Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic control of muscle stiffness and H reflex modulation during hopping and jumping in man.

1. The objective of the study was to evaluate the functional effects of reflexes on muscle mechanics during natural voluntary movements. The excitability of the H (Hoffmann) reflex was used as a measure of the excitability of the central component of the stretch reflex. 2. We recorded EMG, ground reaction forces and the H reflex in the soleus muscle in humans while landing from a downward jump, during drop jumping and during hopping. The movements were also recorded by high‐speed cinematography. 3. The EMG pattern was adapted to the motor task. When landing the EMG in the soleus muscle and in the anterior tibial muscle showed preinnervation and alternating activity after touch down. When hopping there was little preinnervation in the soleus muscle, and the activity was initiated about 45 ms after touch down by a peak and continued unbroken until lift off. In the drop jumps the EMG pattern depended on the jumping style used by the subject. 4. The H reflex in the soleus muscle was strongly modulated in a manner appropriate to the requirements of the motor task. During landing from a downward jump the H reflex was low at touch down whereas while hopping it was high at touch down. During drop jumping it was variable and influenced by the jumping technique. 5. Muscle stiffness in the ankle joint was negative after touch down when landing, but always positive when hopping. 6. It is suggested that during landing the alternating EMG pattern after touch down was programmed and little influenced by reflexes. During hopping reflexes could contribute to the initial peak and the EMG during lift off. 7. The programmed EMG activity and the suppression of the H reflex while landing probably contribute to the development of the negative stiffness and change the muscles from a spring to a damping unit.
Neural approximations for infinite-horizon optimal control of nonlinear stochastic systems

A feedback control law is proposed that drives the controlled vector vt of a discrete-time dynamic system (in general, nonlinear) to track a reference vt* over an infinite time horizon, while minimizing a given cost function (in general, nonquadratic). The behavior of vt* over time is completely unpredictable. Random noises act on the dynamic system and the state observation channel, which may be nonlinear, too. The random noises and the initial state are, in general, non-Gaussian; it is assumed that all such random vectors are mutually independent, and that their probability density functions are known. As is well known, so general a non-LQG (linear quadratic Gaussian) optimal control problem is very difficult to solve. The proposed solution is based on three main approximating assumptions: 1) the optimal control problem is stated in a receding-horizon framework where vt* is assumed to remain constant within a shifting-time window; 2) the control law is assigned a given structure (the one of a multilayer feedforward neural network) in which a finite number of parameters have to be determined in order to minimize the cost function (this makes it possible to approximate the original functional optimization problem by a nonlinear programming one); and 3) the control law is given a "limited memory," which prevents the amount of data to be stored from increasing over time. The errors resulting from the second and third assumptions are discussed. Due to the very general assumptions under which the approximate optimal control law is derived, we are not able to report stability results. However, simulation results show that the proposed method may constitute an effective tool for solving, to a sufficient degree of accuracy, a wide class of control problems traditionally regarded as difficult ones (an example of freeway traffic optimal control is given that may be of practical importance).
Impaired Heart Contractility in Apelin Gene–Deficient Mice Associated With Aging and Pressure Overload

Apelin constitutes a novel endogenous peptide system suggested to be involved in a broad range of physiological functions, including cardiovascular function, heart development, control of fluid homeostasis, and obesity. Apelin is also a catalytic substrate for angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, the key severe acute respiratory syndrome receptor. The in vivo physiological role of Apelin is still elusive. Here we report the generation of Apelin gene–targeted mice. Apelin mutant mice are viable and fertile, appear healthy, and exhibit normal body weight, water and food intake, heart rates, and heart morphology. Intriguingly, aged Apelin knockout mice developed progressive impairment of cardiac contractility associated with systolic dysfunction in the absence of histological abnormalities. We also report that pressure overload induces upregulation of Apelin expression in the heart. Importantly, in pressure overload–induced heart failure, loss of Apelin did not significantly affect the hypertrophy response, but Apelin mutant mice developed progressive heart failure. Global gene expression arrays and hierarchical clustering of differentially expressed genes in hearts of banded Apelin−/y and Apelin+/y mice showed concerted upregulation of genes involved in extracellular matrix remodeling and muscle contraction. These genetic data show that the endogenous peptide Apelin is crucial to maintain cardiac contractility in pressure overload and aging.
Reliability and validity of a questionnaire to measure personal, social and environmental correlates of fruit and vegetable intake in 10–11-year-old children in five European countries

