Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interindividual Variation in the Relationship of Different Intensity Markers—A Challenge for Targeted Training Prescriptions

Purpose Training intensities are frequently prescribed as relative workloads based on a single reference value (e.g. maximum oxygen uptake). However, exercise-induced physical strain is multifaceted and large interindividual variability in intensity markers has been reported for constant load exercise with standardized relative intensity. This questions the accuracy of (univariate) relative intensities in targeting specific training stimuli. The present trial aims to investigate interindividual variability in the relationship of strain indicators using interpolated performance curves derived from constant load tests at different workloads. This approach enables the prediction of other indicators based on a chosen reference and subsequent comparison of predictive accuracy between group-based and individualized regression models. Methods 15 competitive cyclists completed a stepwise incremental cycling test followed by 5 constant load tests with the same absolute workloads as in the stepwise incremental test. The highest of theses workloads which yielded a lactate (BLa) steady state was repeated enabling estimation of intraindividual variability. From constant load tests, the courses of BLa relative to the respective reference value (e.g. %VO2peak) were interpolated by polynomial regression. Variability between individual regression curves was analyzed by mixed modeling. Predictive accuracy was estimated as the sum of squared differences between predicted and observed values. Results The proportion of total variation in the course of BLa relative to the respective reference parameter accounted for by subject identity ranged between 36 and 51%. A significant increase in predictive accuracy was observed for VO2peak and HRmax, respectively, as predicting parameters. Conclusion These results are in support of a multivariable, individualized approach to intensity prescriptions when aiming at accurately targeted perturbations of homeostasis.
VopA Inhibits ATP Binding by Acetylating the Catalytic Loop of MAPK Kinases*

The bacterial pathogen Vibrio parahemeolyticus manipulates host signaling pathways during infections by injecting type III effectors. One of these effectors, Vibrio outer protein A (VopA), inhibits MAPK signaling via a novel mechanism, distinct from those described for other bacterial toxins, that disrupts this signaling pathway. VopA is an acetyltransferase that potently inhibits MAPK signaling pathways not only by preventing the activation of MAPK kinases (MKKs) but also by inhibiting the activity of activated MKKs. VopA acetylates a conserved lysine found in the catalytic loop of all kinases and blocks the binding of ATP, but not ADP, on the MKKs, resulting in an inactive phosphorylated kinase. Acetylation of this conserved lysine inhibits kinase activity by a new mechanism of regulation that has not been observed previously. Identifying the target of VopA reveals a way that the reversible post-translational modification of lysine acetylation can be used to regulate the activity of an enzyme.
Debt Management under Corporate and Personal Taxation

The presence of long-term debt in a corporation's capital structure is shown to give rise to a valuable tax-timing option that can be exercised by the firm on behalf of its shareholders. This option, which is not available if the firm is fully equity financed, implies that leverage will have a positive tax effect on total firm value even if there is no such effect associated with the tax deductibility of the coupon interest payments on debt. The more volatile interest rates and bond prices are, the more valuable the tax-timing option and the larger the favorable impact of debt on shareholder wealth.
REFORMAS ESTRUCTURALES EN AMÉRICA LATINA Y EL CARIBE EN EL PERÍODO 1970-2000: ÍNDICES Y NOTAS METODOLÓGICAS

Hubert Escaith es Director de la Division de Estadistica y Proyecciones Economicas de la CEPAL. Igor Paunovic es Oficial de Asuntos Economicos de Unidad de Desarrollo Economico, CEPAL-Mexico. Las opiniones expresadas en este documento, que no ha sido sometido a revision editorial, son de exclusiva responsabilidad del autor y pueden no coincidir con las de la Organizacion. Presentacion: Este documento tiene como proposito proporcionar al publico general, y especialmente a los investigadores economicos, los indices de reformas estructurales preparados por la CEPAL, y la metodologia que sirvio para su elaboracion. El documento detalla la metodologia que llego a la determinacion de cinco indices: apertura comercial, liberalizacion financiera interna, liberalizacion de la cuenta de capital de la balanza de pagos, reforma tributaria, y privatizaciones. Algunos problemas de medicion del indice total estan tambien analizados, esto permite subrayar las dificultades teoricas encontradas en este tipo de ejercicio, y su limitacion. Se presenta una breve resena de las tendencias grandes de las reformas estructurales, discernibles de los indices calculados, tanto del indice global, como de sus componentes de el. Un anexo estadistico en formato excel completa el documento.
What can UK public administration learn from the devolved nations?

