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Feeding a fat-containing diet to the exercising horse is a facile way to increase energy density without risking the complications associated with hydrolyzable carbohydrates. Fat adaptation may also result in increases in the utilization of free fatty acids for fuel during exercise and sparing of muscle glycogen. Phosphatidylcholine, the main component of lecithins, can influence muscle contraction and improve endurance capacity during exercise. When it is combined with corn oil in a total mixed ration, soy lecithin is both highly digestible and palatable to horses. Our objectives in this study were to compare the effects of incremental exercise and isocaloric control (CON), corn oil (CO), and a soy lecithin/corn oil (LE) diets on plasma free fatty acids (FFA), cholesterol, glycerol, triglyceride (TG), lactate, and glucose. Also three different statistical models were compared for goodness of fit to the lactate curve. Plasma lactate and glucose both increased slowly early in the incremental exercise test (IET), then increased rapidly as the work intensity increased. Both decreased during recovery. No effects of IET or diet were found for either of these variables. Plasma TG was unchanged during exercise, but increased rapidly during recovery. Plasma FFA decreased from resting early in the IET then remained steady throughout the remainder of exercise. During recovery a rapid increase was exhibited. Plasma glycerol was constant during exercise, but increased during recovery. Plasma cholesterol did not change during exercise or recovery. Diet affected plasma FFA. Plasma FFA were lower for the CO and LE diets than the CON diet during the IET. Plasma glycerol was lower for the CO diet than the CON diet during the IET, with the LE diet intermediate between the two. Plasma cholesterol was higher for the CO and LE diets than the CON diet during the IET. A segmented model and an exponential model were found to have a good fit to the lactate curve. A point of inflection for a rapid increase in plasma lactate during incremental exercise was discovered. When this model was applied to diet, no differences in lactate threshold were found between the diets. Some criteria for fat adaptation were met, namely diet affected plasma FFA, glycerol, and cholesterol. However diet did not affect plasma TG, lactate, or glucose. This indicates that the rate of fatty acid oxidation was increased following fat adaptation, but it did not affect the rate of glucose oxidation and glycolysis during exercise. A lactate threshold for the equine can be obtained using a broken line model. Further studies using this approach are needed to establish its correlation with performance. / Master of Science

INTRODUCTION: Des études sur le contrôle moteur ont montré que l’erreur de mouvement produite par une perturbation externe entraine une modification de la commande motrice afin de rétablir la trajectoire normale. Se basant sur cette capacité adaptative, il est estimé que l’application de forces standardisées à l’aide d’un système robotisé pourrait induire des modifications prévisibles du patron locomoteur. L'objectif du mémoire est de préciser quels changements moteurs peuvent induire diverses perturbations mécaniques. MÉTHODOLOGIE: Seize participants ont marché sur un tapis roulant en portant une orthèse robotisée à la cheville droite. Les deux premiers furent exposés à des perturbations sporadiques pour valider le protocole expérimental. Les 14 autres furent exposés à 4 conditions expérimentales (C1-C4) comprenant ~30 perturbations/bloc. Chaque perturbation est survenue selon une fréquence pseudo-aléatoire de 1/5 cycle de marche. Chaque perturbation a été appliquée durant 150ms pendant la phase d’oscillation (72% du cycle de marche). C1 consistait en un étirement en plantiflexion de 6° à 120°/s. C2 et C3 appliquaient une force de ±5Nm, résistant et assistant la dorsiflexion. C4 bloquait temporairement le mouvement angulaire à la cheville. Les participants devaient marcher sans appuis et à une vitesse confortable (3,6-4,0km/h). La cinématique de la cheville et l'EMG de surface des Tibialis Anterior (TA) et Soleus (SOL) ont été enregistrés. RÉSULTATS: Une adaptation motrice a été obtenue chez au moins 12 sujets dans les conditions C1-2-4, contrairement à l’absence d’adaptation dans C3, et ce, malgré l’importance de l’erreur de mouvement. L'analyse EMG a montré la présence de réflexes dans toutes les conditions, sauf dans C3. Les études de régression ont montré que l’adaptation corrélait davantage avec la réponse réflexe à courte latence (M1). CONCLUSION: Ainsi, l’adaptation survient uniquement en résistant le mouvement. Elle ne relève pas directement de la grandeur de l’erreur de mouvement, mais davantage de son impact fonctionnel. / INTRODUCTION: Reaching studies have shown that subjects exposed to a movement error caused by a force field adapt their muscle activation pattern to return to original movement trajectory. Custom forces using robotic devices to teach specific movement patterns to patients may offer a way to readapt without using invasive procedure. How effective could it be? The aim of this research was to evaluate the adaptive capacity of walking during the process. METHODS: Sixteen subjects wore a robotized ankle-foot orthosis on their right ankle and walked on a treadmill. The first two were exposed to sporadic perturbation to validate the viability of our experiment. The others were exposed in a randomized sequence to 4 types of perturbations. Each condition (C1-C4) consisted in applying ~30 perturbations, each one occurring approximately each 5 strides, according to an unpredictable pseudorandom sequence. All perturbations lasted 150ms, and were applied during swing (72% of gait cycle). C1 consisted in a 6° plantarflexion stretch at 120°/s. C2 and C3 consisted in adding ±5Nm force resisting or assisting dorsiflexion, respectively. C4 simply stopped the ankle movement temporarily. Participants were asked to walk normally, hands free, at their comfortable walking speed (3.6-4.0km/h). Ankle kinematics and surface EMG of Tibialis Anterior (TA) and Soleus (SOL) were recorded. RESULTS: At least 12 subjects showed an adaptive pattern, increasing their ankle dorsiflexion in C1-2-4 conditions. C3 did not induce any clear adaptation despite the presence of large ankle movement errors, however. EMG analysis show the presence of reflex responses in all conditions except C3. Regression curves shows that short latency response (M1) best correlate with adaptation. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that a "movement error approach" for locomotor rehabilitation induces adaptation only when resisting ongoing movement. The functional consequence of the error rather than its size could therefore be the trigger for adaptation.

