Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of priming exercise on VO2 kinetics and the power-duration relationship.

PURPOSE This study aimed to investigate the influence of prior heavy- and severe-intensity exercise on the oxygen uptake (V·O₂) kinetics and the power-duration relationship. METHODS Ten cyclists performed 13 exercise tests during a 4-wk period, consisting of a ramp test to determine the gas exchange threshold (GET) and the peak V·O₂, followed by a series of square-wave tests to exhaustion under three conditions: no prior exercise (control), prior heavy exercise (6 min at a work rate above GET but below critical power [CP)], and prior severe exercise (6 min at a work rate above the CP). Pulmonary gas exchange was measured throughout the exhaustive exercise bouts and the parameters of the power-duration relationship (CP and the curvature constant, W') were determined from the linear work-time model. RESULTS Prior heavy exercise increased the amplitude of the primary V·O₂ response (by ∼ 0.19 ± 0.28 L·min(-1), P = 0.001), reduced the V·O₂ slow component trajectory (by 0.04 ± 0.09 L·min(-2), P = 0.002), and increased the time to exhaustion (by ∼ 52 ± 92 s, P = 0.005). The CP was unchanged (control vs prior heavy: 284 ± 47 vs 283 ± 44 W; 95% confidence interval, -7 to 5 W), whereas the W' was increased by heavy-intensity priming (16.0 ± 4.8 vs 18.7 ± 4.8 kJ; 95% confidence interval, 0.3-5.2 kJ). Severe-intensity exercise had a similar effect on the V·O₂ kinetics but had no effect on the time to exhaustion, the CP (275 ± 45 W), or the W' (16.7 ± 4.7 kJ). CONCLUSIONS Prior heavy-intensity exercise primes the V·O₂ kinetics and increases the amount of work that can be performed above the CP.
A 100kHz–10MHz BW, 78-to-52dB DR, 4.6-to-11mW flexible SC ΣΔ modulator in 1.2-V 90-nm CMOS

This paper presents an adaptive 1.2-V 90-nm CMOS cascade two-stage (2–2) SC ΣΔ modulator with 3-level quantization and unity signal transfer function in both stages. The chip reconfigures its loop filter order (either 2nd or 4th-order), clock frequency (from 40 to 240 MHz) and scales power according to the required specifications for different wireless standards, covering: GSM, Bluetooth, GPS, UMTS, DVB-H and WiMAX. Measurements feature a dynamic range of 78/70/71.5/66/62/52dB and a peak signal-to-(noise+distortion) ratio of 72.3/68.0/65.4/63.3 /59.1/48.7dB within 100kHz/500kHz/1MHz/2MHz/4MHz/10MHz, while consuming 4.6/5.35/6.2/8/8/11mW, respectively. These results show a competitive performance with the state-of-the-art multi-standard ΣΔ modulators, covering one of the widest regions in the DR-vs.-Bandwidth plane†1.
Modulated tensorial metasurfaces for aperture field generation

This paper presents a procedure for generating radiating aperture fields using tensorial metasurfaces. The aperture field is generated using surface wave to leaky wave conversion resulting from metasurface modulation. Amplitude and phase control are achieved using varying modulation parameters and holography principle respectively. In order to validate the design procedure, a numerical solution is presented for a multi-beam metasurface antenna working at 20GHz.
Ion transport and acid-base balance in freshwater bivalves