Since the UK devolved administrations first took office in 1999, they have asserted their distinctiveness and identity while remaining within UK norms and traditions of public administration. Many variables now show a balance between institutional continuity and adaptive local practices, including: distinctions between the executive and legislative branches, and between ministers and civil servants; control of expenditure within the UK managed total; the unified Home Civil Service; the position of special advisers; professional networks inside government; public sector integration and joined-up government; techniques of coalition formation and management. Whether these amount to Scottish and Welsh models of public administration (alongside the clearly singular Northern Ireland model) is more contestable. Generally the devolved administrations fall within continuing patterns of UK government, including recent concepts such as ‘public service bargains’, ‘everyday life’ and ‘policy bureaucracy’. The system has proved resilient even in the face of challenges to the UK constitutional order, especially in Scotland, where officials have advised the Scottish National Party government about their constitutional aspirations in the same way as they do for other policy areas, whether or not devolved. Controversy over this role is a reminder that public administration is a third dimension alongside the politics of nationalism and devolution and the service-specific public policies of the devolved nations, and also a contribution to our understanding of adaptations of the Whitehall model.
Absence of NPM1 promoter hypermethylation in human myelodysplastic syndrome

Npm1+/− heterozygous mice develop a haematological disorder with features resembling human myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Promoter hypermethylation of the NPM1 gene may lead to suppressed gene transcription and hence functional haploinsufficiency, which contributes to the development of MDS. Thirty-one patients with MDS and eight normal individuals were studied for promoter methylation and mRNA expression of NPM1. Methylation-specific PCR (MSP), COBRA and bisulfite sequencing were used to examine the NPM1 methylation status. Quantitative PCR was used to assess the expression of NPM1. NPM1 DNA methylation was rare, occurring in one of 31 cases as determined by MSP. There was no significant difference in NPM1 mRNA expression between MDS and normal blood samples. In conclusion, the finding suggests that NPM1 methylation is rare in MDS and does not play a major role in its pathogenesis.
Measures for the assessment of fuzzy predictions of protein secondary structure

Many of the recent secondary structure prediction methods incorporate the idea of fuzzy set theory, where instead of assigning a definite secondary structure to a query residue, probability for the residue being in each of the conformational states is estimated. Moreover, continuous assignment of conformational states to the experimentally observed protein structures can be performed in order to reflect inherent flexibility. Although various measures have been developed for evaluating performances of secondary structure prediction methods, they depend only on the most probable secondary structures. They do not assess the accuracy of the probabilities produced by fuzzy prediction methods, and they cannot incorporate information contained in continuous assignments of conformational states to observed structures. Three important measures for evaluating performance of a secondary structure prediction algorithm, Q score, Segment OVerlap (SOV) measure, and the k‐state correlation coefficient (Corr), are deformed into fuzzy measures F score, Fuzzy OVerlap (FOV) measure, and the fuzzy correlation coefficient (Forr), so that the new measures not only assess probabilistic outputs of fuzzy prediction methods, but also incorporate information from continuous assignments of secondary structure. As an example of application, prediction results of four fuzzy secondary structure prediction methods, PSIPRED, PROFking, SABLE, and PREDICT, are assessed using the new fuzzy measures. Proteins 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
MERCADO DE ACCIONES COLOMBIANO. PROCESO EXPLOSIVO VS CAMINATA ALEATORIA. ¿HAY BURBUJA ESPECULATIVA?

In this paper is studied the speculative bubbles phenomena in Colombian stock market by correlation analysis on the returns of IGBC series. This analysis it is a progress versus previews studies that analyzed the market on efficiency terms or random walk path because are obtained autocorrelation tests on dynamic form. Empirical evidence are obtained to dating the bubbles and we describe the events occurred while bubble grows, showing a compared analysis with the case in the United States.
A study on the relation between manufacturing strategy, company size, country culture and product and process innovation in Europe

With the goal of contributing to the manufacturing strategy formulation discussion within international manufacturing networks, a set of data analyses were performed with the aim of empirically supporting conceptual approaches. This article presents the results of establishing correlations between four sets of data pertaining to 14 European countries. Six inter-relations are investigated between the datasets, pertaining to manufacturing strategy, distribution of company size, product and production related innovation and measures of culture of the countries. The analyses draw on empirical data, collected independently by EU organisms and within the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) IV consortium, with less than three years apart in date of collection. Hofstede’s (1980, 2001) measures of power distance, masculinity, individuality and uncertainty avoidance constitute the cultural measures considered. Pearson correlations resulted mostly in low levels of correlation, but considerable levels of determination were unveiled. These concern inverse correlations between rates of specific kinds of innovation in manufacturing companies and the percentage of large companies per country as well as the employment of a specific kind of manufacturing strategy. The results provide an overview of European specific dimensions of manufacturing and how they match each other, based on a recent time frame (2003 to 2005).
The stability of the glomerular filtration rate after renal transplantation is improving.

