Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Long-Term Athlete Development model: Physiological evidence and application

Abstract Within the UK, the “Long Term Athlete Development” (LTAD) model has been proposed by a variety of national governing bodies to offer a first step to considering the approach to talent development. The model, which is primarily a physiological perspective, presents an advancement of understanding of developing athletic potential alongside biological growth. It focuses on training to optimize performance longitudinally, and considers sensitive developmental periods known as “windows of opportunity”. However, it appears that there are a number of problems with this theoretical model that are not necessarily transparent to coaches. Principally, the model is only one-dimensional, there is a lack of empirical evidence upon which the model is based, and interpretations of the model are restricted because the data on which it is based rely on questionable assumptions and erroneous methodologies. Fundamentally, this is a generic model rather than an individualized plan for athletes. It is crucial that the LTAD model is seen as a “work in progress” and the challenge, particularly for paediatric exercise scientists, is to question, test, and revise the model. It is unlikely that this can be accomplished using classical experimental research methodology but this should not deter practitioners from acquiring valid and reliable evidence.
Assessment of platelet indices in pregnancy induced hypertensive patients versus normotensive pregnant patients

Background: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) represent a group of conditions associated with high blood pressure during pregnancy, proteinuria and in some cases convulsions. The most serious consequences for the mother and the baby result from pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. These are associated with vasospasm, pathologic vascular lesions in multiple organ systems, increased platelet activation and subsequent activation of the coagulation system in the micro-vasculature. It is a multisystem disease and many theories are proposed for pathophysiology. So there is a constant search for better prognostic factors to predict the progression and severity of disease. The fall in platelet count is most frequently found in preeclampsia and is probably due to consumption during low grade intravascular coagulation. The major adverse outcomes of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia include central nervous system injuries such as seizures (eclampsia), ischemic heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, and venous thromboembolism hemorrhagic and ischemic strokes, hepatic damage, HELLP syndrome, renal dysfunction as well as increased frequency of cesarean delivery, preterm delivery, and abruptio placenta, in comparison with women without history of the disease.Methods: Total 100 subjects, 50 control and 50 cases were taken for study. Samples for platelet count were collected and estimation was carried out by the auto-analyzers. The statistical evaluation is done using SPSS version 22 along with Anova and student t-test.Results: There was a significant difference in platelet count in patients with preeclampsia as compared to control group. Mean platelet diameter was significantly increased in cases with preeclampsia.Conclusions: Thrombocytopenia is directly proportional to the severity of PIH. Platelet count less than 1 lakh/cumm indicate increasing risk of DIC and HELLP syndrome. In this study we noted significant association was established when the platelet counts of PIH cases were compared with the normotensive control patients. Strong association was made out between the platelet count and MPD and MPV and the severity of PIH.
Temperature effects on emergence time, proportion of males, and diapause in three species of Nasonia (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae)

Temperature has been demonstrated to induce phenotypic plasticity in numerous insects for numerous traits. An organism of a specific genotype is said to exhibit phenotypic plasticity if it shows variation in a trait or traits that is dependant on changes in the external environment. A reaction norm is the function that relates the environments to which a particular genotype is exposed and the phenotypes that can be produced by that genotype. Genotype-by­ environment interactions measure how genotypes vary in their· reaction norms. Trait responses to temperature can be examined with analyses that test for G by E interactions and display norms of reaction; thus telling us if different genotypes behave differently in different temperature environments. In the genus Nasonia, females produce large numbers of virtually identical offspring in a single clutch, making them ideal for a study of reaction norms. Nasonia vitripennis, N. giraulti and N. /ongicomis are parasitic wasps that parasitize various species of blow flies. I tested two strains of each of the three species for differences in emergence time, proportion of males and tendency to diapause due to different temperature environments. I also tested for genetic differences among the strains and any G by E interactions that might occur. I found that emergence time was the same for all species and all strains tested; as temperature increased the emergence time decreased. The proportion of males per clutch tended to have less of a plastic response, but there is evidence of a genetic response, with strains of the same species behaving
Importance of mucosal healing in ulcerative colitis

Abstract: Treatment of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) has traditionally focused on improving symptoms, with the main objective of inducing and maintaining symptomatic remission. However, new evidence suggests that concentrating exclusively on clinical outcome measures may not be adequate to achieve long‐term treatment success. Indeed, physicians should also be assessing the reduction of endoscopic activity, with the intention of achieving complete mucosal healing (defined as the absence of all mucosal ulceration, both microscopic and macroscopic, providing a sigmoidoscopy score of 0, as assessed on the Ulcerative Colitis Disease Activity Index). As a consequence of the customary reliance on symptomatic outcome measures, relatively few clinical trials have used mucosal healing or a composite including mucosal healing as a primary endpoint. This situation may soon change as new guidelines recommend the incorporation of mucosal healing into the primary endpoint of all new clinical trials in patients with UC. These recommendations are derived, in part, from data that have illustrated a correlation between mucosal healing and several important factors including long‐term remission rates, disease‐related complications (e.g., risk of colorectal cancer), healthcare utilization (e.g., need for colectomy), and patient quality of life. We already have drugs available to us that can effectively induce and maintain complete mucosal healing over long periods of time. This review evaluates the effect of medical therapy on mucosal healing in patients with UC and explores the importance of this outcome measure, both from the patient's perspective and clinical trial experience. Inflamm Bowel Dis 2009
Adolescent pregnancy is associated with osteoporosis in postmenopausal women

