The effect of carbohydrate ingestion on the Interleukin-6 response to a 90-minute run time trial

Fatigue is a predictable outcome of prolonged physical activity; yet its biological cause remains uncertain. During exercise, a polypeptide messenger molecule interleukin- 6 (IL-6) is actively produced. Previously, it has been demonstrated that administration of recombinant IL-6 (rhIL-6) impairs 10-km run performance and heightened sensation of fatigue in trained runners. Both high carbohydrate diets and carbohydrate ingestion during prolonged exercise have a blunting effect on IL-6 levels postendurance exercise. We hypothesized that carbohydrate ingestion may improve performance during a prolonged bout of exercise as a consequence of a blunted IL-6 response. Seven recreationally trained fasted runners completed two 90-min time trials under CHO supplemented and placebo conditions in a randomized order. The study was of a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, cross-over study design. Distance covered in 90 min was significantly greater following exogenous carbohydrate ingestion compared with the placebo trial (19.13 ± 1.7 km and 18.29 ± 1.9 km, respectively, p = .0022). While postexercise IL-6 levels were significantly lower in the CHO trial compared with the placebo trial (5.3 ± 1.9 pg·mL?1and 6.6 ± 3.0 pg·mL?1, respectively; p = .0313), this difference was considered physiologically too small to mediate the improvement in time trial performance

The effect of exercise on plasma soluble IL-6 receptor concentration: a dichotomous response

The aim of this article is to review current literature on the response of soluble interleukin-6 receptor to exercise and identify a potential role for sIL-6R in skeletal muscle function. We also provide novel data on the impact of eccentric exercise on circulating levels. The aim of the research study was to investigate changes in plasma concentration of soluble interleukin-6 receptor (sIL-6R) and soluble glycoprotein 130 (sgp130) during recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) up to 72 h and their relationship with delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and muscle function. 18 participants attended the laboratory on 4 consecutive days. On the first day, participants completed 6 sets of 10 repetitions of unilateral eccentric-concentric knee flexions at a test speed of 1.05 rad.s(-1) using a Cybex Isokentic dynamometer to induce muscle damage of the hamstrings. Prior to the eccentric exercise bout and each subsequent morning, following an overnight fast, participants had a venous blood sample taken which was centrifuged immediately and plasma frozen at -80 degrees C until later analysis. Plasma IL-6 and sgp130 were unchanged at any time point during recovery but sIL-6R was significantly reduced at 48 h and 72 h post-exercise (p < 0.05). Plasma sIL-6R was correlated with DOMS at 48 h post EIMD (r = 0.45, p < 0.05) and peak muscle torque at 24 h and 48 h following EIMD (r = -.42; p < 0.05; r = -.57; p < 0.01 respectively). Our novel finding that sIL-6R concentrations are decreased 2-3 days following a single bout of EIMD may reflect a regulatory mechanism controlling the influx of different leukocyte subpopulations into damaged tissue, although this needs to be confirmed by future studies. Our data suggests an association between sIL-6R, perception of pain and reduced peak muscle performance post-EIMD but further investigation is warranted to explore this relationship and implications for exercise performance

Fruit and vegetable consumption and bone mineral density; the Northern Ireland Young Hearts Project

BackgroundStudies examining the relation between bone mineral density (BMD) and fruit and vegetable consumption during adolescence are rare.ObjectiveOur objective was to determine whether usual fruit and vegetable intakes reported by adolescents have any influence on BMD.DesignBMD was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at the nondominant forearm and dominant heel in a random sample of 12-y-old boys (n = 324), 12-y-old girls (n = 378), 15-y-old boys (n = 274), and 15-y-old girls (n = 369). Usual fruit and vegetable consumption was assessed by an interviewer-administered diet history method. Relations between BMD and fruit and vegetable intake were assessed by using regression modeling.ResultsUsing multiple linear regression to adjust for the potential confounding influence of physical and lifestyle factors, we observed that 12-y-old girls consuming high amounts of fruit had significantly higher heel BMD (β = 0.037; 95% CI: 0.017, 0.056) than did the moderate fruit consumers. No other associations were observed.ConclusionHigh intakes of fruit may be important for bone health in girls. It is possible that fruit's alkaline-forming properties mediate the body's acid-base balance. However, intervention studies are required to confirm the findings of this observational study

Classificação de bacias de drenagem do Alto Jequitaí (Minas Gerais) a partir da análise de principais componentes e análise de grupos

