significantly increased mitochondrial function in skeletal muscle independently of detectable changes in mitochondrial-associated and mitogenic protein expression.
Electrical resistivity due to dislocations in highly purified copper.

Mesure de la resistivite de dislocation specifique dans des monocristaux de cuivre avec des faibles densites de dislocations introduites par courbage. La plupart des specimens ont des rapports de resistivite residuelle d'a peu pres 40000 avant la deformation, ce rapport eleve etant produit par l'oxydation. Etude de l'anisotropie de resistivite dans des monocristaux fatigues
The Ehrlich Pathway for Fusel Alcohol Production: a Century of Research on Saccharomyces cerevisiae Metabolism

Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used for at least eight millennia in the production of alcoholic beverages (41). Along with ethanol and carbon dioxide, fermenting cultures of this yeast produce many low-molecular-weight flavor compounds. These alcohols, aldehydes, organic acids, esters, organic sulfides, and carbonyl compounds have a strong impact on product quality. Indeed, the subtle aroma balance of these compounds in fermented foods and beverages is often used as an organoleptic fingerprint for specific products and brands (42). Food fermentation by yeast and lactic acid bacteria is accompanied by the formation of the aliphatic and aromatic alcohols known as fusel alcohols. Fusel oil, which derives its name from the German word fusel (bad liquor), is obtained during the distillation of spirits and is enriched with these higher alcohols. While fusel alcohols at high concentrations impart off-flavors, low concentrations of these compounds and their esters make an essential contribution to the flavors and aromas of fermented foods and beverages. Fusel alcohols are derived from amino acid catabolism via a pathway that was first proposed a century ago by Ehrlich (13). Amino acids represent the major source of the assimilable nitrogen in wort and grape must, and these amino acids are taken up by yeast in a sequential manner (23, 32). Amino acids that are assimilated by the Ehrlich pathway (valine, leucine, isoleucine, methionine, and phenylalanine) are taken up slowly throughout the fermentation time (32). After the initial transamination reaction (Fig. ​(Fig.1),1), the resulting α-keto acid cannot be redirected into central carbon metabolism. Before α-keto acids are excreted into the growth medium, yeast cells convert them into fusel alcohols or acids via the Ehrlich pathway. FIG. 1. The Ehrlich pathway. Catabolism of branched-chain amino acids (leucine, valine, and isoleucine), aromatic amino acids (phenylalanine, tyrosine, and trytophan), and the sulfur-containing amino acid (methionine) leads to the formation of fusel acids and . Current scientific interest in the Ehrlich pathway is supported by increased demands for natural flavor compounds such as isoamyl alcohol and 2-phenylethanol, which can be produced from amino acids in yeast-based bioconversion processes (14), as well as by the need to control flavor profiles of fermented food products. The goal of this paper is to present a concise centenary overview of the biochemistry, molecular biology, and physiology of this important pathway in S. cerevisiae.
Moving vistas: Exploiting motion for describing scenes

Scene recognition in an unconstrained setting is an open and challenging problem with wide applications. In this paper, we study the role of scene dynamics for improved representation of scenes. We subsequently propose dynamic attributes which can be augmented with spatial attributes of a scene for semantically meaningful categorization of dynamic scenes. We further explore accurate and generalizable computational models for characterizing the dynamics of unconstrained scenes. The large intra-class variation due to unconstrained settings and the complex underlying physics present challenging problems in modeling scene dynamics. Motivated by these factors, we propose using the theory of chaotic systems to capture dynamics. Due to the lack of a suitable dataset, we compiled a dataset of ‘in-the-wild’ dynamic scenes. Experimental results show that the proposed framework leads to the best classification rate among other well-known dynamic modeling techniques. We also show how these dynamic features provide a means to describe dynamic scenes with motion-attributes, which then leads to meaningful organization of the video data.
Observations on carbon dioxide tension during recovery from metabolic acidosis.

The importance of hyperventilation in metabolic acidosis in minimizing the shift in blood pH is well known. It has been generally assumed that the stimulus for this augmented ventilation is the increased hydrogen ion concentration of the blood. If such were the case, it might be further assumed that during recovery from metabolic acidosis, the ventilation and hence the carbon dioxide tension would be adjusted in accordance with the pH of the blood. This report presents data bearing upon the recovery of acid-base equilibrium in patients with metabolic acidosis due to diabetes, to diarrheal disease and to renal disease. The results show the frequent occurrence of normal or even alkaline blood pH values associated with reduced pCO2 values during the recovery phase, and imply that some degree of hyperventilation persists in the absence of a measurable chemical stimulus in the blood.