Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Method for Predicting Maximal Strength in Collegiate Women Athletes

The purpose of this study was to develop a regression equation capable of accurately predicting a 1 repetition maximum bench press in collegiate women athletes. The findings of this study could benefit future women athletes by providing coaches and trainers with an easy method of determining maximum upper body strength in women athletes. Sixty-five University of Georgia NCAA Division 1 women athletes from 9 different sports were measured prior to the start of their season utilizing 2 repetition tests to fatigue (25 kg: REPS55; 31.8 kg: REPS70) and a 1 repetition maximum (1RM) bench press test in random order. Other independent variables that were used with a submaximal weight to predict 1RM were total body weight, lean body mass (LBM), height, and percent body fat. The variables of REPS70 and LBM were the best predictors of 1RM utilizing Pearson product correlations (r = 0.909, p = 0.000; r = 0.445, p = 0.000) and multiple regression results (R2 = 0.834, p = 0.000) for this population. The results from this study indicate muscular endurance repetitions using an absolute weight of 31.8 kg in conjunction with LBM can be used to accurately predict 1RM bench press strength in collegiate women athletes.
Development of optimization methods to solve computationally expensive problems

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are population based heuristic optimization methods used to solve single and multi-objective optimization problems. They can simultaneously search multiple regions to find global optimum solutions. As EAs do not require gradient information for the search, they can be applied to optimization problems involving functions of real, integer, or discrete variables. One of the drawbacks of EAs is that they require evaluations of numerous candidate solutions for convergence. Most real life engineering design optimization problems involve highly nonlinear objective and constraint functions arising out of computationally expensive simulations. For such problems, the computation cost of optimization using EAs can become quite prohibitive. This has stimulated the research into improving the efficiency of EAs reported herein. In this thesis, two major improvements are suggested for EAs. The first improvement is the use of spatial surrogate models to replace the expensive simulations for the evaluation of candidate solutions, and other is a novel constraint handling technique. These modifications to EAs are tested on a number of numerical benchmarks and engineering examples using a fixed number of evaluations and the results are compared with basic EA. addition, the spatial surrogates are used in the truss design application. A generic framework for using spatial surrogate modeling, is proposed. Multiple types of surrogate models are used for better approximation performance and a prediction accuracy based validation is used to ensure that the approximations do not misguide the evolutionary search. Two EAs are proposed using spatial surrogate models for evaluation and evolution. For numerical benchmarks, the spatial surrogate assisted EAs obtain significantly better (even orders of magnitude better) results than EA and on an average 5–20% improvements in the
Effect of Homeopathic Treatment on Gene Expression in Copenhagen Rat Tumor Tissues

Background: Increasing evidence suggests that the inability to undergo apoptosis is an important factor in the development and progression of prostate cancer. Agents that induce apoptosis may inhibit tumor growth and provide therapeutic benefit. In a recent study, the authors found that certain homeopathic treatments produced anticancer effects in an animal model. In this study, the authors examined the immunomodulating and apoptotic effects of these remedies. Materials and Methods: The authors investigated the effect of a homeopathic treatment regimen containing Conium maculatum, Sabal serrulata, Thuja occidentalis, and a MAT-LyLu Carcinosin nosode on the expression of cytokines and genes that regulate apoptosis. This was assessed in prostate cancer tissues, extracted from animals responsive to these drugs, using ribonuclease protection assay or reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Results: There were no significant changes in mRNA levels of the apoptotic genes bax, bcl-2, bcl-x, caspase-1, caspase-2, caspase-3, Fas, FasL, or the cytokines interleukin (IL)–1α, IL-1β, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)–β, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, IL-2, and interferon-γ in prostate tumor and lung metastasis after treatment with homeopathic medicines. Conclusions: This study indicates that treatment with the highly diluted homeopathic remedies does not alter the gene expression in primary prostate tumors or in lung metastasis. The therapeutic effect of homeopathic treatments observed in the in vivo experiments cannot be explained by mechanisms based on distinct alterations in gene expression related to apoptosis or cytokines. Future research should explore subtle modulations in the expression of multiple genes in different biological pathways.
Quantitative analysis of the CD4+ T cell response to therapeutic antibodies in healthy donors using a novel T cell:PBMC assay