Esse artigo objetiva aplicar a análise multivariada para a descrição e classificação dos dados morfométricos de bacias de drenagem. A metodologia pode ser subdividida em quatro etapas: (a) elaboração do Modelo Digital de Terreno (MDT)hidrologicamente correto, (b) delimitação dos limites da bacia a partir do MDT de acordo com a ordem fluvial de Strahler, (c) determinação dos atributos morfométricos da bacia de drenagem, e (d) análise multivariada (análise fatorial e análise de grupos). A elaboração do MDT considerou os seguintes procedimentos: preenchimento de depressões, aprofundamento da rede de drenagem, direção de fluxo e determinação do fluxo acumulado. As medidas morfométricas das bacias incluíram nove fatores: elevação (média, ponto mais alto e mais baixo), amplitude de elevação (diferença entre o ponto mais alto e baixo na bacia), declividade, curvatura, área, perímetro e índice de circularidade. A análise multivariada foi utilizada para simplificar e organizara grande quantidade de dados. Como resultados foram encontradas 1.773 bacias de primeira ordem fluvial. 536 de segunda ordem fluvial e 136 de terceira ordem fluvial. A ACP reduziu os atributos morfométricos das bacias de drenagem em três componentes principais, com alta percentagem da variância original. A análise de cluster aglutinou as bacias com padrões morfológicos similares. A classificação das bacias apresenta as unidades geomorfológicas com forte controle geológico. _______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTThis paper aims to apply multivariate analysis for drainage-basin morphometry data description and classification. The methodology can be subdivided into four stages: (a) elaboration of the digital elevation model (DEM) hydrologically corrected; (b) catchment boundaries delimitation from DEM according to Strahler stream order; (c) drainage-basin morphometric attributes determination, and (d) multivariate analysis (factor analysis and cluster analysis). The DEM elaboration considered the follow ingprocedures: pit filling, stream burning, flow direction and determination of flow accumulation grids. The morphometric measuresof basins included nine factors: elevation (mean, highest and lowest point), range elevation (difference between highest andlowest points in the basin), slope, curvature, area, perimeter and circularity index. The multivariate analysis was applied to simplify and organize the large amounts of data. As results were found 1.773 basins of first order streams, 536 of second order streams and 136 of third order streams. The PCA reduced the morphometric attributes of the drainage basins in three principal components, with high percentage of original variance. The cluster analysis agglutinated basins with similar morphological patterns. The basins classification shows geomorphologic units with strong geological control

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Data Characterization and Map Making

We present a description of the data reduction and mapmaking pipeline used for the 2008 observing season of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). The data presented here at 148 GHz represent 12% of the 90 TB collected by ACT from 2007 to 2010. In 2008 we observed for 136 days, producing a total of 1423 hours of data (11 TB for the 148 GHz band only), with a daily average of 10.5 hours of observation. From these, 1085 hours were devoted to a 850 deg^2 stripe (11.2 hours by 9.1 deg) centered on a declination of -52.7 deg, while 175 hours were devoted to a 280 deg^2 stripe (4.5 hours by 4.8 deg) centered at the celestial equator. We discuss sources of statistical and systematic noise, calibration, telescope pointing, and data selection. Out of 1260 survey hours and 1024 detectors per array, 816 hours and 593 effective detectors remain after data selection for this frequency band, yielding a 38% survey efficiency. The total sensitivity in 2008, determined from the noise level between 5 Hz and 20 Hz in the time-ordered data stream (TOD), is 32 micro-Kelvin sqrt{s} in CMB units. Atmospheric brightness fluctuations constitute the main contaminant in the data and dominate the detector noise covariance at low frequencies in the TOD. The maps were made by solving the least-squares problem using the Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient method, incorporating the details of the detector and noise correlations. Cross-correlation with WMAP sky maps, as well as analysis from simulations, reveal that our maps are unbiased at multipoles ell > 300. This paper accompanies the public release of the 148 GHz southern stripe maps from 2008. The techniques described here will be applied to future maps and data releases.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures, 6 tables, an ACT Collaboration pape

Localized waves carrying orbital angular momentum in optical fibers

We consider the effect of orbital angular momentum (OAM) on localized waves in optical fibers using theory and numerical simulations, focusing on splash pulses and focus wave modes. For splash pulses, our results show that they may carry OAM only up to a certain maximal value. We also examine how one can optically excite these OAM-carrying modes, and discuss potential applications in communications, sensing, and signal filtering

O mercado da música gospel no Brasil: aspectos organizacionais e estruturais

Nas últimas duas décadas ocorreram grandes e significativas mudanças na produção musical evangélica. Entre elas, a mais significativa foi a formação do nicho fonográfico evangélico. De forma preliminar, no presente artigo, apresento as principais características estruturais e organizacionais deste segmento empresarial, indicando os seus principais circuitos de produção, distribuição e divulgação. Se nos anos de 1990 o mercado de música gospel englobava somente  igrejas e empresas de políticos ligados a esta vertente do cristianismo, na atualidade, em decorrência do estabelecimento de parceiras entre cantores e gravadoras de outros segmentos, observa-se uma ampliação das fronteiras do referido mercado

“SINTA ESTE FOGO IRMÃO”: COSMOLOGIA PENTECOSTAL, NOÇÃO DE PESSOA E “CORINHOS DE FOGO”

