Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of dominant somatotype of men with body structure, function during exercise, and nutritional assessment

This study examined the hypothesis that somatotype determines body structure, functional responses at peak exercise, and nutritional status of 63 men ages 18–40 years who lived under controlled conditions. Data were grouped by dominant somatotype to emphasize differences in body types. Dominant ectomorphs (n = 19) had less (P < 0.05) body weight, fat weight, and percent body fat than endomorphs (n = 14) and mesomorphs (n = 30). Fat‐free weight (FFW), total body potassium (TBK), and body cell mass (BCM), normalized for stature, were lower (P < 0.05) in the ectomorphs than in the endomorphs and mesomorphs. Comparisons between measured and predicted FFW and TBK showed that only the ectomorphs had less (P < 0.05) FFW and TBK than expected. Although all groups had the same peak power output, the ectomorphs had different functional responses during peak exercise. Ectomorphs had the greatest respiratory exchange ratio (P < 0.05), ventilatory equivalent for oxygen, and end‐exercise plasma lactate concentrations (P < 0.05), and lowest peak oxygen uptake (L/min; P < 0.05). Nutrient intakes and blood biochemical markers of nutritional status were within the range of normal values in all groups. Correlations between measures of body structure, function, and nutritional status and dominant somatotype components were calculated after controlling for the effects of the other two somatotype components. Partial correlations were variable, with significant correlations ranging from −0.30 to 0.87. These data indicate that ectomorphs, as compared to endomorphs and mesomorphs, have deficits in FFW and BCM which are associated with differences in functional capacity. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 12:167–180, 2000. Published 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Response of human monocyte‐derived dendritic cells to immunostimulatory DNA

Activated dendritic cells (DC) are of key importance for the initiation of primary immune responses and represent promising tools for immunotherapies in humans. Since DNA containing CpG motifs have been described as potent immunostimulatory (IS) adjuvants for murine DC, we here studied maturation and stimulation of functional activity in human monocyte‐derived DC (MODC) in response to several immunostimulatory oligodeoxynucleotides (IS‐ODN) and plasmid DNA (IS‐PL). We show that exposure of MODC to IS‐PL, but not IS‐ODN, induced a dose‐dependent strong up‐regulation of HLA class II and co‐stimulatory molecules (CD80, CD86), similar to that observed after treatment with TNF‐α. Functional activity was assessed by the detection of increased secretions of IL‐6 and IL‐12(p75) following treatment with IS‐PL. In addition, IS‐PL‐stimulated MODC acquired a high T cell‐stimulatory capacity. T cells stimulated by tetanus toxoid‐pulsed, IS‐PL‐matured MODC were significantly more frequently IFN‐γ positive (25.2±2.7%) as compared to TNF‐α‐treated MODC (15.4±1.4 %), indicating a strong activation of Th1 lymphocytes. In conclusion, we demonstrate that human MODC are activated by IS‐PL but not IS‐ODN previously used as adjuvants in animal models. The Th1‐like immune response observed after stimulation with IS‐PL‐treated DC suggests that preincubation of human MODC with IS‐PL or coimmunization with IS‐PL may represent an useful approach to generate strongly activated human MODC for several therapeutic applications such as DC‐based tumor immunotherapy.
TCP-MR: Achieving end-to-end rate guarantee for real-time multimedia

Real-time multimedia applications such as VoIP and video conferencing require a minimum bit rate to ensure an acceptable level of quality of service (QoS) since they are delay-sensitive. In this regard, UDP is preferred to support the timeliness of real-time multimedia applications, but does not satisfy high video/audio quality when packet losses exist. Although TCP is generally used for elastic data traffic, it also can be used as an alternative to support better multimedia services due to its reliability. However, TCP is not suitable in that it chooses reliability over timeliness. This paper proposes a novel mechanism called TCP-MR (Minimum Rate) which simultaneously realizes timeliness and reliability by achieving end-to-end minimum rate guarantee over best-effort networks. To accomplish this goal, TCP-MR controls two congestion windows to reserve network bandwidth, adopts a persistent congestion detection algorithm to quickly react to continuous congestion state, and employs an enhanced loss recovery algorithm to shorten the recovery time of multiple packet losses. Only with modifications of the senderpsilas side, we expect our proposal to be easily and widely deployed.
Energy efficiency and performance modeling of stencil applications on manycore and GPU computing resources

