Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage Following a Bout of Sport Specific Repeated Sprints

Howatson, G and Milak, A. Exercise-induced muscle damage following a bout of sport specific repeated sprints. J Strength Cond Res 23(8): 2419-2424, 2009-Exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) is a popular area of investigation; however, many of the existing methods to induce muscle damage lack specificity to a sporting context. The aim of this investigation was to examine the extent of damage precipitated from a sport-specific, repeated sprint protocol and therefore elucidate its suitability as an appropriate model to investigate EIMD. Twenty male subjects (age 22 ± 2 years, height 178 ± 6.6 cm, mass 84.6 ± 13.6 kg in mean ± SD) volunteered. Following a standardized warm-up, they conducted 15 × 30 m sprints with a 10-m deceleration zone in which subjects were required to come to a complete halt; each repetition was separated by 60 seconds of rest. Maximum isometric force (MVC), serum creatine kinase activity (CK), muscle soreness (DOMS), and limb girth were taken immediately before and at 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after exercise to elucidate the extent of muscle damage. There were significant time effects for all dependent variables. CK and DOMS were significantly elevated above baseline for 72 hours postexercise (p < 0.05), whereas MVC was significantly lower and limb girth remained significantly elevated for 48 hours postexercise (p < 0.05). These data show that the repeated sprint protocol with a rapid deceleration precipitates significant levels of damage in the days following the exercise bout and therefore may be used as a suitable alternative to examine the damage response from a sport specific repeated sprint mode of exercise.
Buck-integrated SEPIC converter for photovoltaic power conversion

In this paper analysis and control of two-input buck integrated SEPIC converter, suitable for photovoltaic (PV) applications, is presented. This converter is essentially combination of individual buck and SEPIC converters. However, on account of the integration load side only one inductor is sufficient enough for performing the power conversion both in Buck and SEPIC converters. The SEPIC converter, with maximum power tracking, extracts complete power from the PV array and feeds into the load, while the remaining load power demand is drawn from the stand-alone dc source. The buck converter is provided with a simple voltage-mode controller for dc bus voltage regulation. Closed-loop converter performance of this converter is simulated and compared with the experimental observations thus validating the proposed power distribution.
Neural network based person identification using EEG features

A direct connection between the electroencephalogram (EEG) and the genetic information of an individual has been suspected and investigated by neurophysiologists and psychiatrists since 1960. However, most of this early as well as more recent research focuses on the classification of pathological EEG cases, aiming to construct tests for purposes of diagnosis. On the contrary, our work focuses on healthy individuals and aims to establish an one-to-one correspondence between the genetic information of the individual and certain features of his/her EEG, as an intermediate step towards the further goal of developing a test for person identification based on features extracted from the EEG. Potential applications include, among others, information encoding and decoding and access to secure information. At the present stage the proposed method uses spectral information extracted from the EEG non-parametrically via the FFT and employs a neural network (a learning vector quantizer-LVQ) to classify unknown EEGs as belonging to one of a finite number of individuals. Correct classification scores ranging from 80% to 100% in experiments conducted on real data, show evidence that the EEG indeed carries genetic information and that the proposed method can be used to construct person identification tests based on EEG features.
The Professional Project among Danish Kindergarten Teachers: Its Nature and Consequences in the Current Context

This article describes ways in which the professionalization strategy among Danish kindergarten teachers is realised in practice by newly educated members of the occupation. It focusses on relations between gender and professionalisation and concludes that the professionalisation strategy is realised as, respectively, a female professional project and a male qualification project. The consequences of these two projects are discussed in terms of ways they seem to produce and reproduce kindergarten teachers’ work. The article is based on ethnographic observations and interviews with newly educated kindergarten teachers employed in three different pedagogic institutions: day-care (0-6 years), after-school institutions (6-10 years) and club facilities (10-18 years).
In vitro system for molybdopterin biosynthesis

A high-Mr fraction present in chl+ and chlA1 strains of Escherichia coli synthesizes molybdopterin (MPT) from the low-Mr fraction of several MPT-deficient mutants. Using this in vitro complementation as an assay, we have partially characterized the high-Mr fraction as a protein, termed MPT converting factor, of Mr 45,000, distinguishable from the Mo cofactor carrier protein of similar Mr by its absolute requirement for the low-Mr fraction of a non-chlA1 mutant in the nit-1 reconstitution assay. MPT converting factor was rapidly inactivated in the absence of a reduced sulfhydryl compound. Anaerobic incubation of MPT converting factor with trypsin destroyed its activity. High-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of alkaline KMnO4 oxidation products demonstrated that the factor did not contain any bound pterin. Since mutants lacking MPT converting factor are not auxotrophs for folate or riboflavin, the factor appears to be distinct from known pteridine biosynthetic enzymes in E. coli. We have partially purified and characterized the low-Mr fractions as probable MPT precursors. Several distinct precursors were separable by high-performance liquid chromatography. Like MPT activity, precursor activity was oxygen sensitive. Precursor activity was not correlated with levels of L-threo-neopterin, a major pterin of unknown function in E. coli. Precursor activity was correlated with levels of a new 6-alkylpterin, compound Z, produced by acidic iodine oxidation. Compound Z has the properties expected of an oxidized MPT precursor.
Natural Hand Interaction for AR Applications

