Age-Related Attenuation of Dominant Hand Superiority

The decline of motor performance of the human hand-arm system with age is well-documented. While dominant hand performance is superior to that of the non-dominant hand in young individuals, little is known of possible age-related changes in hand dominance. We investigated age-related alterations of hand dominance in 20 to 90 year old subjects. All subjects were unambiguously right-handed according to the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. In Experiment 1, motor performance for aiming, postural tremor, precision of arm-hand movement, speed of arm-hand movement, and wrist-finger speed tasks were tested. In Experiment 2, accelerometer-sensors were used to obtain objective records of hand use in everyday activities

GIT2 Acts as a Potential Keystone Protein in Functional Hypothalamic Networks Associated with Age-Related Phenotypic Changes in Rats

The aging process affects every tissue in the body and represents one of the most complicated and highly integrated inevitable physiological entities. The maintenance of good health during the aging process likely relies upon the coherent regulation of hormonal and neuronal communication between the central nervous system and the periphery. Evidence has demonstrated that the optimal regulation of energy usage in both these systems facilitates healthy aging. However, the proteomic effects of aging in regions of the brain vital for integrating energy balance and neuronal activity are not well understood. The hypothalamus is one of the main structures in the body responsible for sustaining an efficient interaction between energy balance and neurological activity. Therefore, a greater understanding of the effects of aging in the hypothalamus may reveal important aspects of overall organismal aging and may potentially reveal the most crucial protein factors supporting this vital signaling integration. In this study, we examined alterations in protein expression in the hypothalami of young, middle-aged, and old rats. Using novel combinatorial bioinformatics analyses, we were able to gain a better understanding of the proteomic and phenotypic changes that occur during the aging process and have potentially identified the G protein-coupled receptor/cytoskeletal-associated protein GIT2 as a vital integrator and modulator of the normal aging process

Un marco de trabajo para el diseño e implementación de pruebas de software aplicadas a una API desarrollada en Scrum

Describe el proceso de control de la calidad de una API durante su mantenimiento y actualización que se llevó a cabo siguiendo las buenas prácticas de la metodología Scrum en la empresa Belatrix. Para este proyecto se desarrolla tanto pruebas funcionales como no funcionales. Dentro las de las pruebas funcionales, se automatizan los escenarios correspondientes con las pruebas de regresión. Se utiliza Java para escribir los scripts y TestNG como framework de las pruebas automatizadas. En el ámbito de la performance, se realizan pruebas de rendimiento, de carga y de estrés con la herramienta JMeter.Trabajo de suficiencia profesiona

Three layer functional model and energy exchange concept of aging process

Relying on a certain degree of abstraction, we can propose that no particular distinction exists between animate or living matter and inanimate matter. While focusing attention on some specifics, the dividing line between the two can be drawn. The most apparent distinction is in the level of structural and functional organization with the dissimilar streams of ‘energy flow’ between the observed entity and the surrounding environment. In essence, living matter is created from inanimate matter which is organized to contain internal intense energy processes and maintain lower intensity energy exchange processes with the environment. Taking internal and external energy processes into account, we contend in this paper that living matter can be referred to as matter of dissipative structure, with this structure assumed to be a common quality of all living creatures and living matter in general. Interruption of internal energy conversion processes and terminating the controlled energy exchange with the environment leads to degeneration of dissipative structure and reduction of the same to inanimate matter, (gas, liquid and/or solid inanimate substances), and ultimately what can be called ‘death.’ This concept of what we call dissipative nature can be extended from living organisms to social groups of animals, to mankind. An analogy based on the organization of matter provides a basis for a functional model of living entities. The models relies on the parallels among the three central structures of any cell (nucleus, cytoplasm and outer membrane) and the human body (central organs, body fluids along with the connective tissues, and external skin integument). This three-part structural organization may be observed almost universally in nature. It can be observed from the atomic structure to the planetary and intergalactic organizations. This similarity is corroborated by the membrane theory applied to living organisms. According to the energy nature of living matter and the proposed functional model, the decreased integrity of a human body's external envelope membrane is a first cause of the structural degradation and aging of the entire organism. The aging process than progresses externally to internally, as in single cell organisms, suggesting that much of the efforts towards the restoration and maintenance of the mechanisms responsible for structural development should be focused accordingly, on the membrane, i.e., the skin. Numerous reports indicate that all parts of the human body, like: bones, blood with blood vessels, muscles, skin, and so on, have some ability for restoration. Therefore, actual revival of not only aging tissue of the human body's membrane, but the entire human body enclosed within, with all internal organs, might be expected. We assess several aging theories within the context of our model and provide suggestions on how to activate the body's own anti-aging mechanisms and increase longevity. This paper presents some analogies and some distinctions that exist between the living dissipative structure matter and inanimate matter, discusses the aging process and proposes certain aging reversal solutions

A Comparison of Two Historical Trader Societies – An Agent-Based Simulation Study of English East India Company and New-Julfa

In this paper, we study the English East India Company (EIC) and Armenian traders of New-Julfa (Julfa) that were active during 17th and 18th centuries. Both were successful trading cooperatives that relied on different institutional parameters and mechanisms to coordinate their activities. In this work, we explore a selection of those aspects (five of them): (a) societal mortality rate, (b) nature of the system in attracting workforce (open vs. close), (c) existence of adjudication process, (d) payment scheme, and (e) punishment. To study effects of these attributes on system behaviour, we systematically modify these attributes to create a total of 10 hypothetical systems, two of which mirror characteristics of the EIC and Julfa systems. By doing these modifications, we study which of these systems are successful in improving system performance in terms of (a) identifying cheaters, (b) improving trading skills of agents, (c) making more profit for the organisation, and (d) deterring agents from cheating. A central insight of the simulation was the impact of substantial profit sharing on trader cooperation (i.e. more profit sharing resulted in lowered cheating). Moreover, our results show that Julfa had a lower number of cheaters despite having an open workforce to attract employees, thus making it more profitable and robust to changes in workforce characteristics (i.e. using an open workforce society).acceptedVersionThis is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in [Lecture Notes in Computer Science] Locked until 20.6.2020 due to copyright restrictions. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22270-3_