Many biopharmaceuticals (BPs) are known to be immunogenic in the clinic, which can result in modified pharmacokinetics, reduced efficacy, allergic reactions and anaphylaxis. During recent years, several technologies to predict immunogenicity have been introduced, but the predictive value is still considered low. Thus, there is an unmet medical need for optimization of such technologies. The generation of T cell dependent high affinity anti-drug antibodies plays a key role in clinical immunogenicity. This study aimed at developing and evaluating a novel in vitro T cell:PBMC assay for prediction of the immunogenicity potential of BPs. To this end, we assessed the ability of infliximab (anti-TNF-α), rituximab (anti-CD20), adalimumab (anti-TNF-α) and natalizumab (anti-α4-integrin), all showing immunogenicity in the clinic, to induce a CD4+ T cells response. Keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) and cytomegalovirus pp65 protein (CMV) were included as neo-antigen and recall antigen positive controls, respectively. By analyzing 26 healthy donors having HLA-DRB1 alleles matching the European population, we calculated the frequency of responding donors, the magnitude of the response, and the frequency of BP-specific T cells, as measured by 3[H]-thymidine incorporation and ELISpot IL-2 secretion. KLH and CMV demonstrated a strong T cell response in all the donors analyzed. The frequency of responding donors to the BPs was 4% for infliximab, 8% for adalimumab, 19% for rituximab and 27% for natalizumab, which is compared to and discussed with their respective observed clinical immunogenicity. This study further complements predictive immunogenicity testing by quantifying the in vitro CD4+ T cell responses to different BPs. Even though the data generated using this modified method does not directly translate to the clinical situation, a high sensitivity and immunogenic potential of most BPs is demonstrated.
The role of Toll‐like receptors in CNS response to microbial challenge

The recent discovery of the family of Toll‐like receptors has vastly expanded our understanding of the mechanisms by which the innate immune system recognizes and responds to a wide variety of microbial and endogenous pathogens. Toll‐like receptors are transmembrane proteins that upon ligation with their cognate ligands trigger the production of cytokines, enzymes and other inflammatory agents. In the CNS Toll‐like receptors are expressed predominantly by glial cells. In particular, the vastly abundant astrocytes are likely to be the major contributors to inflammatory responses within the CNS. Studies of the murine brain abscess model revealed that Toll‐like receptor 2 plays a pivotal role in the generation of immune responses to Staphylococcus aureus. Although Toll‐like receptor signaling is essential in antimicrobial defense, it may also lead to bystander injury of CNS tissue.
Vancomycin Resistance in Staphylococci

SUMMARY Vancomycin resistance has been reported in clinical isolates of both coagulase-negative staphylococci and Staphylococcus aureus. The emerging threat of widespread vancomycin resistance poses a serious public health concern given the fact that vancomycin has long been the preferred treatment of antibiotic-resistant gram-positive organisms. Though major efforts are now being focused on improving our understanding of vancomycin resistance, there is much that remains unknown at this time. This article reviews the major epidemiologic, microbiologic, and clinical characteristics of vancomycin resistance in both coagulase-negative staphylococci and S. aureus. The review begins with a discussion of issues common to both coagulase-negative staphylococci and S. aureus, such as definitions, laboratory detection of vancomycin resistance, and infection control issues related to vancomycin-resistant staphylococci. The rest of the article is then devoted to a discussion of issues unique to each organism, including epidemiology, risk factors for infection, mechanisms of resistance, and management options.
Policy Issues and Empirical Assessment of Economic Performance: The Cases of African Countries, 1970-1999

This study uses international data to examine the relationship between economic performance and its determinants for selected countries in the African Region. Performance is defined as a positive increase in the average growth rate of the gross domestic product. The study covers approximately 30 years, 1970 through 1999, and involves 42 African countries. After controlling for the effects of geographic location and years of independent policy-making, the results indicate that capital and exports contributed significantly to the growth of the gross domestic product. Labor, on the other hand, did not conform to the hypothesized formulation of a positive effect on output growth.
Stock market efficiency, insider dealing and market abuse: the UK experience

It is only recently that market abuse, of which insider dealing is a form, has been unlawful in the UK. The general impression is that insider dealing is common, that the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the main regulator, is aware of this but is unable, except in the most obvious of cases, to prosecute at the criminal level. The picture is less clear for other forms of market abuse and the evidence as to their frequency of occurrence is conflicting. As a result we are unable to assess the extent to which these go unchecked.
Excess Reserves During the Great Contraction: Evidence from the Central Money Market of New York City, 1929 to 1932

The banking industry experienced a significant amount of turmoil during the Great Contraction of 1929-1933. In response, banks were forced to adjust their portfolios with the changing economic climate. One aspect banks had control over was their reserves. While there has been extensive analysis of bank reserves after the bank holiday of 1933, little is known about bank-level reserve holdings during the Great Contraction. This paper exploits a unique data set of Federal Reserve state member and state nonmember banks in New York City during that period. My results show that nonmember banks had a precautionary demand for reserves, increasing their ratio of excess reserves to assets after the first banking panic. Also, compared to state member banks, nonmember banks held a higher ratio of assets in excess reserves. The interest rates on short-term, liquid securities had a negative correlation with reserves and support the opportunity cost theory of Frost (1971). The discount rate, representing the price of liquidity, had a positive relationship with reserves and suggests that Federal Reserve policy could have affected excess reserves during the Great Contraction. These results provide new evidence on the macroeconomic and monetary factors affecting bank behavior in the central money market during the Great Contraction.
Gaining from Green Management: Environmental Management Systems inside and outside the Factory

Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) are relatively new and rather innovative management practices that provide firms with additional sources of information and leverage over their environmental and business processes and performance. This article reports the results of a survey of manufacturing plants that have adopted EMSs. It finds that EMSs are associated with factories that are larger, more committed to total quality management, and more innovative in general. EMSs are also a useful tool for managing community relationships and dealing with key stakeholder groups on potentially controversial environmental issues. Furthermore, EMS plants appear to pose less environmental risk for communities and report that their adoption and use of an EMS is an important factor in achieving this result. In the end, EMSs are an effective tool for managing environmental costs and risks inside and outside the factory in ways that add to, rather than detract from, the bottom-line.
Distinct molecular features facilitating ice-binding mechanisms in hyperactive antifreeze proteins closely related to an Antarctic sea ice bacterium

Antifreeze proteins or ice-binding proteins (IBPs) facilitate the survival of certain cellular organisms in freezing environment by inhibiting the growth of ice crystals in solution. Present study identifies orthologs of the IBP of Colwellia sp. SLW05, which were obtained from a wide range of taxa. Phylogenetic analysis on the basis of conserved regions (predicted as the ‘ice-binding domain’ [IBD]) present in all the orthologs, separates the bacterial and archaeal orthologs from that of the eukaryotes’. Correspondence analysis pointed out that the bacterial and archaeal IBDs have relatively higher average hydrophobicity than the eukaryotic members. IBDs belonging to bacterial as well as archaeal AFPs contain comparatively more strands, and therefore are revealed to be under higher evolutionary selection pressure. Molecular docking studies prove that the ice crystals form more stable complex with the bacterial as well as archaeal proteins than the eukaryotic orthologs. Analysis of the docked structures have traced out the ice-binding sites (IBSs) in all the orthologs which continue to facilitate ice-binding activity even after getting mutated with respect to the well-studied IBSs of Typhula ishikariensis and notably, all these mutations performing ice-binding using ‘anchored clathrate mechanism’ have been found to prefer polar and hydrophilic amino acids. Horizontal gene transfer studies point toward a strong selection pressure favoring independent evolution of the IBPs in some polar organisms including prokaryotes as well as eukaryotes because these proteins facilitate the polar organisms to acclimatize to the adversities in their niche, thus safeguarding their existence.
Episome-carried Surface Antigen K88 of Escherichia coli III. Morphology

Two nonfimbriate strains of Escherichia coli and their K88+ counterparts, obtained by episomal transfer of this antigen, were studied with the electron microscope. Specimens were prepared with the spray drop method and were studied after shadow-casting. Under these conditions, the alteration in surface structure, due to the acquisition of K88 antigen, appeared as a fur of fine filaments, distinctly more flexible than fimbriae. Purified K88 antigen was also studied and found to have the same structure.
Modelling knowledge production performance of research centres with a focus on triple bottom line benchmarking

We demonstrate a portable process for developing a triple bottom line model to measure the knowledge production performance of individual research centres. For the first time, this study also empirically illustrates how a fully units-invariant model of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) can be used to measure the relative efficiency of research centres by capturing the interaction amongst a common set of multiple inputs and outputs. This study is particularly timely given the increasing transparency required by governments and industries that fund research activities. The process highlights the links between organisational objectives, desired outcomes and outputs while the emerging performance model represents an executive managerial view. This study brings consistency to current measures that often rely on ratios and univariate analyses that are not otherwise conducive to relative performance analysis.
Substrate stiffness regulates B‐cell activation, proliferation, class switch, and T‐cell‐independent antibody responses in vivo