One of the most critical application areas for many operational High-Performance Computing systems worldwide is a numerical weather prediction. Such complex predictions and corresponding computing models have to solve a large number of Partial Differential Equations using stencil computations on structured grids within tight production schedules. A stencil kernel within simulations is often the most demanding computing part and naturally may impact the energy consumption of the whole HPC system. In this paper, we introduce new functional extensions developed for DCworms and GSSIM simulators to predict the energy efficiency of extreme-scale stencil applications on heterogeneous computing resources, in particular consisting of a large number of many-core and GPUs. New energy-efficiency metrics for modeling of heterogeneous computing resources have been successfully added to the simulators thanks to their pluggable and extensible architectures. Our recent improvements related to application-specific performance models in simulators help users to take into account many relevant application parameters, in particular, those related to detailed energy consumption on heterogeneous HPC resources. We show in this paper how to extract stencil application-specific parameters based on real experiments. Moreover, we demonstrate how those parameters can be applied for modeling and simulation experiments to evaluate the overall performance and energy consumption of stencil computations on manycore CPUs and GPUs. Finally, we discuss new DCworms simulator capabilities and demonstrate added-values of performance analysis tools.
Processo de formulação de estratégias: o caso do maior grupo atacadista da América Latina

Com a intensificação da concorrência em nível mundial, produzida, principalmente, pela globalização das economias, a arte de planejar passou a ser valorizada pelas organizações, principalmente pelo fato de que a construção de estratégias vitoriosas de mercado depende de planos bem estruturados e apoiados em informações eficazes. O processo de formulação de estratégias vem sendo discutido ao ,longo do tempo, por diversos autores, cada qual propondo modelos que têm o propósito de tornar mais fácil a sua compreensão e procurando também, mostrá-los em suas dimensões tanto estratégica como operacional. Este artigo investiga a forma pela qual as empresas de um grande grupo atacadista formulam e implementam estratégias e como é feita a avaliação da eficácia dela,s. Quanto à metodologia, a pesquisa é exploratória, de caráter qualitativa, utilizando o método de estudo de caso. Como técnicas de coleta de dados, foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade com executivos das empresas do grupo, observação direta e análise de documentos. Mesmo com grandes avanços no campo estratégico, foi observada a predominância das escolas de Design e de Planejamento devido, principalmente à utilização da análise SWOT e do aspecto formal do processo de formulação de estratégias, com seus prazos, cronogramas e metas.Palavras-chave: Formulação de Estratégia; Implementação de Estratégia; Grupo Atacadista.
Differential Roles of Lck and Itk in T Cell Response to Antigen Recognition Revealed by Calcium Imaging and Electron Microscopy1

Ag recognition triggered at the interface between a T cell and an APC is conditioned by cell-cell adhesion and cytoskeletal remodeling. The role played in these phenomena by Lck and Itk, two protein tyrosine kinases essential for T cell signaling, was examined. Early T cell responses (membrane ruffling, Ca2+ response, APC-T cell adhesion) were monitored in T cells overexpressing kinase-defective (KD) Lck and Itk mutants by combining fluorescence imaging and electron microscopy. Neither Lck nor Itk appears to be involved in the Ag-independent formation of a small and labile contact interface between T cells and APCs. By contrast, the Ag-induced Ca2+ response in a cell population is similarly blunted in both KD transfectants. However, the underlying mechanisms are strikingly different for the two kinases. The major effect of Lck-KD is to reduce the probability of giving rise to quasi-normal Ca2+ responses, whereas overexpression of Itk-KD results in a tuning down of all single-cell Ca2+ responses. In addition, Lck, but not Itk, is required for the formation of a stable T/APC conjugate and for T cell polarization after Ag stimulation. Overall, our results lead to a clear distinction between Lck and Itk. Lck plays an ignition role, controlling all the downstream events tested here, whereas Itk amplifies the Ca2+ response, but is dispensable for APC-induced adhesive and morphological responses.
Review of Terminology, Classifications, and Indices of Developmental Defects of Enamel

