Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do Short International Layovers Allow Sufficient Opportunity for Pilots to Recover?

For Australian pilots, short layovers (<40 h) are a feature of many international patterns. However, anecdotal reports suggest that flight crew members find patterns with short slips more fatiguing than those with a longer international layover, as they restrict the opportunity to obtain sufficient sleep. The current study aimed to determine whether pilots operating international patterns with short layovers have sufficient opportunity to recover prior to the inbound flight. Nineteen international pilots (ten captains, nine first officers) operating a direct return pattern from Australia to Los Angeles (LAX) with a short (n=9) 9±0.8 h (mean±S.D) or long (n=10) 62.2±0.9 h LAX layover wore an activity monitor and kept a sleep/duty diary during the pattern. Immediately before and after each flight, pilots completed a 5 min PalmPilot‐based psychomotor vigilance task (Palm‐PVT). Flights were of comparable duration outbound (3.5±0.6 h) and inbound (14.3±0.6 h) and timing. The amount of sleep obtained in‐flight did not significantly vary as a function of layover length. However, pilots obtained significantly more sleep during the inbound (3.7±0.8 h) than the outbound flight (2.2±0.8 h). Pilots with the shorter layover obtained significantly less sleep in total during layover (14.0±2.7 h vs. 19.6±2.5), due to significantly fewer sleep periods (3.0±0.7 vs. 4.0±0.9). However, neither mean sleep duration nor the sleep obtained in the 24 h prior to the inbound flight significantly differed as a function of layover length. Response speed significantly varied across the pattern, and a significant interaction was also observed. For pilots with a short layover, response speed was significantly slower at the end of both the outbound and inbound flight, and prior to the inbound flight (i.e., at the end of layover), relative to response speed at the start of the pattern (pre‐trip). Similarly, response speed for the longer layover was slower at the end of the outbound flight compared to pre‐trip (approaching significance, p=0.073). However, response speed at the beginning of the inbound flight was significantly faster than pre‐trip and did not significantly differ from pre‐trip at the end of the inbound flight. The data suggest that short slips (<40 h) do not allow pilots the opportunity to obtain sufficient sleep to reverse the effects of fatigue accumulated during the outbound flight. As a result, their response speed prior to the inbound flight is substantially slower than the response speed of flight crew with a longer layover.
Postural effects on pharyngeal protective reflex mechanisms.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Pharyngeal muscle dilators are important in obstructive sleep apnea pathogenesis because the failure of protective reflexes involving these muscles yields pharyngeal collapse. Conflicting results exist in the literature regarding the responsiveness of these muscles during stable non-rapid eye movement sleep. However, variations in posture in previous studies may have influenced these findings. We hypothesized that tongue protruder muscles are maximally responsive to negative pressure pulses during supine sleep, when posterior tongue displacement yields pharyngeal occlusion. DESIGN We studied all subjects in the supine and lateral postures during wakefulness and stable non-rapid eye movement sleep by measuring genioglossus and tensor palatini electromyograms during basal breathing and following negative pressure pulses. SETTING Upper-airway physiology laboratory of Sleep Medicine Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital. SUBJECTS/PARTICIPANTS 17 normal subjects. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS We observed an increase in genioglossal responsiveness to negative pressure pulses in sleep as compared to wakefulness in supine subjects (3.9 percentage of maximum [%max] +/- 1.1 vs 4.4 %max +/- 1.0) but a decrease in the lateral decubitus position (4.1 %max +/- 1.0 vs 1.5 %max +/- 0.4), the interaction effect being significant. Despite this augmented reflex, collapsibility, as measured during negative pressure pulses, increased more while subjects were in the supine position as compared with the lateral decubitus position. While the interaction between wake-sleep state and position was also significant for the tensor palatini, the effect was weaker than for genioglossus, although, for tensor palatini, baseline activity was markedly reduced during non-rapid eye movement sleep as compared with wakefulness. CONCLUSION We conclude that body posture does have an important impact on genioglossal responsiveness to negative pressure pulses during non-rapid eye movement sleep. We speculate that this mechanism works to prevent pharyngeal occlusion when the upper airway is most vulnerable to collapse eg, during supine sleep.
Telomerase reverse transcriptase-dependent telomere equilibration mitigates tissue dysfunction in mTert heterozygotes