The 6-mo function and the stability of function posttransplantation in 429 cadaver renal transplants was investigated from 1990 to 2000. The 6-mo creatinine clearance (CrCl) and the rate of change of CrCl beyond 6 mo posttransplantation were calculated. The mean 6-mo CrCl was 64.6 +/- 1.1 ml/min and was stable between 1990 and 2000. The net slope of CrCl was -1.4 +/- 0.5 ml/min per yr. The slope has improved in recent years, such that the mean slopes in the period after 1997 are actually positive (+3.5 ml/min per yr). The slope of CrCl beyond 6 mo was not related to the actual value of the 6 mo CrCl, i.e., there was no accelerated loss of function at low CrCl levels. The 6-mo CrCl was independently determined by donor factors (age, gender), recipient factors (age, gender), and immune factors (rejection episodes, regraft status). The slope of the CrCl correlated independently with the transplant year, recipient gender, rejection episodes, diastolic BP, and the choice of immunosuppressive drugs. Cytomegalovirus infection and mismatch status and lipid levels and treatment were not independently associated with slope or 6-mo CrCl. Thus, the most striking change in the course of renal transplants over the past decade is the new stability of function, correlating with reduced rejection and probably due at least in part to the new immunosuppressive agents. Despite continued calcineurin inhibitor use, late improvement in function now occurs in many cadaver kidney transplants, suggesting a previously unappreciated capacity for functional adaptation.
Earnings Management through Affiliated Transactions

Prior research has investigated earnings management primarily through the use of discretionary accruals. We examine whether, in addition to discretionary accruals, firms further engage in earnings management using transactions with affiliated companies. When a parent company has a dominant relation over affiliated companies, the parent company can structure transactions between itself and affiliates in a way that allows it to achieve income‐reporting objectives beyond the use of discretionary accruals. We address this research issue in Japan because Japanese firms issue both parent and consolidated financial statements. In addition to earnings management techniques that can be used to manage consolidated earnings, parent earnings can also be managed using transactions with affiliates. We find earnings management behavior for both parent and consolidated earnings around three earnings thresholds: avoiding losses, avoiding earnings declines, and avoiding negative forecast errors. Consistent with additional .
Management Solutions for Distributed Software Applications in Multi-Purpose Sensor Networks (Beheersoplossingen voor gedistribueerde softwaretoepassingen in sensornetwerken voor meerdere doeleinden)

Multi-purpose sensor networks represent an emerging use case of wireless sensor networks. Multi-purpose sensor networks no longer serve a single purpose, but are a reusable asset that host multiple applications for a variety of actors. On the one hand, multi-purpose sensor networks have the potential to increase the return on investment of wireless sensor networks. On the other hand, multi-purpose sensor networks introduce additional management complexity that may increase the operational expenses. Automated management solutions are an important tool to reduce these operational expenses. Management solutions for multi-purpose sensor networks must meet four requirements: (1) resource efficiency, (2) autonomy, (3) reconfigurability and (4) multi-application support. The first requirement stems from the resource constraints of wireless sensor nodes. Management solutions must take these constraints into account. Second, to avoid the need for manual intervention due to the inherent dynamism of sensor networks, the management solutions must autonomously handle network changes. Third, to handle these changes and accommodate the evolving end-user requirements, support for flexible reconfiguration is indispensable. Finally, multi-application support is essential to facilitate multi-purpose usage of the sensor network. To address resource efficiency, the research in this dissertation leverages the resources in the gateway and back-end tiers that interact with the multi-purpose sensor network. The presented approach facilitates autonomy and eases multiapplication support by raising the abstraction level of the policies that govern the management solutions. Modularization of the software on the sensor nodes is applied to improve reconfigurability and to enable multi-application support through distributed application assembly. This dissertation presents two contributions to the state-of-the-art in runtime support for reconfigurability. Both contributions provide flexible reconfiguration and a foundation for multi-application support through modularity. The first contribution, an adaptable virtual machine (DAViM), focuses on maximizing the modularity and reconfigurability of the runtime itself. The second contribution,
Incomplete information and bargaining in the EU: An explanation of first-reading non-agreements