In this paper we describe a computer vision-based 3D hand tracking system for a multimodal Augmented Reality (AR) interface. We have developed a 3D vision-based natural hand interaction method. This consists of four steps: (1) Skin colour segmentation, (2) Feature point finding, (3) Hand direction calculation, and (4) Simple collision detection based on a short finger ray for interaction between the user’s hand and augmented objects. The resulting fingertip tracking accuracy varied from 3mm to 20mm depending on the distance between the user’s hand and the stereo camera. We describe how this hand tracking is applied in three AR applications which merge gesture and speech input.
Enhancing cloud storage security against roll-back attacks with a new fair multi-party non-repudiation protocol

Along with variant advantages, cloud storage also poses new security challenges. Potential users are reluctant to move important and sensitive data to cloud unless security challenges have been well addressed. This paper reports our on-going efforts to address three data security issues in cloud storage: repudiation, fairness, and roll-back attacks. We proposed a novel fair multi-party non-repudiation (MPNR) protocol, which provide a fair non-repudiation storage cloud and is capable of preventing roll-back attacks.
Anonymization and Deanonymization of Social Network Data

Adversary: Somebody who, whether intentionally or not, reveals sensitive, private information Adversarial model: Formal description of the unique characteristics of a particular adversary Attribute disclosure: A privacy breach wherein some descriptive attribute of somebody is revealed Identity disclosure: A privacy breach in which a presumably anonymous person is in fact identifiable k-P-anonymity: A condition under which any instance of P appears at least k times Target: The particular social network member against whom an adversary is trying to breach privacy
The effectiveness of corporal punishment in dealing with deviant behaviour in pupils in schools

The research set out to investigate and establish the effectiveness of corporal punishment in dealing with deviant behaviour in pupils in Chibuwe Cluster Schools in Chipinge District. The research was prompted by the recurrence of deviance in pupils even after numerous attempts to control and eradicate it with corporal punishment. Descriptive survey research design was used. Stratified random sampling was done to create a sample representative of the population. The sample comprised twentyfive pupils, fifteen form four pupils and ten grade seven pupils. There were also twenty-five teachers, fifteen secondary school teachers, ten primary school teachers as well as five school heads and five members of the school development committees which summed up to sixty respondents. Respondents were sampled from two rural primary and three rural secondary schools selected from eleven schools in the cluster. Data were collected through self administered questionnaires and face to face interviews. The study found out that there is very rare to no procedural and recommended corporal punishment in Chibuwe Cluster Schools. It was recommended that schools should widen and diversify their disciplinary strategies to include rewards, discussions, explanation and others.
The effects of different viewing conditions on performance in simulated minimal access surgery

This study aimed to assess performance in simulated minimal access surgery (MAS) tasks under a range of viewing conditions. MAS conventionally uses 2d viewing systems which produce a flat image. However, 3d viewing systems which produce stereoscopic depth information should in principle lead to better depth perception, and improve performance on tasks which require appropriate spatial representation of layout and depth. The study compared a novel 3d viewing system with a state of the art 2d viewing system and a direct viewing condition (‘open surgery’) as a point of reference. Tasks included pulling and cutting of threads using standard surgical instruments. Medical students (n = 16) were allocated to viewing conditions according to a Latin square and carried out 120 tasks each. Assessment was by means of a 3d movement tracking device providing a number of performance parameters (time on task, velocity, number of movements, distance travelled). In addition instrument movement was video-recorded and analysed by four observers to validate the tracking device. Results from tracking data and observer data were highly correlated (r > 0.85). While open surgery naturally scored highest, the key finding was the clearly superior performance in the 3d condition compared to 2d. Thus modern 3d viewing systems can improve performance in a realistic task.
Sleep benefit in Parkinson’s disease