SUMMARY Autosomal dominant mutations in telomere-associated factors elicit a disease known as dyskeratosis congenita (DKC), and patients suffer proliferative abnormalities associated with telomere erosion. Mice that are heterozygous for telomerase genes (Tert or Terc, hereafter referred to as mTert and mTerc) are useful models of telomerase haploinsufficiency, but do not strictly mimic DKC. In strains with long telomeres (>60 kbp), animals that are heterozygous for mTert undergo telomere erosion for nine generations and remain phenotypically normal. In an mTerc heterozygous strain with short telomeres (<15 kbp), early mortality arises after five to six generations, but dyskeratosis occurs only upon the further loss of mPot1b. We show that prolonged mTert heterozygosity (for greater than ten generations) did not elicit disease, even upon heterozygote interbreeding, and that telomeres reset to wild-type lengths. This lengthening did not occur in nullizygotes, and short telomeres inherited from mTert null parents were rescued only in heterozygous progeny. In the bone marrow, nullizygotes remained competent for radioprotection for three generations. Thus, gradual telomere erosion in the presence of telomerase may enable subsequent telomere extension, similar to that described in budding yeast. We speculate whether such adaptation occurs in normal human cells (or whether it could be induced in DKC-derived cells), and whether it might mitigate the impact of telomerase inhibition upon stem cells during cancer therapy.
Load frequency stabilization in two-area interconnected system using CES and SSSC

For satisfactory operation of a power system, the frequency should remain nearly constant, since load frequency control is one of the most important issues in interconnected power systems. When the load is changed abruptly, the frequency of the system disrupts. To damp these deviations, the system controllers should be well tuned. In this paper, one type (thermal-thermal) of two-area multi-units interconnected systems is considered. Automatic Generation Control (AGC), Capacitor Energy Storage (CES) located in each area and Static Synchronous Series Compensator (SSSC) located in series with the tie line, have been used to damp the system oscillations. PSO algorithm has been applied to design the AGC and the controllers of CES and SSSC, using the fitness function that has all of the transient response factors. The system has been simulated in three scenarios for three cases; system with incorporation of just AGC in two areas, system with contribution of AGC and SSSC and finally system with inclusion of AGC and CES. Simulation results show that contribution of AGC and CES is superior to other configurations.
Hash-Based Anonymous Secure Routing Protocol in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is composed of multiple wireless mobile devices in which an infrastructure less network with dynamic topology is built based on wireless communication technologies. Novel applications such as location-based services and personal communication Apps used by mobile users with handheld wireless devices utilize MANET environments. In consequence, communication anonymity and message security have become critical issues for MANET environments. In this study, a novel secure routing protocol with communication anonymity, named as Hash-based Anonymous Secure Routing (HASR) protocol, is proposed to support identity anonymity, location anonymity and route anonymity, and defend against major security threats such as replay attack, spoofing, route maintenance attack, and denial of service (DoS) attack. Security analyses show that HASR can achieve both communication anonymity and message security with efficient performance in MANET environments.
Branched-Chain Amino Acids: Metabolism, Physiological Function, and Application Therapeutic Use of Branched-Chain Amino Acids in Burn, Trauma, and Sepsis

Various experimental studies conducted in the 1970s demonstrated, at least in the physiological situation, the anabolic and/or anticatabolic properties of branched-chain amino acids (leucine, valine, isoleucine) or their ketoacid derivatives. This led to several clinical studies in the late 1970s and early 1980s that aimed to evaluate the potential benefits of BCAA supplementation in nutritional support of the critically ill. The data on burn, trauma, and sepsis are, however, far from convincing. Besides significant discrepancies in their results and the fact that most of these studies involved very small populations of patients, few of them meet the current standards of therapeutic evaluation. However, some positive results in specific studies suggest that the underlying concept may be correct but that interpretation has been faulty. Indeed, we know now that while the BCAAs possess regulatory properties on protein metabolism, leucine is by far the most potent, while isoleucine and valine are inefficient. However, in the above-mentioned studies, BCAA-supplemented nutrition very frequently supplied almost equivalent amounts of all 3 BCAAs. Moreover, several studies were performed without adequate basal nutritional support, which most probably hampered the correct metabolic utilization of these amino acids. Taken together, these factors mean that the demonstrations of BCAA efficacy were fortunate in the least. In contrast, more recently, leucine was demonstrated to positively affect protein synthesis in an experimental model of sepsis or burn. In parallel, 2 prospective controlled trials of BCAA supplementation in septic patients also demonstrated an improvement in patients’ nutritional status and outcome. Thus, we should abandon the concept of BCAA-supplemented nutrition for a more promising leucinesupplemented nutrition that requires further evaluation. J. Nutr. 136: 308S–313S, 2006.
Can Evaluative Conditioning Change Attitudes toward Mature Brands? New Evidence from the Implicit Association Test

Two experiments ( ) explored the effects of evaluative conditioning on mature brands. Explicit attitudes for mature brands were unaffected by evaluative conditioning. Experiment 1 showed, however, that evaluative conditioning changed implicit attitudes toward Coke and Pepsi. This occurred only for participants who initially had no strong preference for either brand. Contingency awareness was not necessary to change implicit brand attitudes. Experiment 2 showed that brand choice was related to the altered implicit attitudes, but only when choice was made under cognitive load. Implications of these data for evaluative conditioning specifically, and for consumer research in general, are considered. (c) 2008 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc.
The Concept of Schizophrenia: From Unity to Diversity