Abstract Objectives To investigate the internal consistency of the scales and the test–retest reliability and predictive validity of behaviour theory-based constructs measuring personal, social and environmental correlates of fruit and vegetable intake in 10–11-year-old children. Design Test–retest with one-week interval. Setting Five European countries: Norway, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, Belgium. Subjects Three hundred and twenty-six children completed the questionnaire during class hours. Results For the total sample across all countries, the test–retest reliability was good to very good (intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) >0.60) for 12 out of the 15 fruit constructs and also for 12 out of the 15 vegetable constructs. Acceptable ICCs, ranging between 0.50 and 0.59, were found for the remaining constructs. Test–retest reliability was comparable across countries. Only in Portugal were some significantly lower ICCs found for some constructs (knowledge and barriers related to fruit, general self-efficacy related to fruit and vegetables) compared with the other countries. Cronbach's α values were moderate to high (range 0.52 to 0.89) with the exception of the general self-efficacy scale, which had a value below 0.50 for both fruit (α = 0.42) and vegetables (α = 0.49). Spearman correlations with intake ranged between -0.16 and 0.54 for personal determinants and between 0.05 and 0.38 for environmental determinants. Compared with other studies, predictive validity can be considered moderate to good. Conclusions The questionnaire provides a reliable, valid and easy-to-administer tool for assessing personal, social and environmental factors of potential influence on fruit and vegetable intake in 10–11-year-olds.
Use Value of Food Plants in the Xi'iuy Indigenous Community of Las Guapas, Rayon, San Luis Potosi, Mexico

Native communities’ erosion of ethnobotanical knowledge of food plants is a global concern. This investigation focuses on a Xi’iuy community in the Sierra Madre Oriental, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. A total of 21 randomly-selected families participated (22% of the total population). The 56 people who were interviewed—an average of 2.7 per family-- were separated into four groups (fathers, mothers, single sons, single daughters). To investigate the use value of each plant, a collection of 54 food specimens was shown to the informants. Knowledge of each food species’ uses was compared between genders and age groups. The results included figures that were lower than expected, as well as less knowledge among women than men, particularly among underage daughters. The difference in use value between men and women in this community is explicable by cultural factors: i.e., women’s participation in agriculture and plant collecting is minimal. This, along with men’s seasonal migration for work (men are usually wage laborers half the year in the sugarcane harvest, and the other half they cultivate their own land), plus increasing availability of commercial food in grocery stores, contributes to the steady loss of ethnobotanical knowledge.
A 1V 15-bit Audio ΔΣ ADC in 0.18µm CMOS

In this paper a 1V 15-bit ΔΣ ADC for audio application is presented. Second order modulator with feed-forward path is adopted in order to reduce the swing of each integrator. Non-linear gain effect is mitigated. Single stage amplifier with high power efficiency is employed to save power. Decimation filter is implemented with seven-stage cascade sub-filters. Timing multiplexing and resource reuse methodology are employed for low hardware cost. The ADC is programmed to adapt 4K 8K 16K applications. Over 90dB SNDR performance can be achieved under various bandwidths while the total power dissipation is 360µW. The modulator occupies 0.3mm2 and decimation filter occupies 0.2mm2.
SAffold viruses in pediatric patients with diarrhea in Thailand

