Psychophysiological effects of synchronous versus asynchronous music during cycling

"This is a non-final version of an article published in final form in (https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2014&issue=02000&article=00024&type=abstract )"Purpose: Synchronizing movement to a musical beat may reduce the metabolic cost of exercise, but findings to date have been equivocal. Our aim was to examine the degree to which the synchronous application of music moderates the metabolic demands of a cycle ergometer task. Methods: Twenty-three recreationally active men made two laboratory visits. During the first visit, participants completed a maximal incremental ramp test on a cycle ergometer. At the second visit, they completed four randomized 6-min cycling bouts at 90% of ventilatory threshold (control, metronome, synchronous music, and asynchronous music). Main outcome variables were oxygen uptake, HR, ratings of dyspnea and limb discomfort, affective valence, and arousal. Results: No significant differences were evident for oxygen uptake. HR was lower under the metronome condition (122 T 15 bpm) compared to asynchronous music (124 T 17 bpm) and control (125 T 16 bpm). Limb discomfort was lower while listening to the metronome (2.5 T 1.2) and synchronous music (2.3 T 1.1) compared to control (3.0 T 1.5). Both music conditions, synchronous (1.9 T 1.2) and asynchronous (2.1 T 1.3), elicited more positive affective valence compared to metronome (1.2 T 1.4) and control (1.2 T 1.2), while arousal was higher with synchronous music (3.4 T 0.9) compared to metronome (2.8 T 1.0) and control (2.8 T 0.9). Conclusions: Synchronizing movement to a rhythmic stimulus does not reduce metabolic cost but may lower limb discomfort. Moreover, synchronous music has a stronger effect on limb discomfort and arousal when compared to asynchronous music

Soluble forms of tau are toxic in Alzheimer's disease

Accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), intracellular inclusions of fibrillar forms of tau, is a hallmark of Alzheimer Disease. NFT have been considered causative of neuronal death, however, recent evidence challenges this idea. Other species of tau, such as soluble misfolded, hyperphosphorylated, and mislocalized forms, are now being implicated as toxic. Here we review the data supporting soluble tau as toxic to neurons and synapses in the brain and the implications of these data for development of therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies

Extruded corn, sorghum, and soybean meal for nursery pigs

Two experiments were conducted to determine the nutritional value of extruded corn, sorghum, and soybean meal (SBM) for nursery-age pigs. Experiment 1 involved 180 weanling pigs, with an average age of 22 d and average weight of 13.2 lb. Treatments were 1) corn-SBM-dried whey-based control, 2) extruded corn (Ecorn)-SBM, 3) Ecornextruded SBM (ESBM), 4) sorghum-SBM, 5) extruded sorghum (Esorghum)-SBM, 6) Esorghum-ESBM. Extrusion of the grains improved feed to gain (F/G) but reduced average daily feed intake (ADFI) in phase 1 (d 0 to 10). For phase 2 (d 10 to 24), phase 3 (d 24 to 38), and overall, corn supported greater average daily gain (ADG) and ADFI compared to sorghum. Extrusion of the grain reduced ADG and ADFI. Extrusion of SBM improved ADG and ADFI of pigs fed the extruded grains. Corn had greater DM and N digestibilities than sorghum, and extrusion increased DM and N digestibilities compared to ground grains. In Exp. 2, 192 pigs were used (average age of 22 d and 12.6 lb initial weight). Treatments were arranged as a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial, with main effects of grain source (corn vs sorghum), processing method (grinding vs extrusion), and soybean meal treatment (SBM vs ESBM). Contrary to Exp. 1, sorghum supported greater ADG and ADFI compared to corn for phase 1. Extrusion of the grains reduced ADFI in phase 1, phase 3. and overall and reduced ADG in phase 3 and overall. Extrusion of SBM improved ADG and ADFI with ground grains but reduced ADG and ADFI with extruded grains. Extrusion of the grains and SBM improved DM and N digestibilities. In conclusion, extruded corn and sorghum improved performance for d 0 to 10 postweaning, but reduced growth performance if fed for the entire nursery period

Extruded corn, sorghum, wheat, and barley for finishing pigs

Eighty barrows (113.7 lb average initial weight) were used to determine the effects of extruding corn, sorghum, wheat, and barley on growth performance, carcass merit, nutrient digestibility, and changes in stomach morphology of finishing pigs. Treatments were grain source (com, sorghum, wheat, and barley) and processing procedure (grinding vs extrusion) arranged as a 4 x 2 factorial. Grinding was in a Jacobson hammermill and extrusion was in an Insta-Pro extruder. Pigs fed com had improved average daily gain (ADG), feed/gain (F/G), DM digestibility, and N digestibility compared to the other grain sources. Diets with barley supported the poorest growth performance and nutrient digestibilities, with sorghum and wheat intermediate. Extrusion of the cereal grains did not affect ADG but increased efficiency of gain by 4, 9, 6, and 3% for corn, sorghum, wheat, and barley, respectively. Digestibilities of DM and N were also increased on average by extrusion processing, with barley responding the most (9 and 12% increases for DM and N digestibilities) and wheat responding the least (no improvement). Overall, extrusion processing improved nutritional value of cereal grains for finishing pigs. However, swine producers must be careful to evaluate the overall economic benefits before adopting this or any other new technology

Confluence Analysis for Distributed Programs: A Model-Theoretic Approach

Abstract. Building on recent interest in distributed logic programming, we take a model-theoretic approach to analyzing confluence of asynchronous distributed programs. We begin with a model-theoretic semantics for Dedalus and introduce the ultimate model, which captures non-deterministic eventual outcomes of distributed programs. After showing the question of confluence undecidable for Dedalus, we identify restricted sub-languages that guarantee confluence while providing adequate expressivity. We observe that the semipositive restriction Dedalus + guarantees confluence while capturing PTIME, but show that its restriction of negation makes certain simple and practical programs difficult to write. To remedy this, we introduce Dedalus S, a restriction of Dedalus that allows a kind of stratified negation, but retains the confluence of Dedalus + and similarly captures PTIME.

Gene Expression in Lung and Liver After Intravenous Infusion of Polyethylenimine Complexes of Sleeping Beauty Transposons

Two methods of systemic gene delivery have been extensively explored, using the mouse as a model system: hydrodynamic delivery, wherein a DNA solution equivalent in volume to 10% of the mouse weight is injected intravenously in less than 10 sec, and condensation of DNA with polyethylenimine (PEI) for standard intravenous infusion. Our goal in this study was to evaluate quantitatively the kinetics of gene expression, using these two methods for delivery of Sleeping Beauty transposons. Transposons carrying a luciferase expression cassette were injected into mice either hydrodynamically or after condensation with PEI at a PEI nitrogen-to-DNA phosphate ratio of 7. Gene expression in the lungs and liver after hydrodynamic delivery resulted in exponential decay with a half-life of about 35–40 hr between days 1 and 14 postinjection. The decay kinetics of gene expression after PEI-mediated gene delivery were more complex; an initial decay rate of 6 hr was followed by a more gradual loss of activity. Consequently, the liver became the primary site of gene expression about 4 days after injection of PEI-DNA, and by 14 days expression in the liver was 10-fold higher than in the lung. Overall levels of gene expression 2 weeks postinjection were 100- to 1000-fold lower after PEI-mediated delivery compared with hydrodynamic injection. These results provide insight into the relative effectiveness and organ specificity of these two methods of nonviral gene delivery when coupled with the Sleeping Beauty transposon system