After over 100 years of research without clarifying the aetiology of schizophrenia, a look at the current state of knowledge in epidemiology, genetics, precursors, psychopathology, and outcome seems worthwhile. The disease concept, created by Kraepelin and modified by Bleuler, has a varied history. Today, schizophrenia is considered a polygenic disorder with onset in early adulthood, characterized by irregular psychotic episodes and functional impairment, but incident cases occur at all ages with marked differences in symptoms and social outcome. Men’s and women’s lifetime risk is nearly the same. At young age, women fall ill a few years later and less severely than men, men more rarely and less severely later in life. The underlying protective effect of oestrogen is antagonized by genetic load. The illness course is heterogeneous and depressive mood the most frequent symptom. Depression and schizophrenia are functionally associated, and affective and nonaffective psychoses do not split neatly. Most social consequences occur at the prodromal stage. Neither schizophrenia as such nor its main symptom dimensions regularly show pronounced deterioration over time. Schizophrenia is neither a residual state of a neurodevelopmental disorder nor a progressing neurodegenerative process. It reflects multifactorial CNS instability, which leads to cognitive deficits and symptom exacerbations.
Back to basics: Learning about employee energy and motivation from running on my treadmill

In an effort to understand how to optimize employee energy at work, we borrow from the sports physiology literature to develop and test several concepts that have now been used in more than 75 large and small organizations (e.g., automobile firms, banks, hospitals, manufacturing, high technology, service businesses, financial services, and more). Our focus on employee energy led us to develop new measures and processes for our research. The resulting studies presented in this article test two hypotheses focusing on the link between employee energy, turnover, job performance, and job satisfaction. Consistent with what we know about athletic performance, we found that energy is an optimization construct and that variation in employee energy at work has detrimental consequences for performance and satisfaction. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Highly constrained backprojection for time‐resolved MRI

Recent work in k‐t BLAST and undersampled projection angiography has emphasized the value of using training data sets obtained during the acquisition of a series of images. These techniques have used iterative algorithms guided by the training set information to reconstruct time frames sampled at well below the Nyquist limit. We present here a simple non‐iterative unfiltered backprojection algorithm that incorporates the idea of a composite image consisting of portions or all of the acquired data to constrain the backprojection process. This significantly reduces streak artifacts and increases the overall SNR, permitting decreased numbers of projections to be used when acquiring each image in the image time series. For undersampled 2D projection imaging applications, such as cine phase contrast (PC) angiography, our results suggest that the angular undersampling factor, relative to Nyquist requirements, can be increased from the present factor of 4 to about 100 while increasing SNR per individual time frame. Results are presented for a contrast‐enhanced PR HYPR TRICKS acquisition in a volunteer using an angular undersampling factor of 75 and a TRICKS temporal undersampling factor of 3 for an overall undersampling factor of 225. Magn Reson Med, 2006. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Early Nationalization of Political News In America

When Alexis de Tocqueville toured America in the 1830s, he found Washington occupying a lowly position in the political life of the country. In a footnote, Democracy in America informs the European reader, “America has no great capital city where direct or indirect influence is felt over the whole extent of the country. ” Throughout the book, he expands on the effects of this decentralization. And we may fairly suspect that as much as any other, this observation led de Tocqueville to concentrate his inquiry on the performance of democracy in communities across the country.
Mental Health, Public Space, and the City: Questions of Individual and Collective Access

In recent revisionings of disablement and geography, conceptions of the body, of devinney, and of the social construction of difference have been interrogated. The author argues that it is important not to neglect a critical geography of mental health in this broader rewriting of disability and ableism. Empirical examples are drawn from research in Nottingham, UK. These examples show how people with mental health problems access the public realm through individual (and often disruptive) use of urban spaces, possibly as strategies of resistance to imposed medical identities. In the second half of the paper the author documents a more collective political process occurring through ‘user movements’ which have facilitated patient power and patient influence in the places of therapy spread across the city.
Mesenteric fat thickness is an independent determinant of metabolic syndrome and identifies subjects with increased carotid intima-media thickness.