ObjectiveAdolescence is a critical time of life to accumulate bone for peak bone mass. Factors that may interfere with bone mass accrual during this period may increase the risk of osteoporosis. Several studies have reported that pregnancy during adolescence has detrimental effects on bone mass measurements after pregnancy. However, less is known about how adolescent pregnancy affects bone mineral density (BMD) and osteoporosis after menopause. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between adolescent pregnancy and osteoporosis in postmenopausal Korean women. MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study of 719 postmenopausal women, all of whom were enrolled in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2008. BMD was measured using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. ResultsPostmenopausal women with histories of adolescent pregnancy had lower BMD of the total hip, femoral neck, and lumbar spine than did women without histories of adolescent pregnancy. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that postmenopausal women with history of adolescent pregnancy were at increased risk of osteoporosis (odds ratio, 2.20; 95% CI, 1.12-4.30) compared with women without history of adolescent pregnancy after adjustments for age, body mass index, marital status, education level, household income, alcohol intake, smoking history, exercise, age at menarche, age at menopause, parity, hormone therapy use, intake of energy and calcium, and vitamin D level. ConclusionsAdolescent pregnancy may be a predictor of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.
Pathology of Ocular Irritation with Acetone, Cyclohexanol, Parafl uoroaniline, and Formaldehyde in the Rabbit Low-Volume Eye Test

The ocular irritation responses to 11 different surfactants and two concentrations of acetic acid and sodium hydroxide have been shown to depend on the extent of initial injury, despite marked differences in the processes leading to tissue damage. The purpose of these studies was to determine the extent to which this fundamental relationship applies to other nonsurfactants. Ten μl of acetone (ACT), cyclohexanol (CY), parafluoroaniline (PF), or 37% formaldehyde (FA) was directly applied to the cornea of the right eye of each rabbit. Eyes and eyelids were macroscopically scored for signs of irritation beginning 3 hours after dosing and periodically until recovery or 35 days. Tissues were obtained for light microscopic examination after 3 hours and on days 1, 3, and 35. Initial corneal injury was characterized quantitatively at 3 hours and 1 day using in vivo confocal microscopy (CM) and by postmortem quantitation of dead corneal epithelial cells and keratocytes using a Live—Dead Assay (L/D, Molecular Probes) and scanning laser CM. Corneal changes over time were characterized quantitatively using in vivo CM performed at 3 hours and 1, 3, 7, 14, and 35 days. The changes with ACT were consistent with mild irritation. Corneal injury was limited to the epithelium and superfi cial stroma, with the mean normalized depth of injury (NDI) being less than 10% with the majority of regions showing no stromal injury. Changes with CY and PF were consistent with moderate to severe irritation, and FA caused severe irritation. Specifi cally, corneal injury by CY and PF tended to involve the epithelium and anterior stroma, with the mean NDI being 10.4% to 23.8%, while injury with FA involved the epithelium, deep stroma, and at times the endothelium. Interestingly, with FA significantly less injury was observed at 3 hours with a dramatic increase in injury observed at 1 day and thereafter. In conclusion, these results continue to support and extend our hypothesis that ocular irritation is principally defined by the extent of initial injury despite clear differences in the means by which irritants cause tissue damage. We believe this approach can be applied to developing alternative assays based on injury to ex vivo eyes or injury to an in vitro corneal equivalent system.
Effect of insulin on spontaneous and progesterone-induced GVBD on Bufo arenarum denuded oocytes