This Diploma Thesis deals with the employee adaptation to a new workplace, social and cultural environment. The research was conducted in the company Skanska a. s. The Diploma Thesis is divided into two parts: the theoretical part and the practical part. The theoretical part explains the main terms and definitions important for understanding and performing the research in the practical part. The theoretical terms described in the first part of the Thesis are: definition of adaptation and definitions of some related terms, types and phases of the process of integration, the position of the adaptation process in the HR activities and modern trends in integration of new employees, e.g. mentoring, trainee programme or teambuilding. The practical part is dedicated to a research in the company Skanska a. s. and verification of hypothesis formulated in the Introduction of the Thesis. The practical part first analyses the current situation within each division and then describes the adaptation phases in the Headquarters of the company in Prague. The research methods used in this practical part were: interviews with the representatives of each division, HR Business Partners and new employees. The last chapters contain recommendation for the company and an example of the Adaptation Plan. The Conclusion of the thesis sums up the results of the research, evaluates the hypothesis, emphasizes the most important findings and recommendations for the leaders of the company.

published_or_final_version / Zoology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The human motor system exhibits remarkable adaptability, enabling us to maintain high levels of performance despite ever-changing requirements. There are many potential sources of error duringmovement to which the motor system may need to adapt: the properties of our bodies or tools may vary over time, either at a dynamic or a kinematic level; our senses may become miscalibrated over time and mislead us as to the state of our bodies or the true location of an intended goal; the relationship between sensory stimuli and movement goals may change. Despite these many varied ways in which our movements may be disturbed, existing models of human motor adaptation have tended to assume just a single adaptive component. In this thesis, I argue that the motor system maintains multiple components of adaptation, corresponding to the multiple potential sources of error to which we are exposed. I outline some of the shortcomings of existing adaptation models in scenarious where multiple kinds of disturbances may be present - in particular examining how different distal learning problems associated with different classes of disturbance can affect adaptation within alternative cerebellar-based learning architectures - and outline the computational challenges associated with extending these existing models. Focusing on the specific problem in which the potential disturbances are miscalibrations of vision and proprioception and changes in arm dynamics during reaching, a unified model of sensory and motor adaptation is derived based on the principle of Bayesian estimation of the disturbances given noisy observations. This model is able to account parsimoniously for previously reported patterns of sensory and motor adaptation during exposure to shifted visual feedback. However the model additionally makes the novel and surprising prediction that adaptation to a force field will also result in sensory adaptation. These predictions are confirmed experimentally. The success of the model strongly supports the idea that the motor system maintains multiple components of adaptation, which it updates according to the principles of Bayesian estimation.