Blood acid­base and ionic balance in freshwater bivalves is affected by the relative activities of epithelial Na+ and Cl- transporters. In the unionid Carunculina texasensis, the Na+/H+ exchanger is the predominant epithelial transporter that affects acid­base state, while Cl-/HCO3- exchange is of lesser importance. In the corbiculid Corbicula fluminea, Cl- and Na+ transport are both significant components affecting acid­base state. Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) stimulates Na+ and Cl- transport in both species. In C. texasensis, the effect of exogenous serotonin is four times greater on Na+/H+ exchange than on Cl-/HCO3- transport, resulting in an increase in acid secretion and a rise in blood pH. In a Na+-free environment, serotonin had no effect on blood acid­base state in C. texasensis. In C. fluminea, the acid­base consequences of serotonin stimulation of Na+/H+ exchange were offset by similar increases in Cl-/HCO3- exchange and by alterations in blood PCO(sum) in medium containing Na+. In Na+-free medium, stimulation of the Cl- transporter with 5-HT resulted in a decrease in blood pH. The differences between these two species are related to the reliance of C. fluminea on Cl- as the major anion in the blood, requiring high levels of epithelial Cl- transport. In C. texasensis, the anionic component of the blood consists of both Cl- and HCO3- and these ions are interchangeable over a wide concentration range. Extracellular acid­base balance in freshwater bivalves is governed, in part, by epithelial ion transporters.
Improving the treatment of non‐Hodgkin lymphoma with antibody‐targeted radionuclides

Radioimmunotherapy of non‐Hodgkin lymphoma comprises a 90Y‐ or 131I‐labeled murine anti‐CD20 IgG, but both agents also include a substantial dose of unlabeled anti‐CD20 IgG given immediately before the radioconjugate to reduce its uptake in the spleen (primary normal B‐cell antigen sink); this extends its plasma half‐life and improves tumor visualization. Thus, these treatments combine an effective anti‐CD20 radioconjugate with an unconjugated anti‐CD20 antibody that is also therapeutically active, but the large anti‐CD20 IgG predose (∼900 mg) may diminish the tumor localization of the radioimmunoconjugate (eg, 10‐35 mg). We have examined alternative approaches that enhance radionuclide targeting and improve antitumor responses. One uses a 90Y‐labeled anti‐CD22 IgG (epratuzumab) combined with an antibody therapy regimen of a humanized anti‐CD20 IgG (veltuzumab). Pretargeted radionuclide therapy using a trivalent, humanized, recombinant bispecific anti‐CD20 antibody with a 90Y‐hapten‐peptide is another highly effective method that is also less toxic than directly radiolabeled IgG. Finally, all approaches benefit from the addition of a consolidation‐dosing regimen of the anti‐CD20 IgG antibody. This article reviews these various options and discusses how some fundamental changes could potentially enhance the response and duration from radionuclide‐targeted therapy Cancer 2010;116(4 suppl):1134–45. © 2010 American Cancer Society.
The challenge of electronic waste (e-waste) management in developing countries

Information and telecommunications technology (ICT) and computer Internet networking has penetrated nearly every aspect of modern life, and is positively affecting human life even in the most remote areas of the developing countries. The rapid growth in ICT has led to an improvement in the capacity of computers but simultaneously to a decrease in the products lifetime as a result of which increasingly large quantities of waste electrical and electronic equipment (e-waste) are generated annually. ICT development in most developing countries, particularly in Africa, depends more on secondhand or refurbished EEEs most of which are imported without confirmatory testing for functionality. As a result large quantities of e-waste are presently being managed in these countries. The challenges facing the developing countries in e-waste management include: an absence of infrastructure for appropriate waste management, an absence of legislation dealing specifically with e-waste, an absence of any framework for end-of-life (EoL) product take-back or implementation of extended producer responsibility (EPR). This study examines these issues as they relate to practices in developing countries with emphasis on the prevailing situation in Nigeria. Effective management of e-waste in the developing countries demands the implementation of EPR, the establishment of product reuse through remanufacturing and the introduction of efficient recycling facilities. The implementation of a global system for the standardization and certification/labelling of secondhand appliances intended for export to developing countries will be required to control the export of electronic recyclables (e-scarp) in the name of secondhand appliances.
Genetically modified foods, science, consumers and the media