In the last two decades, there has been a growing interest from scholars in thesocial sciences and about gospel music production religion. Much of the work discussedthe changes that took place in the repertoire of this musicality Christianity shed, resultingfrom a process of renewal of the liturgy of some churches or the formation of the gospelphonographic market. In this article, I propose another possibility for understanding theGospel sung word, to investigate the relationship between the &quot;fire choruses&quot; andPentecostal cosmology. More than simple liturgical ornaments, the &quot;Fire choruses&quot; areaction generators, are important elements in the connection between the sacred andhuman.Nas &uacute;ltimas duas d&eacute;cadas, observou-se um crescente interesse por parte deestudiosos das ci&ecirc;ncias sociais e da religi&atilde;o a respeito da produ&ccedil;&atilde;o musical evang&eacute;lica. Boaparte dos trabalhos abordou as transforma&ccedil;&otilde;es ocorridas no repert&oacute;rio da musicalidadedesta vertente do cristianismo, decorrentes de um processo de renova&ccedil;&atilde;o da liturgia dealgumas igrejas ou da forma&ccedil;&atilde;o do mercado fonogr&aacute;fico gospel. Neste artigo, proponhooutra possibilidade de entendimento acerca da palavra cantada evang&eacute;lica, ao investigar arela&ccedil;&atilde;o existente entre os &ldquo;corinhos de fogo&rdquo; e a cosmologia pentecostal. Mais do quesimples adere&ccedil;os lit&uacute;rgicos, os &ldquo;corinhos de fogo&rdquo; s&atilde;o geradores de a&ccedil;&atilde;o, sendo elementosimportantes na conex&atilde;o entre o sagrado e os humanos

ETHNOPRED: a novel machine learning method for accurate continental and sub-continental ancestry identification and population stratification correction

Abstract Background Population stratification is a systematic difference in allele frequencies between subpopulations. This can lead to spurious association findings in the case-control genome wide association studies (GWASs) used to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with disease-linked phenotypes. Methods such as self-declared ancestry, ancestry informative markers, genomic control, structured association, and principal component analysis are used to assess and correct population stratification but each has limitations. We provide an alternative technique to address population stratification. Results We propose a novel machine learning method, ETHNOPRED, which uses the genotype and ethnicity data from the HapMap project to learn ensembles of disjoint decision trees, capable of accurately predicting an individual’s continental and sub-continental ancestry. To predict an individual’s continental ancestry, ETHNOPRED produced an ensemble of 3 decision trees involving a total of 10 SNPs, with 10-fold cross validation accuracy of 100% using HapMap II dataset. We extended this model to involve 29 disjoint decision trees over 149 SNPs, and showed that this ensemble has an accuracy of ≥ 99.9%, even if some of those 149 SNP values were missing. On an independent dataset, predominantly of Caucasian origin, our continental classifier showed 96.8% accuracy and improved genomic control’s λ from 1.22 to 1.11. We next used the HapMap III dataset to learn classifiers to distinguish European subpopulations (North-Western vs. Southern), East Asian subpopulations (Chinese vs. Japanese), African subpopulations (Eastern vs. Western), North American subpopulations (European vs. Chinese vs. African vs. Mexican vs. Indian), and Kenyan subpopulations (Luhya vs. Maasai). In these cases, ETHNOPRED produced ensembles of 3, 39, 21, 11, and 25 disjoint decision trees, respectively involving 31, 502, 526, 242 and 271 SNPs, with 10-fold cross validation accuracy of 86.5% ± 2.4%, 95.6% ± 3.9%, 95.6% ± 2.1%, 98.3% ± 2.0%, and 95.9% ± 1.5%. However, ETHNOPRED was unable to produce a classifier that can accurately distinguish Chinese in Beijing vs. Chinese in Denver. Conclusions ETHNOPRED is a novel technique for producing classifiers that can identify an individual’s continental and sub-continental heritage, based on a small number of SNPs. We show that its learned classifiers are simple, cost-efficient, accurate, transparent, flexible, fast, applicable to large scale GWASs, and robust to missing values. </jats:sec

Simulation of a Production Line with Automated Guided Vehicle: A Case Study

Currently, companies have increasingly needed to improve and develop their processes to flexible the production in order to reduce waiting times and increase productivity through smaller time intervals. To achieve these objectives, efficient and automated transport and handling material systems are required. Therefore, the AGV systems (Automated Guided Vehicle) are often used to optimize the flow of materials within the production systems. In this paper, the author evaluates the usage of an AGV system in an industrial environment and analyzes the advantages, disadvantages of the project. Furthermore, the author uses the systems simulation software Promodel® 7.0 to develop a model, based on data collected from real production system, in order to analyze and optimize the use of AGVs. Throughout this paper, problems are identified as well as solution adopted by the author and the results obtained from the simulations