A wide variety of terms and definitions are used to describe various developmental defects of enamel. Some are simple descriptive clinical terms, and others are linked with the causative agent or the histopathology of the defect. Some confusion exists as to the most appropriate type of index to use to measure defects of enamel due to fluoride ingestion (dental fluorosis). This is primarily due to difficulties some researchers have in distinguishing between defects of fluoride and non-fluoride origin. This problem has resulted in the development of specific fluorosis indices and purely descriptive indices. The main fluorosis indices are those of Dean, Thylstrup and Fejerskov, and the TSIF Index. Dean's Index does not provide adequate information on the distribution of fluorosis within the dentition and is not sensitive at high fluorosis levels. The Thylstrup and Fejerskov Index is related to the histology of fluorosis; however, the initial minute changes observed on dry enamel surfaces are of little esthetic importance. The TSIF Index does overcome some of the limitations of Dean's Index. The DDE Index has replaced the Al-Alousi Index as the main descriptive index. The DDE Index is time-consuming, and the analyses of data are complicated. Modifications have now been proposed to make it simpler to use and the data more meaningful. Further research needs to be carried out into both the validity of the fluorosis indices and making the DDE Index more universally acceptable.
Renin angiotensin system gene polymorphisms in pediatric renal transplant recipients

Abstract: Genetic variability in the renin angiotensin system may modify renal responses to injury and disease progression. We therefore examined whether the insertion/deletion polymorphism of the angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) gene, the Met235→Thr polymorphism of the angiotensinogen (AGT) gene, and the A1166→C polymorphism of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor gene (ATR1) were associated with disease progression and outcome after renal transplantation (Tx) in 100 Caucasian pediatric renal transplant recipients. The observed allele frequencies were: DD 31%, DI 41% and II 28%, for ACE; MM 42%, MT 37% and TT 21%, for the methionine (Met)235→threonine (Thr) polymorphism of AGT; and AA 51%, AC 38% and CC 11%, for the adenine (A)1166→cytosine (C) gene polymorphism. The slope of 1/creatinine was determined by linear regression analysis of a median of 12 points before and after renal Tx, and the population was divided in two equal groups, according to the slope, both before and after Tx. There were no statistically significant differences for AGT, ACE, and ATR1 polymorphisms with regard to the slope of 1/creatinine before renal Tx. After renal Tx, the ACE II genotype (p=0.024, chi‐square test) and the presence of the I allele (p=0.033, chi‐square test) were associated with a favorable slope of 1/creatinine. There was no association of the AGT or the ATR1 polymorphism with outcome after renal Tx, and none of the genotypes were associated with hypertension before or after renal Tx. We suggest that the beneficial association of disease progression after renal Tx with the II genotype and/or the presence of the I allele in our pediatric cohort might be explained by a lower activity of the circulating ACE enzyme associated with the I allele.
Validity of the GRACE (Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events) acute coronary syndrome prediction model for six month post-discharge death in an independent data set

Objective: To determine the validity of the GRACE (Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events) prediction model for death six months after discharge in all forms of acute coronary syndrome in an independent dataset of a community based cohort of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Design: Independent validation study based on clinical data collected retrospectively for a clinical trial in a community based population and record linkage to administrative databases. Setting: Study conducted among patients from the EFFECT (enhanced feedback for effective cardiac treatment) study from Ontario, Canada. Patients: Randomly selected men and women hospitalised for AMI between 1999 and 2001. Main outcome measure: Discriminatory capacity and calibration of the GRACE prediction model for death within six months of hospital discharge in the contemporaneous EFFECT AMI study population. Results: Post-discharge crude mortality at six months for the EFFECT study patients with AMI was 7.0%. The discriminatory capacity of the GRACE model was good overall (C statistic 0.80) and for patients with ST segment elevation AMI (STEMI) (0.81) and non-STEMI (0.78). Observed and predicted deaths corresponded well in each stratum of risk at six months, although the risk was underestimated by up to 30% in the higher range of scores among patients with non-STEMI. Conclusions: In an independent validation the GRACE risk model had good discriminatory capacity for predicting post-discharge death at six months and was generally well calibrated, suggesting that it is suitable for clinical use in general populations.
Phagocytosis of PLGA Microparticles in Rat Peritoneal Exudate Cells: A Time-Dependent Study