In contrast to the situation in the USA, where a wide range of genetically modified (GM) foods is available, in Europe very few GM products have been approved for marketing as foods, and there is widespread public concern about their safety and environmental impact. The marketing of a GM crop for food use in Europe falls under the EC novel foods regulations, and applications require the submission of an extensive dossier of information. The safety evaluation of GM foods presents considerable problems both in the conduct and interpretation of experimental studies, because conventional toxicity tests used in the evaluation of simple chemicals may not be appropriate for whole foods. To rationalise the safety evaluation process and to circumvent the difficulties in toxicological assessment of food materials, the concept of substantial equivalence has been developed. The concept is that if it can be demonstrated that the novel food is essentially similar to its conventional counterpart in terms of critical nutritional or anutritional components, then it is likely to be no more or less toxic than the latter. The possible introduction of unintended effects by the genetic modification process is particularly problematic for the safety evaluation process. The new genomic and post-genomic techniques are potentially valuable in the safety evaluation of GM foods, although they are as yet in their infancy.
Spectral Analysis of Arterial Blood Pressure and Cerebral Blood Flow Velocity during Supine Rest and Orthostasis

This study evaluates the effect of orthostasis on the low frequency (LF, 0.04 to 0,15 Hz) fluctuations in the blood flow velocity of the middle cerebral artery (MCAFV) in relation to its arterial blood pressure (ABP) equivalent to further define and quantify this relationship in cerebrovascular regulation. Spectral analysis was performed on 22 healthy subjects during supine rest and head-up tilt. The power in the LF range can be used to quantify the LF fluctuations, and four types of LF power data could be obtained for each individual: LF power of supine MCAFV, LF power of supine ABP, LF power of tilt MCAFV, and LF power of tilt ABP. By comparing LF power of MCAFV with LF power of ABP, two power ratios could be generated to describe the flow-pressure relationship during supine rest and head-up tilt, respectively, supine power ratio (LF power of supine MCAFV/LF power of supine ABP) and tilt power ratio (LF power of tilt MCAFV/LF power of tilt ABP). In addition, an index for dynamic autoregulation in response to orthostasis can be calculated from these two power ratios (tilt power ratio/supine power ratio). The authors found that this index was dependent on the extent of orthostatic MCAFV changes, and the dependency could be mathematically expressed (r = 0.61, P = .0001), suggesting its involvement in cerebrovascular regulation. Moreover, these data further support the previous observation that the LF fluctuations of MCAFV might result from modulation of its ABP equivalent, and the modulation effect could be quantified as the power ratio (LF power of MCAFV/LF power of ABP). These observations could be an important step toward further insight into cerebrovascular regulation, which warrants more research in the future.
A study of patients with Nelson's syndrome

The prevalence of Nelson's syndrome has varied greatly, at least in part because of the variability of the diagnostic criteria employed by different authors. We define Nelson's syndrome as the presence of an enlarging pituitary tumour associated with elevated fasting plasma ACTH levels and hyperpigmentation in patients with Cushing's disease after bilateral adrenalectomy. We have compared patients with Cushing's disease who developed Nelson's syndrome after bilateral adrenalectomy with those who did not. Our objective was to find differences between the two groups which might predict the development of Nelson's syndrome.
A Simple and Rapid Non-Invasive Radioisotope Method to Determine Ventricular Ejection Fractions and Cardiopulmonary Transit Times

Summary Ejection fractions and cardiopulmonary transit times were measured in 20 hospital patients by means of intravenously injected 99mTc-radiocardiography. Time activity curves from the regions of the whole heart, superior vena cava, right atrium, right ventricle, right lung, left atrium and left ventricle were drawn and analyzed by using the modified gamma function fitting method. The comparison between the ejection fractions determined from the whole heart curves and those from the ventricular curves shows a correlation coefficient of 0.93 for the right ventricle and of 0.90 for the left, although there was a systematic difference between the determinations. The analysis of the single ventricular curves gave about 10 per cent higher values than those obtained from the whole heart curves The cardiopulmonary parameters measured from the whole heart curves for 16 normal subjects the following results gave: right ventricular ejection fraction = 0.57 ± 0.08 left ventricular ejection fraction = 0.62 ± 0.08 pulmonary mean transit time = 6.1 ± 1.1 heart-beats intracardiac mean transit time = 10.5 ± 1.8 heartbeats right/left ventricular volume = 1.10 ± 0.09 These values agree closely with the data accumulated using more elaborate methods. The method presented here is simple to perform, it is non-invasive, time-saving, inexpensive, easy to analyze and suitable for exercising subjects and for bed-side measurements. Data assembly and analysis are easily automated so that results are obtainable immediately after measurements.
The Rumour Bomb: Theorising the Convergence of New and Old Trends in Mediated US Politics