Saffold virus (SAFV) is a newly discovered human virus which is classified into the genus Cardiovirus of the family Picornaviridae. A total of 608 fecal specimens collected during January 2012 to December 2013 from children with diarrhea in Chiang Mai, Thailand were investigated for SAFV by RT‐nested PCR and sequence analysis. Of these, nine out of 608 (1.5%) were positive for SAFVs and four genotypes were identified, SAFV1, SAFV2, SAFV3, and SAFV4. SAFV mono‐infection was found in five cases (CMH‐S038–12, CMH‐S071–12, CMH‐S102–12, CMH‐N029–12, and CMH‐S048–13), while co‐infection with other viruses causing diarrhea was observed in four cases (CMH‐S021–12, CMH‐S115–12, CMH‐N048–13 and CMH‐N103–13). This study provides more information about the genetic background of SAFV circulating in pediatric patients with diarrhea in Thailand. J. Med. Virol. 87:702–707, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A Real-Time Scheduling Strategy Based on Processing Framework of Hadoop

Due to the batch processing capability and distributed storage, MapReduce and HDFS have always been the core parts of Hadoop. Nowadays, many studies still focus on improving and optimizing of the MapReduce task scheduling algorithms. However, in terms of real-time processing, MapReduce task scheduling algorithms cannot perform very well. In this paper, we design a real-time approach based on Hadoop application framework that has practical value in the field of real-time processing. Then, we put forward real-time scheduling algorithms for the file storage layer and computing layer in the framework. The motivation of this paper is to put forward real-time processing algorithms of Hadoop to deal with big data analysis issues. For the file storage layer, we propose a data management algorithm strategy named HDMA. The algorithm considers a variety of factors such as load balancing, data-locality and the heterogeneous properties of each machine within the heterogeneous cluster. HDMA can significantly improve the computing performance of the whole cluster. For the computing layer, we propose a resource dynamic allocation scheduling algorithm based on the length of job named LERDA. LERDA divides various jobs into several levels according to the length of each job and thus avoids short job waiting for a long time. Experiments show that (a) our algorithms increase the data-locality by 15% compared to other algorithms, (b) our algorithms improve the real-time performance of map by approximately 20% in the best case, (c) LERDA can prevent short jobs from suffering starvation effects.
Parricidium. [I. Le père, la famille et la cité (La lex Pompeia et le système des poursuites publiques)]

Yan Thomas, Parricidium. I. Le pere, la famille et la cite (la Lex Pompeia et le systeme des poursuites publiques), p. 643-715. ; ; La lex Pompeia etend la notion de parricidium au meurtre de parents ou allies, tres largement compris. Cette extension legale innove par rapport a une tradition qui ne qualifie ainsi que le meurtre d'un pater. Contrairement a l'interpretation courante, le parricidium n'appartient pas a la categorie de l'homicide, crime prive qui mobilise la solidarite des parents. Le meurtre du pere est un crime public, qui engage la cite dans la poursuite et dans le châtiment, parce qu'il met en cause les fondements essentiels de l'ordre juridique romain. ; Ces deux systemes continuent de s'opposer jusque dans la pratique meme des accusations, qui se met en place vers la fin du 2e siecle av. J.-C. Mais si l'accusatio popularis peut convenir a la poursuite du parricida, ou peut etre utilisee aux fins de l'ultio mortis, elle est inadequate lorsqu'il s'agit de repri- mer les violences entre proches, puisque ne s'appliquent alors ni le code de la vengeance, impossible entre membres d'un meme groupe, ni la loi du parricide, qui ne protege que le pere. En etendant cette qualification specifique aux meurtres internes, dont elle facilitait la poursuite, la lex Pompeia combla une lacune qui dut apparaitre comme telle, a l'extreme fin de l'epoque republicaine, lorsque les desordres familiaux tendirent a s'aggraver et a s'interpreter en termes de decadence politique et morale.
Overcoming the codon bias of E . coli for enhanced protein expression 1 Enhanced sensitivity of ChIP through the application of Pellet Paint

NEW PRODUCTS 10 M ost amino acids are encoded by more than one codon, and each organism carries its own bias in the usage of the 61 available amino acid codons. In each cell, the tRNA population closely reflects the codon bias of the mRNA population (1, 2). When the mRNA of heterologous target genes is overexpressed in E. coli, differences in codon usage can impede translation due to the demand for one or more tRNAs that may be rare or lacking in the population (3–5). Insufficient tRNA pools can lead to translational stalling, premature translation termination, translation frameshifting and amino acid misincorporation (4). In practice with the pET System and other high-level E. coli expression systems, the presence of a small number of rare codons often does not severely depress target protein synthesis. However, heterologous protein expression can be very low when a gene encodes clusters of and/or numerous rare E. coli codons. The most severe effects on expression have been observed when multiple consecutive rare codons are near the N-terminus of a coding sequence (6).
A Planar Near-Field Setup for Millimeter-Wave System-Embedded Antenna Testing