With the purpose of enhancing the efficacy of microparticle-encapsulated therapeutic agents, in this study we evaluated the phagocytic ability of rat peritoneal exudate cells and the preferential location of poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microparticles inside these cells. The microparticles used were produced by a solvent evaporation method and were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Size distribution analysis using DLS and SEM showed that the particles were spherical, with diameters falling between 0.5 and 1.5 μm. Results from cell adhesion by SEM assay, indicated that the PLGA microparticles are not toxic to cells and do not cause any distinct damage to them as confirmed by the MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assay. Among the large variety of cell populations found in the peritoneal exudates (neutrophils, eosinophils, monocytes, and macrophages), TEM showed that only the latter phagocytosed PLGA microparticles, in a time-dependent manner. The results obtained indicate that the microparticles studied show merits as possible carriers of drugs for intracellular delivery.
Modelos matematicos lineares e não-lineares para representar o acoplamento entre rotor e palhetas flexiveis : exemplos numericos e verificação experimental

Os objetivos deste trabalho sao o desenvolvimento, a solucao, a analise e a validacao experimental das equacoes de movimento de um conjunto formado por um rotor rigido acoplado a palhetas flexiveis. As palhetas flexiveis sao modeladas como vigas girantes, sendo que tanto aproximacoes lineares quanto nao-lineares sao utilizadas para descrever a sua deformacao, o que leva a diferentes tipos de modelos matematicos desta viga. As equacoes globais do conjunto sao obtidas usando a metodologia de sistemas de multiplos corpos hibridos (rigidos + flexiveis), sendo que as equacoes resultantes sao variantes no tempo e lineares ou nao-lineares dependendo do modelo matematico da viga girante. As equacoes lineares periodicamente variantes no tempo sao apresentadas e resolvidas matematicamente via analise modal em sistemas periodicamente variantes no tempo. A influencia dos efeitos de coriolis, giroscopico, rigidez rotacional e enrijecimento centrifugo no comportamento das frequencias do sistema e investigada. Outra caracteristica deste sistema e o aparecimento de vibracoes parametricas, que nada mais sao que as frequencias naturais do sistema variante no tempo, e podem ser observadas tanto teoricamente quando experimentalmente, com o auxilio de uma bancada de testes. As equacoes nao-lineares sao resolvidas numericamente e as limitacoes dos modelos lineares e nao lineares sao apontadas. Os resultados experimentais tambem deixam claro que somente com uma aproximacao nao-linear para as deformacoes da viga girante consegue-se descrever corretamente o comportamento do sistema rotor-palhetas e o efeito de enrijecimento centrifugo Abstract
On the stability of U(1) spin liquids in two dimensions

We establish that spin liquids described in terms of gapless fermionic (Dirac) spinons and gapless U(1) gauge fluctuations can be stable in two dimensions, at least when the physical SU(2) spin symmetry is generalized to SU(N). Equivalently, we show that compact QED3 has a deconfined phase for a large number of fermion fields, in the sense that monopole fluctuations can be irrelevant at low energies. A precise characterization is provided by an emergent global topological U(1) symmetry corresponding to the conservation of gauge flux. Beginning with an SU(N) generalization of the S=1/2 square lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet, we consider the pi-flux spin liquid and, via a systematic analysis of all operators, show that there are NO relevant perturbations (in the renormalization group sense) about the large-N spin liquid fixed point, which is thus a stable phase. We provide a further illustration of this conclusion with an approximate renormalization group calculation that treats the gapless fermions and the monopoles on an equal footing. This approach directly points out some of the flaws in the erroneous "screening" argument for the relevance of monopoles in compact QED3.
Découverte de schéma pour les données du Web sémantique. (Schema Discovery in Semantic Web Data Sources)