This paper examines several key transformations in mediated American politics that both encourage the use of rumour as a privileged communication strategy and promise its efficacy. Changing institutional news values, communication technologies, and political public relations (PR) strategies have converged to produce a profoundly vexing relationship between rumour and verification, which is exploited by politicians with anti-deliberative aims of managing belief. Further, the paper argues that these developments are usefully viewed through Paul Virilio's theory of Pure War, in which rumour can be seen as part of a larger propaganda strategy to eliminate deliberative politics and manage a population for the purposes of consumerism and war.
Direct Vertical Integration Strategies

Among the various reasons that vertical integration could be profitable, one issue is whether an integrated firm could act strategically to gain enough of a competitive advantage over equally efficient rivals that its integration would be profitable. Models of vertical integration between successive oligopolistic industries have imposed on integrated firms two kinds of self-denial. First, when a retailer and a manufacturer integrate, they are assumed to set the internal transfer price of the intermediate product equal to its marginal cost. However, an integrated noncooperative oligopolist that sets transfer price equal to marginal cost in effect just abandons the market power that the manufacturer had prior to integration. Furthermore, with marginal cost transfer pricing, integration by some firms creates incentives for counterintegration by other firms, which may end with all firms having lower profits. In the successive duopoly model of Ordover, Salop, and Saloner (OSS) [7], an integrated firm uses an indirect strategy of manipulating the intermediate good price between the nonintegrated firms, thereby forestalling their counterintegration, and leaving the integrated firm with higher profit. This paper uses a linear duopoly model1 that demonstrates that manipulating internal transfer prices can be a more direct strategy for an integrated firm to forestall counterintegration and increase its own profits. Since no one dictates internal transfer prices to a firm, an integrated firm implicitly has the ability to set the transfer price at some value other than marginal cost, including just maintaining the preintegration market price as the transfer price. The model implements an unexplored suggestion by OSS [7, 131] that an integrated firm might be able to use internal transfer prices different from marginal cost. In the second form of self-denial imposed on models of vertical integration, an integrated firm is assumed not to sell the intermediate product to any remaining nonintegrated retailers nor to buy intermediate product from any remaining nonintegrated manufacturers.2 But if the nonintegrated firms trade the intermediate good at a market price higher than the vertically integrated firm's marginal cost, then the integrated firm may be able to sell the intermediate good profitably,
In vitro partition of irinotecan (CPT-11) in human volunteer blood: the influence of concentration, gender and smoking

We have performed in vitro incubations of blood from male and female volunteers, smokers and non-smokers, with irinotecan at a gradient of different concentrations in order to investigate changes of partition between red blood cells (RBCs), total plasma and the free fraction. Since irinotecan (CPT-11) is not metabolized in vitro, there is no data available on its active metabolite SN-38. After extraction and sample pre-treatment, a validated high-performance liquid chromatography method followed by fluorescence detection was used to determine the concentration of the drug in the different blood constituents. The partition ratio [the concentration in the erythrocytes divided by the concentration in plasma (E/P)] was calculated. The partition ratio of CPT-11 varied from 0.7 to 2.8, reflecting its relatively high affinity for the erythrocyte, probably because of its only moderate plasma protein binding (65%). The partition ratios increased significantly with higher whole-blood concentrations, favoring uptake in the erythrocytes when plasma protein binding is saturated. No gender difference was detected, but we found relatively more CPT-11 in the erythrocytes of non-smokers compared to smokers. The incorporation of drugs into the RBC pool may be important for transportation to tumor tissue and efficacy. Smoking can have a significant influence on drug partition in the blood.
Influences on the effectiveness of mentoring at-risk youth