B cells use B‐cell receptors (BCRs) to sense antigens that are usually presented on substrates with different stiffness. However, it is not known how substrate stiffness affects B‐cell proliferation, class switch, and in vivo antibody responses. We addressed these questions using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates with different stiffness (20 or 1100 kPa). Live cell imaging experiments suggested that antigens on stiffer substrates more efficiently trigger the synaptic accumulation of BCR and phospho‐Syk molecules compared with antigens on softer substrates. In vitro expansion of mouse primary B cells shows different preferences for substrate stiffness when stimulated by different expansion stimuli. LPS equally drives B‐cell proliferation on stiffer or softer substrates. Anti‐CD40 antibodies enhance B‐cell proliferation on stiffer substrates, while antigens enhance B‐cell proliferation on softer substrates through a mechanism involving the enhanced phosphorylation of PI3K, Akt, and FoxO1. In vitro class switch differentiation of B cells prefers softer substrates. Lastly, NP67‐Ficoll on softer substrates accounted for an enhanced antibody response in vivo. Thus, substrate stiffness regulates B‐cell activation, proliferation, class switch, and T cell independent antibody responses in vivo, suggesting its broad application in manipulating the fate of B cells in vitro and in vivo.
Infection of Epstein–Barr virus in a gastric carcinoma cell line induces anchorage independence and global changes in gene expression

Latent infection of EBV is linked to the development of multiple cancers that have distinct patterns of expression of viral proteins and microRNAs (miRNAs). In this study, we show that in vitro infection of a gastric epithelial cell line with EBV alters growth properties and induces growth in soft agar. The infected cells have high levels of expression of a large cluster of viral miRNAs, [the BamHI A rightward transcript (BART) miRNAs] and limited viral protein expression. Expression profile microarray analysis of this cell line revealed a large number of changes in cellular expression, with decreased expression of many genes. Inhibition of the trace-expressed levels of the viral oncoprotein, latent membrane protein 1, did not affect growth or alter the pattern of cellular expression. The expression changes are highly enriched for genes involved in cell motility and transformation pathways, suggesting these changes are important for the altered growth phenotype. Importantly, the transcripts decreased by microarray are significantly enriched in both experimentally and bioinformatically predicted BART miRNA targets. The absence of viral protein expression and the enrichment for viral miRNA targets in the modulated cell genes suggest that the BART miRNAs are major contributors to the transformed growth properties of the EBV-infected cells. The ability to affect cell growth through miRNA expression without viral protein expression would be a major factor in the development of cancer in individuals with functional immune systems.
Nominal Wage Rigidity and the Rate of Inflation

Using the accurate and extensive data available in the UK New Earnings Survey, this paper investigates the extent to which nominal wages are downwardly rigid and whether such rigidity interferes with necessary real wage adjustments when inflation is low. Despite the substantial numbers of individuals whose nominal wages fall from one year to the next, we find that if long-run inflation is one percent higher, the number of individuals with negative real pay growth increases by around 1.4 percent. This is controlling for the median and dispersion of the real wage change distribution.
Another look at the evidence on foreign aid led economic growth

We apply recent time series techniques to Mbaku's Cameroon data to investigate the effects of foreign aid on economic growth. In contrast to Mbaku, we find some evidence to support the foreign aid led growth hypotheses in Cameroon. Our results illustrate the importance of testing hypotheses in an appropriate time series framework and the difficulties of time-series modelling with an insufficient span of data.
Snow + (X) = Use of Ski Slopes

What things, other than snow, attract skiers to ski areas? Various combinations of facilities, management practices, and a resort's distance from metropolitan centers are significantly related to total visitor-days per ski area at each of 26 ski resorts in northern New England and New York State. One visitor-day is one skier visiting an area during one day. During a ski season of relatively poor snow accumulation (1964-65), total visitor-days per ski area were closely related to a resort's advertising program. The following winter, when snow was abundant, the total was related to a resort's length of intermediate trails, average driving time from metropolitan centers, percent of trails rolled and packed, and number of instructors employed. A verage annual total visitor-days per ski area for both years were related to a resort's average total advertising budget, driving time from metropolitan centers, and average percent of the advertising budget used for broad coverage advertising (magazines, radio, and television). How well the models developed in this study predict future use at ski resorts still needs to be tested in independent studies. Nonetheless, as descriptive devices that explain 71 to 89 % of the variation in ski-area use, the models suggest relationships between management strategy and use patterns that may be helpful in planning and developing ski areas.
The Random Walk Hypothesis, Portfolio Analysis and the Buy-and-Hold Criterion

Recent literature has witnessed the emergence of an impressive body of empirical evidence relating to the relationship which exists between successive security price changes. The great majority of this evidence has tended to support what has come to be known as the theory of random walks in security prices—that is, the theory that successive security price changes behave as independent random variables, which implies that knowledge of “the past history of a series of price changes cannot be used to predict future changes in any ‘meaningful’ way. ”
On Preserving Structural and Behavioural Properties by Composing Net Systems on Interfaces

We study several properties of an operation which combines two net systems by identifying local states and synchronizing events according to morphisms towards an interface. We propose this operation as a tool for modular system design, where different components are required to comply with a shared interface, or protocol of communication. We prove results on the preservation of structural properties, expressed as invariants, and of behavioural properties, in particular of deadlock-freeness.