An experimental method to perform near-field measurement of system-embedded antennas is presented. The proposed approach employs two probe antennas, one fixed and one scanning, enabling to retrieve both amplitude and phase of the near field. This allows us to employ conventional near-field-to-far-field transformations, without the need to resort to phase retrieval approaches. The technique is first demonstrated on a standalone 60-GHz patch, showing the good agreement between the proposed method and a conventional (one probe) near-field characterization. Then, the method is applied to the characterization of embedded antennas operating in the 60-GHz and 94-GHz bands, and it is benchmarked with simulations and conventional far-field characterization techniques.
Community structures in complex networks : detection and modeling

OF DOCTORAL DISSERTATION HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY P. O. BOX 1000, FI-02015 TKK http://www.tkk. fi Author Jussi M. Kumpula Name of the dissertation Manuscript submitted 16.9. 2008 Manuscript revised 11.11. 2008 Date of the defence 29.11. 2008 Article dissertation (summary + original articles) Monograph Faculty Department Field of research Opponent(s) Supervisor Instructor
Comparing chiShona loanwords of monolingual and bilingual speakers: An Optimality Theory analysis

ChiShona is a southern Bantu language spoken mainly in Zimbabwe. In Guthrie (1948) chiShona is classified as an S.10 language, an area which includes other Bantu languages such as chiKalanga and chiNambya. ChiShona like any other language has expanded its lexical stock by borrowing, mainly from the English language. The two languages have different phonologies; English has a much more complex syllable structure than chiShona. There are three major differences: first, chiShona allows open syllables only while English allows closed syllables. Second, chiShona does not allow complex onsets while English can have as many as three consonants in the onset position. Third, chiShona does not permit complex syllable nuclei while English allows long vowels and diphthongs in its syllable structure. This article compares the realisation of loanwords in the speech of chiShona monolinguals and chiShona- English bilinguals. Our findings show that monolingual loanwords are completely assimilated to suit the chiShona phonological structures while in the speech of bilinguals some marked features of the English language such as complex onsets, the lateral approximant and postnasal voiceless obstruents are retained. Both monolinguals and bilinguals do not allow closed syllables and diphthongs which they repair through vowel epenthesis and spreading respectively. The article demonstrates that monolinguals and bilinguals have different constraint hierarchies. The former rank markedness constraints higher than faithfulness constraints while the reverse is true for the latter.
Acute toxicity of binary‐metal mixtures of copper, zinc, and nickel to Pimephales promelas: Evidence of more‐than‐additive effect

Metal mixture toxicity has been studied for decades. However, the results are not consistent, and thus ecological risk assessment and regulation of mixtures has been difficult. The objective of the present study was to use a systematic experimental design to characterize the toxicity of binary‐metal mixture of Cu, Zn, and Ni to Pimephales promelas, typically to determine whether the effect of these binary‐metal mixtures on P. promelas is more‐than‐additive. Standard 96‐h toxicity tests were conducted with larval P. promelas based on US Environmental and Protection Agency methods to determine metal mixture effects. All experiments were conducted in synthetic moderately hard water with no addition of dissolved organic matter. Three different effect analysis approaches, the MixTox model, the Finney model, and the toxic unit method, were used for comparison. The results indicate that the toxicity of Cu+Zn, Cu+Ni, and Zn+Ni mixtures to P. promelas was more‐than‐additive. Among the 3 mixtures, the effect of the Cu+Ni mixture was the most profound. The results of the present study are useful for applications to models such as the metal mixture biotic ligand model. More research should be conducted to determine the mechanisms of acute and chronic toxicity of metal mixtures. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:446–457. © 2015 SETAC
The ratio between CcdA and CcdB modulates the transcriptional repression of the ccd poison–antidote system