OBJECTIVE Mesenteric fat, a reflection of visceral adiposity, may play an important role in the pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). In this study, we examined the independent relationship between mesenteric fat thickness and metabolic syndrome and defined its optimal cutoff value to identify high-risk subjects for metabolic syndrome and CVD. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 290 Chinese subjects had an ultrasound examination for measurements of thickness of mesenteric, preperitoneal, and subcutaneous fat as well as carotid intima-media thickness (IMT). Anthropometric measurements and metabolic risk profile were assessed by physical examination and blood taking. RESULTS Twenty (6.9%) subjects had metabolic syndrome according to the National Cholesterol Education Panel Adult Treatment Panel III criteria with Asian definitions for central obesity (waist circumference >80 cm in women and >90 cm in men). Mesenteric fat thickness had significant correlations (P < 0.05) with various metabolic variables. On multivariate regression, mesenteric fat thickness was an independent determinant of all components of metabolic syndrome after adjustment for age, sex, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, and other fat deposits. The odds ratio of metabolic syndrome was increased by 1.35 (95% CI 1.10-1.66)-fold for every 1-mm increase in mesenteric fat thickness. On receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis, mesenteric fat thickness of > or =10 mm was the optimal cutoff value to identify metabolic syndrome, with sensitivity of 70% and specificity of 75%. Subjects with mesenteric fat thickness > or =10 mm had higher carotid IMT than those with thickness <10 mm (0.73 +/- 0.19 vs. 0.64 +/- 0.16 mm, P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Mesenteric fat thickness was an independent determinant of metabolic syndrome and identified subjects with increased carotid IMT.
Measurement of Rat Insulin: Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay With Increased Sensitivity, High Accuracy, and Greater Practicability Than Established Radioimmunoassay

Total immunoreactive insulin (IRI) is conventionally determined by radioimmunoassays. IRI measurement in rats can be made more sensitive, accurate, and practical, as demonstrated by a new modified enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). It is characterized by indirect binding of an anti-insulin antibody by an antiglobulin antibody and uses the principle of competitive saturation. In this ELISA, IRI can be determined in a wide range of concentrations, corresponding to the standards. The standard curve ranges from 100 to 0.049 ng/ml IRI (1 ng/ml ∼ 23.4 μU/ml ∼ 172 pM rat insulin). The statistical analysis shows between- and within-assay coefficients of variation of ≤ 15%.
Parallel changes in the taxonomical structure of bacterial communities exposed to a similar environmental disturbance

Bacterial communities play a central role in ecosystems, by regulating biogeochemical fluxes. Therefore, understanding how multiple functional interactions between species face environmental perturbations is a major concern in conservation biology. Because bacteria can use several strategies, including horizontal gene transfers (HGT), to cope with rapidly changing environmental conditions, potential decoupling between function and taxonomy makes the use of a given species as a general bioindicator problematic. The present work is a first step to characterize the impact of a recent polymetallic gradient over the taxonomical networks of five lacustrine bacterial communities. Given that evolutionary convergence represents one of the best illustration of natural selection, we focused on a system composed of two pairs of impacted and clean lakes in order to test whether similar perturbation exerts a comparable impact on the taxonomical networks of independent bacterial communities. First, we showed that similar environmental stress drove parallel structural changes at the taxonomic level on two independent bacterial communities. Second, we showed that a long-term exposure to contaminant gradients drove significant taxonomic structure changes within three interconnected bacterial communities. Thus, this model lake system is relevant to characterize the strategies, namely acclimation and/or adaptation, of bacterial communities facing environmental perturbations, such as metal contamination.
Probing the Early Temporal and Spatial Interaction of the Sindbis Virus Capsid and E2 Proteins with Reverse Genetics

ABSTRACT A 7-Å cryoelectron microscopy-based reconstruction of Sindbis virus (SINV) was recently generated. Fitting the crystal structure of the SINV capsid protein (Cp) into the density map revealed that the F2-G2 loop of the Cp was shifted away from cytoplasmic domain of E2 (cdE2) in the 7-Å reconstruction relative to its position in the Cp crystal structure. Furthermore, the reconstruction demonstrated that residue E395 in region I of the cytoplasmic domain of the E2 envelope protein (cdE2-RI) and K252 of Cp, part of the Cp F2-G2 loop, formed a putative salt bridge in the virion. We generated amino acid substitutions at residues K250 and K252 of the SINV Cp and explored the resulting phenotypes. In the context of cells infected with wild-type or mutant virus, reversing the charge of these two residues resulted in the appearance of Cp aggregates around cytopathic vacuole type I (CPV-I) structures, the absence of nucleocapsid (NC) formation, and a lack of virus particle release in the infected mammalian cell. However, expressing the same Cp mutants in the cell without the envelope proteins or expressing and purifying the mutants from an Escherichia coli expression system and assembling in vitro yielded NC assembly in all cases. In addition, second-site mutations within cdE2 restored NC assembly but not release of infectious particles. Our data suggest an early temporal and spatial interaction between cdE2-RI and the Cp F2-G2 loop that, when ablated, leads to the absence of NC assembly. This interaction also appears to be important for budding of virus particles.