According to the logic of standard veto bargaining models with complete information, bargaining in the European Union should never reach the second reading of the ordinary legislative procedure (co-decision). Even so, non-agreement at the first reading occurs frequently in European Union decision making. How can this be explained? Drawing upon game theory on bargaining with incomplete information, two specific predictions with regard to the occurrence of first-reading non-agreements can be generated. First-reading agreements are less likely to occur (1) the greater the distance between the ideal point of the Council and the ideal point of the European Parliament and (2) the greater the salience attached to the proposal. This article combines positional and proposal-specific data and finds robust support for both hypotheses in two different empirical tests.
Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and Infectious Diseases Society of America Joint Committee on the Prevention of Antimicrobial Resistance Guidelines for the Prevention of Antimicrobial Resistance in Hospitals

Abstract Antimicrobial resistance results in increased morbidity, mortality, and costs of health care. Prevention of the emergence of resistance and the dissemination of resistant microorganisms will reduce these adverse effects and their attendant costs. Appropriate antimicrobial stewardship that includes optimal selection, dose, and duration of treatment, as well as control of antibiotic use, will prevent or slow the emergence of resistance among microorganisms. A comprehensively applied infection control program will interdict the dissemination of resistant strains
THE RISE OF HARM REDUCTION IN THE

The Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme (BFDPP) is a new initiative dedicated to providing a rigorous independent review of the effectiveness of national and international drug policies. The aim of this programme of research and analysis is to assemble and disseminate material that supports the rational consideration of complex drug policy issues, and leads to more effective management of the widespread use of psychoactive substances in the future. SUMMARY
Combined use of alcohol hand rub and gloves reduces the incidence of late onset infection in very low birthweight infants

Objective: To assess the incidence of late onset (> 72 hours) infection and necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) in very low birthweight (VLBW) infants in two 36 month periods using two hand hygiene protocols: conventional handwashing (HW; first 36 month period); an alcohol hand rub and gloves technique (HR; second 36 month period). Method: VLBW infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit during the period December 1993–November 1999 were eligible. A new hand hygiene protocol using alcohol handrub and gloves was introduced in December 1996. Each patient’s case record was reviewed retrospectively by two independent investigators using a standard data collection form. The incidence of NEC and systemic infections, including bacterial or fungal septicaemia, meningitis, and peritonitis, in the two periods were compared. Results: The HW and HR groups contained 161 and 176 VLBW infants respectively. The incidence of late onset systemic infection decreased from 13.5 to 4.8 episodes (including NEC)/1000 patient days after introduction of the HR regimen, representing a 2.8-fold reduction. Similarly, the incidence of Gram positive, Gram negative, and fungal infections decreased 2.5-fold, 2.6-fold, and 7-fold respectively. There was also a significant reduction in the incidence of NEC in the HR group (p < 0.0001). Subgroup analysis revealed that the incidence of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) septicaemia was significantly decreased in the second 36 month period (p = 0.048). The clinical data suggest that infants in the HW group had significantly earlier onset of sepsis (p < 0.05) and required oxygen supplementation for longer (p < 0.05) than those in the HR group. Significantly more VLBW infants were discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit without ever being infected (p < 0.0001), and also significantly fewer infants had more than one episode of infection in the HR group (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: The introduction of the HR protocol was associated with a 2.8-fold reduction in the incidence of late onset systemic infection, and also a significant decrease in the incidence of MRSA septicaemia and NEC in VLBW infants. This decrease in infection rate was maintained throughout the second 36 month period.
Experimental comparison of different anti-windup schemes for an AC motor speed control system

Anti-windup compensator is an additional controller which is used to compensate the affect of saturation non-linearity often present in practical systems. This paper describes the system identification, uncertainty modeling, control and implementation of different anti-windup techniques for a computer interfaced AC motor speed control system. System identification is done using pseudo random number technique. A robustly stable PI-controller is designed and implemented in order to control the AC motor speed. Wind-up affect due to actuator saturation is removed by implementing different schemes like Internal Model Control (IMC), full order, low order and static anti-windup compensator and practical results are compared.