Many patients with Parkinson’s disease wake in the morning “off”. Patients with sleep benefit wake “on”. This sleep benefit gradually wears off over a variable period, usually about 30 to 60 minutes. Little is known about sleep benefit.1 Previous reports have produced conflicting results.2 3 No objective study has been undertaken to confirm whether sleep benefit exists or to document patients’ subjective reports that they wake in the “on state. The aims of this study were to investigate the existence of sleep benefit, to identify the characteristics of the patients who reported it, and to measure its duration. The study comprised two parts. ### INPATIENT STUDY A consecutive series of 20 patients with Parkinson’s disease admitted to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN) was studied by one of us (DEB). These patients were rated using the motor unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale (UPDRS)4as follows: (1) On waking, and subsequently when they turned “off” after waking before their first dose of medication. (2) “On” after medication. (3) “Off” after medication. These ratings were consecutive on the same day. The patients also completed an activities of daily living (ADL) proforma at these times. The ADL rating scale is a 25 item questionnaire in which patients are asked to rate how well they think that they can perform certain activities of daily living.5 The purpose of this part of the study was to confirm the existence of sleep benefit and assess the correlation between the objective motor UPDRS scale4 and patient’s self rated activities of daily living (ADL) scale,5 so that it could be used in the second outpatient part of the study to confirm the existence of sleep benefit in outpatients with Parkinson’s …
Enhanced discrete time model for AC induction machine model predictive control

AC induction motors became very popular for motion control applications due to their simple and reliable construction. Control of drives based on AC induction motors is a quite complex task. In most high-performance applications classical vector control is currently used. While this control method is usually reliable it has some limitations especially in controllers tuning and constraints handling. New control methods like Model Predictive Control become feasible in connection with increasing computational power of controller hardware. The paper deals with enhanced discrete time AC induction machine model which can be used for efficient predictive control implementation. The other objective of the paper is discussion of prediction horizon length on the drive control performance.
An empirical validation of the relationship between the magnitude of relative error and project size

Cost estimates are important deliverables of a software project. Consequently, a number of cost prediction models have been proposed and evaluated. The common evaluation criteria have been MMRE, MdMRE and PRED(k). MRE is the basic metric in these evaluation criteria. The implicit rationale of using a relative error measure like MRE, rather than an absolute one, is presumably to have a measure that is independent of project size. We investigate if this implicit claim holds true for several data sets: Albrecht, Kemerer, Finnish, DMR and Accenture-ERP. The results suggest that MRE is not independent of project size. Rather, MRE is larger for small projects than for large projects. A practical consequence is that a project manager predicting a small project may falsely believe in a too low MRE. Vice versa when predicting a large project. For researchers, it is important to know that MMRE is not an appropriate measure of the expected MRE of small and large projects. We recommend therefore that the data set be partitioned into two or more subsamples and that MMRE is reported per subsample. In the long term, we should consider using other evaluation criteria.
A risk analysis of stable value protection for bank-owned life insurance

Bank-owned life insurance is an increasingly popular tool used by banks to fund the compensation and benefit plans that banks provide to their executives. Assets held within bank-owned life insurance (BOLI) policies now exceed $126 billion and thanks to its tax-efficient status, these policies will likely remain a core investment for banks for the foreseeable future. These policies can be further enhanced using stable value protection (SVP) which allows banks to apply book-value accounting to their investment. Using a Monte-Carlo-based stochastic interest rate model, the paper explores the risk profile and sensitivities of the most common stable value swaps and proposes several simple design innovations which can be tailored to improve the risk profile for both the issuer and purchasers.
Runway Detection Using K-Means Clustering Method Using UAVSAR Data

Remote sensing data gives the essential and critical information for detecting or identifying an object, a place, image fusion, change detection, and land cover classification of selected area of interest. The runway detection is an important topic because of its applications in military and civil aviation fields. This paper presents an approach for runway detection using Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVAR) data by implementing K-means clustering method. The obtained results reveal that we can obtain better detection, for the 9 and 11 classes, with iterations set to 10. In this work, the effectiveness of algorithm was demonstrated using quad polarimetric L-band Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar(polSAR) imagery from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL’s) Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR). The study area is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, LA, USA.
Age of dam and maternal effects for dystocia in Holsteins.

Genetic correlations between dystocia in first with later parities and between direct with maternal effects for dystocia were estimated. Dystocia in first and later parities represent similar traits because of a large genetic correlation of . 84. This similarity should allow calving reports on older dams and heifers to be combined in predicting a bull's calving performance. Correlations for direct with maternal effects were -. 38 for the heifer population and -. 25 for the cow (second and greater parities) population. This correlation would reduce progress from selecting for reduced dystocia if only direct effects were considered. Breeding programs to reduce dystocia should consider both direct and maternal performance.
An improved PCA algorithm for anomaly detection of hydropower units