Un nombre croissant de sources de donnees interconnectees sont publiees sur le Web. Cependant, leur schema peut etreincomplet ou absent. De plus, les donnees ne sont pas necessairement conformes au schema declare. Ce qui rend leur exploitation complexe. Dans cette these, nous proposons une approche d’extraction automatique et incrementale du schema d’une source a partir de la structure implicite de ses donnees. Afin decompleter la description des types decouverts, nous proposons egalement une approche de decouverte des patterns structurels d’un type. L’approche procede en ligne sans avoir a telecharger ou a parcourir la source. Ce quipeut etre couteux voire impossible car les sources sont interrogees a distance et peuvent imposer des contraintes d’acces, notamment en termes de temps ou de nombre de requetes. Nous avons aborde le probleme de l’annotationafin de trouver pour chaque type un ensemble de labels permettant de rendre compte de sonsens. Nous avons propose des algorithmes d’annotation qui retrouvent le sens d’un type en utilisant des sources de donnees de references. Cette approche s’applique aussi bien pour trouver des noms pertinents pour les typesdecouverts que pour enrichir la description des types existants. Enfin, nous nous sommes interesses a caracteriser la conformite entre les donnees d’une source et le schema qui les decrit. Nous avons propose une approche pour l'analyse et l'amelioration de cette conformite et nous avons propose des facteurs de qualite, les metriques associees, ainsi qu'une extension du schema permettant de refleter l'heterogeneite entre les instances d'un type.
Effect of Physical Stimulation on Motor Inhibition in Children

The effect of physical stimulation on motor inhibition and cognitive performance of 70 third-grade children was examined. 46 subjects participated in a brief, but strenuous obstacle course. Their performance on two motor inhibition tasks, a short-term memory/attentional task, and a test assessing reflectivity was assessed before the stimulation, immediately afterward, and again after a 30-min. delay. A control group (n = 24) received comparable experience without the physical intervention. Physical stimulation facilitated fine motor inhibition at both the immediate and delayed retest. The intervention interfered with an apparent practice effect on the attentional task. No condition effects were noted for gross motor performance or reflectivity, although girls were significantly more reflective at retest. It is proposed that physical stimulation augments certain aspects of inhibitory control in children.
Dislocation Bow-Out Model for Yield Stress of Ultra-Fine Grained Materials

A dislocation bow-out model has been developed to explain the strength of ultra-fine grained (UFG) materials with grain size roughly between 20 nm to 500 nm. In the model, perfect dislocations are assumed to be nucleated at grain-boundary sources and bow out between two pinning points on a boundary. Yielding is considered to occur when a dislocation takes a semi-circular shape under applied stress. Statistical consideration is introduced to evaluate the most probable pinning-point distance as a function of grain size. Comparison with experimental results is made for fcc UFG metals. It is found that yield stress as well as thermal activation parameters can be explained reasonably by the present theoretical model.
Swing Phase Resistance Enhances Flexor Muscle Activity During Treadmill Locomotion in Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury

Background. This study investigated whether loading the legs during the swing phase of walking enhances flexor muscle activity in ambulatory patients with incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI). Methods. Nine patients had surface electromyography (EMG) and joint kinematics recorded from the lower extremities during treadmill walking. Swing phase loading of the legs was achieved by weights (1-3 kg) attached to each lower extremity or by a velocity-dependent resistance applied by the Lokomat robotic gait orthosis. Results. When patients walked with the weights, there was a consistent increase in the activity of the knee flexors and sometimes of hip or ankle flexor activity during swing. Similarly, when the robot applied the velocity-dependent resistance during walking, swing phase flexor EMG activity tended to be greater. Enhanced knee flexion was observed in all patients after the weights or the robot-generated resistance was removed. Conclusions. Flexor muscle activity during swing can be enhanced through additional proprioceptive input in patients with incomplete SCI with brief aftereffects. Further testing of this strategy is necessary to determine if it can improve the gait of ambulatory patients.