Progesterone is considered as the physiological steroid hormone that triggers meiosis reinitiation in amphibian oocytes. Nevertheless, isolated oocytes can be induced to undergo germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) in a saline medium by means of treatment with various hormones or inducing agents such as other steroid hormones, insulin or an insulin-like growth factor. It has been demonstrated that Bufo arenarum oocytes obtained during the reproductive period (spring–summer) resume meiosis with no need of an exogenous hormonal stimulus if deprived of their enveloping follicle cells, a phenomenon called spontaneous maturation. This study was undertaken to evaluate the participation of the purine and phosphoinositide pathway in the insulin-induced maturation of oocytes competent and incompetent to mature spontaneously, as well as to determine whether the activation of the maturation promoting factor (MPF) involved the activation of cdc25 phosphatase in Bufo arenarum denuded oocytes. Our results indicate that insulin was able to induce GBVD in oocytes incompetent to mature spontaneously and to enhance spontaneous and progesterone-induced maturation. In addition, high intracellular levels of purines such as cAMP or guanosine can reversibly inhibit the progesterone and insulin-induced maturation process in Bufo arenarum as well as spontaneous maturation. Assays of the inhibition of phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) hydrolysis and its turnover by neomycin and lithium chloride respectively exhibited a different response in insulin- or progesterone-treated oocytes, suggesting that phosphoinositide turnover or hydrolysis of PIP2 is involved in progesterone- but not in insulin-induced maturation. In addition, the inhibitory effect of vanadate suggests that an inactive pre-maturation promoting factor (pre-MPF), activated by dephosphorylation of Thr-14 and Tyr-15 on p34cdc2, is present in Bufo arenarum full-grown oocytes; this step would be common to both spontaneous and hormone-induced maturation. The data presented here strongly suggest that insulin initiates at the cell surface a chain of events leading to GVBD. However, our studies point to the existence of certain differences between the steroid and the peptide hormone pathways, although both involve the decrease in intracellular levels of cAMP, the activation of phosphodiesterase (PDE) and the activation of pre-MPF.
Effect of Quercetin on Cell Cycle and Cyclin Expression in Ovarian Carcinoma and Osteosarcoma Cell Lines

Resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs is a major problem in cancer treatment. The search for new interventions able to overcome this resistance may involve compounds of natural origin, such as flavonoids, ubiquitously present in many foods. In the present study, the cytotoxic effects and cell cycle modulation of the flavonoid quercetin were investigated in ovarian carcinoma (SKOV3) and osteosarcoma (U2OS) human cell lines and in their cisplatin (CDDP)-resistant counterparts (SKOV3/CDDP and U2OSPt cells, respectively). Quercetin (10–50 μM) caused evident changes in the distribution of cell cycle phases in the CDDP-resistant SKOV3/CDDP ovarian cell line. The levels of cyclin D1 and cyclin B1 were determined by means of Western blot in all cell lines incubated with quercetin (50 μM) for 48 hours. The cyclin D1 expression was significantly decreased following the treatment with quercetin in SKOV3 and U2OSPt cells, but not in SKOV3/CDDP and U2OS cells. The reduction of cyclin D1 level could be linked to the G1/S phase alteration found in quercetin-treated cells. Although cyclin B1 is required for G2/M phase, and despite our observation that quercetin influenced the G2/M phase of cell cycle, the flavonoid did not affect cyclin B1 levels in all cell lines, indicating the involvement of other possible mechanisms. These results suggest that quercetin, exceeding the resistance to CDDP, might become an interesting tool to evaluate cytotoxic activity in combination with chemotherapy drugs.
A content analysis of weight stigmatization in popular television programming for adolescents.

OBJECTIVE This study provides updated information regarding the prevalence and characteristics of weight stigma in popular adolescent television programming, using a sample of favorite shows named by diverse adolescents. METHOD Participants in a large, population-based study of Minnesota adolescents (N = 2,793, mean age = 14.4) listed their top three favorite television shows. A coding instrument was developed to analyze randomly selected episodes from the most popular 10 programs. Weight-stigmatizing incidents were compared across television show characteristics and characters' gender and weight status. RESULTS Half (50%) of the 30 episodes analyzed contained at least one weight-stigmatizing incident. Both youth- and adult-targeted shows contained weight-stigmatizing comments, but the percent of these comments was much higher for youth-targeted (55.6%) than general audience-targeted shows (8.3%). Male characters were more likely than females to engage in (72.7% vs. 27.3%), and be the targets of, weight stigma (63.6% vs. 36.4%), and there was no difference in the amount of weight stigmatizing directed at average weight females compared to overweight females. Targets of these instances showed a negative response in only about one-third of cases, but audience laughter followed 40.9% of cases. DISCUSSION The portrayal of weight stigmatization on popular television shows-including targeting women of average weight-sends signals to adolescents about the wide acceptability of this behavior and the expected response, which may be harmful. Prevention of weight stigmatization should take a multi-faceted approach and include the media. Future research should explore the impact that weight-related stigma in television content has on viewers.
Time of Incubation for Antifungal Susceptibility Testing of Aspergillus fumigatus: Can MIC Values Be Obtained at 24 Hours?