This paper proposes an improved principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm for anomaly detection of hydropower units (HUs). Operation conditions of HUs are identified first. Then PCA model is updated by two adaptive updating methods under different operation conditions. And in steady operation conditions, the proper window size, an important parameter, is obtained by the estimation of model stability. The improved method is applied to detect a simulated constant deviation anomaly of the swing measurement sensor in the experiment part. The result shows this improved method has a higher precision rate of detection and a satisfactory detection rate of anomaly compared with the traditional method.
Three dimensional integrated guidance and control for slide to turn missile with input saturation

To control a slide to turn (STT) missile which attacks a ground moving target in the presence of input saturation, a three dimensional (3D) integrated guidance and control (IGC) law based on dynamic surface control and linear extended state observer (LESO) techniques is developed. Firstly, a novel 3D IGC model is built without assuming that the angle between line of sight (LOS) and missile velocity is small or almost constant. Then, to analyze the effect of input saturation, a Nussbaum function, a smooth tangent function, and an auxiliary system are introduced. The modeling error, acceleration of target and aerodynamic parameters perturbation are viewed as the overall system uncertainty which three linear extended state observers are designed to estimate. With the signal generated by the auxiliary system and uncertainty estimated from LESO, a robust controller utilizing dynamic surface control technique is designed to track the target. Besides, the stability of system is proved. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the law.
Nonrandom segregation: Uniformly most powerful test and related considerations

When nonrandom segregation of marker haplotypes from parents to offspring is detected, leading to an increased parental haplotype sharing by affected offspring, an association between the disease and the marker loci is often inferred. In this paper, we provide the uniformly most powerful test for testing nonrandom segregation, and compare the power of this test with another test that is available in the literature. Other statistical properties of the two tests are also discussed. Further, since nonrandom segregation can result from linkage of the disease and marker loci, when the hypothesis of random segregation is rejected, it is of interest to estimate the underlying parameter assuming linkage. We provide an estimation procedure.
Anomalous TEM Modes in Guiding Structures Filled With Double Negative and Double Positive Materials

In this letter, anomalous transverse electromagnetic (TEM) modes in canonical guiding structures filled with isotropic double negative and double positive materials are investigated. More specifically, it is pointed out that the propagation of a TEM mode in a particular class of dielectric loaded coaxial cables is possible if and only if the associated voltage and current waves are zero. It is also shown that this and similar unexpected behaviors are possible even in other canonical guiding structures partially filled with metamaterials
Up-regulation of the α2-Macroglobulin Signaling Receptor on Rheumatoid Synovial Fibroblasts*

In the present study, we demonstrate that the α2-macroglobulin (α2M) signaling receptor is up-regulated on rheumatoid synovial fibroblasts. In rheumatoid cells, 125I-α2M-methylamine bound to two sites; namely, one of high affinity (Kd ∼52 pM) and the second of lower affinity (Kd ∼9.7 nM). In normal synovial fibroblasts only one site for 125I-α2M-methylamine (Kd ∼5.36 nM) was present. Receptor-associated protein did not inhibit the binding of α2M-methylamine to the high affinity binding sites, but it caused a 70-80% reduction in its binding to low affinity binding sites establishing its identity as the low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein/α2M receptor. Binding of α2M-methylamine to rheumatoid but not normal synovial fibroblasts caused a rapid rise in inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate synthesis with a peak reached within 10 s of ligand exposure. Concomitantly, rheumatoid but not normal cells showed a rise in intracellular Ca2+. Pretreatment of rheumatoid cells with Receptor-associated protein or pertussis toxin did not affect the α2M-methylamine-induced increase in intracellular Ca2+. These are characteristic properties of ligation by α2M-methylamine of the α2M signaling receptor but not the lipoprotein receptor-related protein/α2M receptor. Binding of α2M-methylamine to rheumatoid synovial fibroblasts significantly increased the synthesis of DNA compared with normal synovial fibroblasts treated similarly.
Optimal Degree of Foreign Ownership under Uncertainty

This paper studies the integration strategies of multinational firms in a multiperiod model under incomplete contracts and uncertainty. I incorporate continuous levels of integration to the study of organizational choice in an existing model of foreign direct investment (Antras and Helpman, 2004) and extend the model to a multi-period framework of learning. The joint productivity of the two partners in an integrated firm is unknown initially to both sides and is revealed only after continued joint production. The model gives rise to a nondegenerate distribution of foreign ownership at the firm level and shows that the optimal level of integration rises with the age of the firm. These patterns are supported by detailed plant-level data on share of foreign ownership. The model predicts that the degree of foreign ownership is an increasing function of joint productivity and intra-firm trade should rise over time as a result of increased control by multinationals. I test the implications of my theory with plant-level data from Turkey and find support for the predictions of the model.