Mentoring programs have become an increasingly common strategy for facilitating positive development in adolescents and for attempting to avert the escalation of problem behaviors of youth at-risk for delinquency. However, there have been few evaluations assessing the effectiveness of such programs. Utilizing a primarily qualitative research design, data was collected for 40 youth and 30 mentors and an in-depth analysis of a physical-fitness-based mentoring program was conducted. This study focused on influences of risks, gender differences, and mentoring program components that assist in promoting program success. Substantial evidence was obtained for the positive effects of mentoring, including indication of increased confidence and self-esteem, improved abilities to interact with others, improved academics, and positive physical changes. However, analysis of the mentee interview data revealed only minor gender differences in both risks and perceived positive outcomes. Additional findings from both the mentors and mentees indicated a number of elements integral to program success. These included the program environment, leadership, mentor characteristics, program principles, and the program meeting structure. Elements involved in the formation of mentor/mentee relationships were also explored.
Right To Education for Human Resource Development in 21st Century India: A Policy Perspective

School education is the fundamental requisite to improve human resources. A sound school system should be in place guided by ‘right’ policy. Firstly, this paper examines the role of school education policies in promoting human resource development. Secondly, a brief evaluation of Indian education policies will enable us to understand the areas of shortcoming. Thirdly, the paper will critically analyze Right to Education in India as the new fundamental right promised by the constitution of India, a human right and the latest public policy on school education. A rigorous analysis from policy perspective is urgent as 21 st century brings new challenges for the education system in the form of globalization, liberalization of economy, multi-culturalism, increased demand for English language proficiency, a new set of soft skills, entrepreneurship and increased competition. Lastly, the paper will discuss policy options available and best suited to optimize human resource development in India.
MicroRNAs miR-1, miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-208 Are Dysregulated in Human Myocardial Infarction

Objectives: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding single-stranded RNA molecules that regulate gene expression in physiological functions, development and disease. In recent studies, three miRNAs have been described as muscle or cardiac specific: miR-1, miR-133, and miR-208, being involved in heart development and disease; but there are limited data on their role in human myocardial infarction (MI). We therefore analyzed their expression in human MI. Methods: Autopsy samples of infarcted heart tissue from 50 patients with MI, 8 healthy trauma victims and 9 fetuses that died in utero were included. miRNAs miR-1, miR-133a/b and miR-208 were analyzed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results:miR-208 was upregulated, whereas miR-1 and miR-133a were downregulated in MI compared to healthy adult and fetal hearts. All four tested miRNAs were downregulated in fetal hearts compared to healthy adult hearts. Conclusions: Our study showed the involvement of muscle- and/or cardiac-specific miRNAs miR-1, miR-133a/b and miR-208 in human MI. The most significant finding was upregulation of miR-208 and downregulation of miR-1 and miR-133a in MI compared to healthy adult hearts. Some patterns of miRNA expression were similar in MI and fetal hearts, supporting the concept of cardiac gene reprogramming in the remodeling of the heart.
The challenge of secondary prevention for coronary heart disease in older patients: findings from the British Women's Heart and Health Study and the British Regional Heart Study.

BACKGROUND Secondary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD) among older individuals is associated with considerable benefit. METHODS In this study, we have examined the extent of secondary prevention among British women and men aged 60-79 years who were surveyed and examined between 1998 and 2001. RESULTS Among 483 women (12.1% of the whole sample) and 831 men (19.5%) with CHD, >90% of both sexes had at least one modifiable risk factor, with over two-fifths having high blood pressure and over three-quarters high cholesterol. For total cholesterol and body mass index, mean values in both male and female subjects were above recommended levels, and a large shift in the population distributions would be required for targets to be met. Less than one-quarter of subjects of either sex were on a statin, and whilst the majority of men were taking an antiplatelet medication, only 40% of women were. CONCLUSIONS Most older women and men in Britain were failing to meet National Service Framework standards for secondary prevention in the period immediately before its implementation. Large shifts in the population distributions of some risk factors would be required in this group to meet these standards.