ABSTRACT A collection of Aspergillus fumigatus isolates was used to check if MICs can be read at 24 h. At 24 h, the geometric mean MIC of itraconazole for resistant isolates was determined to be 5.11 mg/liter, but the MIC was read as 16 mg/liter at 48 h. At 24 h, MICs for 51.5% of resistant strains were determined to be ≤2 mg/liter. MICs must be obtained at 48 h.
Alcohol, Gender, and Cognitive Performance

Background: Recent data demonstrate that moderate consumption of alcohol may be beneficial to cognition. Design: Longitudinal growth curve analyses controlling for variables related to cognition were used to examine the relationship between alcohol consumption, ethnic differences, gender, and cognition over a 4-year-follow-up period. Sample: The sample included 1,836 Japanese American and 2,581 Non-Hispanic White American community-dwelling adults age 65 and older who were cognitively intact at baseline and participated in at least one follow-up examination. Measurement: Cognitive performance was measured using the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI) and reaction time. Results: Current drinkers scored significantly higher on CASI over time than past drinkers or abstainers. The same association between alcohol and CASI was observed in both genders and both ethnic groups. Conclusion: This study provides support regarding the potential beneficial outcomes associated with alcohol consumption and cognition and that these benefits were not modified by gender or ethnicity.
Personas and Behavioral Theories: A Case Study Using Self-Determination Theory to Construct Overweight Personas

Personas are a widely used tool to keep real users in mind, while avoiding stereotypical thinking in the design process. Yet, creating personas can be challenging. Starting from Cooper's approach for constructing personas, this paper details how behavioral theory can contribute substantially to the development of personas. We describe a case study in which Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is used to develop five distinctive personas for the design of a digital coach for sustainable weight loss. We show how behavioral theories such as SDT can help to understand what genuinely drives and motivates users to sustainably change their behavior. In our study, we used SDT to prepare and analyze interviews with envisioned users of the coach and to create complex, yet engaging and highly realistic personas that make users' basic psychological needs explicit. The paper ends with a critical reflection on the use of behavioral theories to create personas, discussing both challenges and strengths.
The fusimotor and reafferent origin of the sense of force and weight

Non‐technical summary Signals generated by the brain are thought to create the sensation of heaviness when we lift an object. We show here that signals arising from the body underlie this sensation. We fatigued the thumb muscles to half strength and had subjects lift a weight. Two subjects without sensation from the body said it felt twice as heavy, as expected by the central‐signal theory. However, normal subjects felt that the weight was lighter, inconsistent with the central‐signal theory. When we paralysed the muscles with curare and let them recover to half‐strength, the weights felt lighter despite the greater central signal. This is explained by smaller signals returning from muscle spindles because they have also been paralysed by the curare. Thus, peripheral signals with a major contribution from muscle spindles normally create the sense of heaviness. It also shows that muscle spindles provide more than information about limb position and movement.
The population of Milky Way satellites in the LambdaCDM cosmology

We present a model for the satellites of the Milky Way in which galaxy formation is followed using semi-analytic techniques applied to the six high-resolution N-body simulations of galactic halos of the Aquarius project. The model, calculated using the Galform code, incorporates improved treatments of the relevant physics in the LambdaCDM cosmogony, particularly a self-consistent calculation of reionization by UV photons emitted by the forming galaxy population, including the progenitors of the central galaxy. Along the merger tree of each halo, the model calculates gas cooling (by Compton scattering off cosmic microwave background photons, molecular hydrogen and atomic processes), gas heating (from hydrogen photoionization and supernova energy), star formation and evolution. The evolution of the intergalactic medium is followed simultaneously with that of the galaxies. Star formation in the more massive progenitor subhalos is suppressed primarily by supernova feedback, while for smaller subhalos it is suppressed primarily by photoionization due to external and internal sources. The model is constrained to match a wide range of properties of the present day galaxy population as a whole, but at high redshift it requires an escape fraction of UV photons near unity in order completely to reionize the universe by redshift z ~ 8. In the most successful model the local sources photoionize the pre-galactic region completely by z ~ 10. In addition to the luminosity function of Milky Way satellites, the model matches their observed luminosity-metallicity relation, their radial distribution and the inferred values of the mass within 300 pc, which in the models increase slowly but significantly with luminosity. There is a large variation in satellite properties from halo to halo, with the luminosity function, for example, varying by a factor of ~ 2 among the six simulations.
Peatlands and Global Change: Response and Resilience

Peatlands are wetland ecosystems that accumulate dead organic matter (i.e., peat) when plant litter production outpaces peat decay, usually under conditions of frequent or continuous waterlogging. Collectively, global peatlands store vast amounts of carbon (C), equaling if not exceeding the amount of C in the Earth's vegetation; they also encompass a remarkable diversity of forms, from the frozen palsa mires of the northern subarctic to the lush swamp forests of the tropics, each with their own characteristic range of fauna and flora. In this review we explain what peatlands are, how they form, and the contribution that peatland science can make to our understanding of global change. We explore the variety in formation, shape, vegetation type, and chemistry of peatlands across the globe and stress the fundamental features that are common to all peat-forming ecosystems. We consider the impacts that past, present, and future environmental changes, including anthropogenic disturbances, have had and will have.