The ccd operon of the F plasmid encodes CcdB, a toxin targeting the essential gyrase of Escherichia coli, and CcdA, the unstable antidote that interacts with CcdB to neutralize its toxicity. Although work from our group and others has established that CcdA and CcdB are required for transcriptional repression of the operon, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. The results presented here indicate that, although CcdA is the DNA‐binding element of the CcdA–CcdB complex, the stoichiometry of the two proteins determines whether or not the complex binds to the ccd operator–promoter region. Using electrophoretic mobility shift assays, we show that a (CcdA)2–(CcdB)2 complex binds DNA. The addition of extra CcdB to that protein–DNA complex completely abolishes DNA retardation. Based on these results, we propose a model in which the ratio between CcdA and CcdB regulates the repression state of the ccd operon. When the level of CcdA is superior or equal to that of CcdB, repression results. In contrast, derepression occurs when CcdB is in excess of CcdA. By ensuring an antidote–toxin ratio greater than one, this mechanism could prevent the harmful effect of CcdB in plasmid‐containing bacteria.
Temperature-induced denaturation of ribonuclease S: a thermodynamic study.

In this paper the thermal denaturation of ribonuclease S, the product of mild digestion of ribonuclease A by subtilisin, is deeply investigated by means of DSC and CD measurements. It results that at whatever pH in the range 4-7.5 the process if fully reversible but not well represented by the simple two-state N<-->D transition. Actually, a two-state model that considers both unfolding and dissociation, NL<-->D + L*, well accounts for the main features of the process: the tail present in the low-temperature side of DSC peaks and the marked dependence of denaturation temperature on protein concentration. This mechanism is strictly linked to the exact stoichiometry of RNase S. An excess of the protein component of RNase S, the so-called S-protein, shifts the system toward a more complex behavior, that deserves a separate treatment in the accompanying paper [Graziano, G. , Catanzano, F. , Giancola, C. , & Barone, G. (1996) Biochemistry 35, 13386-13392]. The thermodynamic analysis leads to the conclusion that the difference in thermal stability between RNase S and RNase A is due to entropic effects, i.e., a greater conformational flexibility of both backbone and side chains in RNase S. The process becomes irreversible at pH 8.0-8.5, probably due to side-reactions occurring at high temperature. Finally, the influence of phosphate ion on the stability of RNase A and RNase S at pH 7.0 is studied and explained in terms of its binding on the active site of ribonuclease. The analysis enables us to obtain an estimate of the apparent association constant and binding enthalpy also.
Root coverage using acellular dermal matrix and comparing a coronally positioned tunnel to a coronally positioned flap approach.

BACKGROUND The primary aim of this randomized, controlled, masked clinical trial was to compare the percentage of root coverage obtained with a coronally positioned flap plus acellular dermal matrix (ADM) allograft to that of a tunnel technique plus ADM 4 months post-surgically. METHODS Twenty-four subjects with one site with > or =3 mm Miller Class I or II recession were treated and followed for 4 months. Twelve patients received a coronally positioned flap plus ADM and were considered the positive control group (CPF). The test group consisted of 12 subjects treated with a coronally positioned tunnel technique plus ADM (TUN). Subjects were randomly selected by a coin toss to receive the test or control treatment. RESULTS The mean facial recession defect at the initial examination for the TUN group was 3.1 +/- 0.3 mm; this was reduced to 0.7 +/- 0.9 mm at the 4-month examination for a gain of 2.4 +/- 1.0 mm or 78% defect coverage (P <0.05). The mean facial recession defect at the initial examination for the CPF group was 3.4 +/- 0.8 mm; it was reduced to 0.2 +/- 0.3 mm at the 4-month examination for a gain of 3.2 +/- 0.9 mm or 95% defect coverage (P <0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between groups (P >0.05). CONCLUSIONS The coronally positioned flap plus ADM produced a defect coverage of 95%, whereas the tunnel technique plus ADM produced only 78% coverage. This difference was considered clinically significant but was not statistically significant.