Ces dernières années ont vu le développement du cloud computing. Le principe fondateur est de déporter la gestion des services informatique des entreprises dans des centres d'hébergement gérés par des entreprise tiers. Ce déport a pour principal avantage une réduction des coûts pour l'entreprise cliente, les moyens nécessaires à la gestion de ces services étant mutualisés entre clients et gérés par l'entreprise hébergeant ces services. Cette évolution implique la gestion de structures d'hébergement à grande échelle, que la dimension et la complexité rendent difficiles à administrer. Avec le développement des infrastructures de calcul de type cluster ou grille ont émergé des système fournissant un support pour l'administration automatisée de ces environnements. Ces systèmes sont désignés sous le terme Systèmes d'Administration Autonomes (SAA). Ils visent à fournir des services permettant d'automatiser les tâches d'administration comme le déploiement des logiciels, la réparation en cas de panne ou leur dimensionnement dynamique en fonction de la charge. Ainsi, il est naturel d'envisager l'utilisation des SAA pour l'administration d'une infrastructure d'hébergement de type clouds. Cependant, nous remarquons que les SAA disponibles à l'heure actuelle ont été pour la plupart conçus pour répondre aux besoins d'un domaine applicatif particulier. Un SAA doit pouvoir être adapté en fonction du domaine considéré, en particulier celui de l'administration d'un cloud. De plus, dans le domaine du cloud, différents besoins doivent être pris en compte : ceux de l'administrateur du centre d'hébergement et ceux de l'utilisateur du centre d'hébergement qui déploie ses applications dans le cloud. Ceci implique qu'un SAA doit pouvoir être adapté pour répondre à ces besoins divers. Dans cette thèse, nous étudions la conception et l'implantation d'un SAA adaptable. Un tel SAA doit permettre d'adapter les services qu'il offre aux besoins des domaines dans lesquels il est utilisé. Nous montrons ensuite comment ce SAA adaptable peut être utilisé pour l'administration autonome d'un environnement de cloud. / Last years have seen the development of cloud computing. The main underlying principle of to externalize the management of companies' IT services in hosting centers which are managed by third party companies. This externalization allows saving costs for the client company, since the resources required to manage these services are mutualized between clients and managed by the hosting company. This orientation implies the management of large scale hosting centers, whose dimension and complexity make them difficult to manage. With the developement of computing infrastructures such as clusters or grids, researchers investigated the design of systems which provides support of an automatized management of these environments. We refer to these system as Autonomic Management Systems (AMS). They aim at providing services which automate administration tasks such as software deployment, fault repair or dynamic dimensioning according to a load. Therefore, in this context, it is natural to consider the use of AMS for the administration of a cloud infrastructure. However, we observe that currently available AMS have been designed to address the requirements of a particular application domain. It should be possible to adapt an AMS according to the considered domain, in particular that of the cloud. Moreover, in the cloud computing area, different requirements have to be accounted : those of the administrator of the hosting center and those of the user of the hosting center (who deploys his application in the cloud). Therefore, an AMS should be adaptable to fulfill such various needs. In this thesis, we investigate the design and implementation of an adaptable AMS. Such an AMS must allow adaptation of all the services it provides, according to the domains where it is used. We next describe the application of this adaptable AMS for the autonomic management of a cloud environment.

Les interactions entre les membres d'une communauté microbienne peuvent être un moyen d'adaptation dans l'environnement. Parmi les nombreuses interactions qui ont lieu dans un écosystème et qui joue un rôle majeur sur la diversité et la dynamique des populations microbiennes est celui des virus procaryotes et leurs hôtes. Les virus peuvent également arbitrer le transfert de matériel génétique entre les procaryotes (transduction), qui pourrait être un mécanisme d'adaptation rapide. Afin de déterminer l'impact potentiel des virus et la transduction, nous avons besoin d'une meilleure compréhension de la dynamique des interactions entre virus et leurs hôtes dans l'environnement. Les données sur les virus de l'environnement sont rares, et les méthodes pour le suivi de leurs interactions avec les procaryotes sont nécessaires. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs), qui contiennent des séquences virales dans les génomes bactériens, pourraient aider à documenter l'histoire des interactions virus-hôte dans l'environnement. Ainsi, cette thèse vise à explorer les interactions virus-hôte dans un environnement donné à travers du séquences CRISPR.Les virus de la cryosphère sont considérés comme abondantes, très actif et avec de larges gammes d'hôtes. Ces caractéristiques pourraient faire de la transduction virale, un facteur clé pour l’adaptation microbienne dans ces environnements. Des métagénomes publics créés à partir des environnements avec une gamme de températures différents ont été examinés. De cette manière, certaines dynamiques d'interactions virus-hôte se sont révélées comme ayant une corrélation avec la température. Un flux de travail a ensuite été développé pour créer un réseau reliant les virus et leurs hôtes en utilisant des séquences CRISPR obtenus à partir de données métagénomiques de la glace des glaciers et du sol de l'Arctique. La création de réseaux d'infection à traves du CRISPRs a fourni une nouvelle perspective sur les interactions virus-hôte. En outre, nous avons cherché des événements de transduction dans les données métagénomiques par la recherche de séquences virales contenant de l'ADN microbien. L’analyse indiquée que les bactériophages du Ralstonia pourraient être des agents de transduction dans la glace des glaciers de l'Arctique. / Interactions between the members of a microbial community can be a means of adaptation in the environment. Among the many interactions that take place in an ecosystem and have been seen to play a major role on microbial diversity and population dynamics is that of prokaryotic viruses and their hosts. Viruses can also mediate the transfer of genetic material between prokaryotes (transduction), which could be a mechanism for rapid adaptation. In order to determine the potential impact of viruses and transduction, we need a better understanding of the dynamics of interactions between viruses and their hosts in the environment. Data on environmental viruses are scarce, and methods for tracking their interactions with prokaryotes are needed. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs), which contain viral sequences in bacterial genomes, might help document the history of virus-host interactions in the environment. Thus, this thesis aimed to explore virus-host interactions in a given environment through CRISPRs. Viruses in the cryosphere have been seen to be abundant, highly active and with broad host ranges. These characteristics could make viral transduction a key driver of adaptation in these environments. Public metagenomes created from environments over a range of temperatures were examined through sequence and CRISPR analysis. In this fashion, certain virus-host interaction dynamics were found to have a correlation with temperature. A workflow was then developed to create a network linking viruses and their hosts using CRISPR sequences obtained from metagenomic data from Arctic glacial ice and soil. The creation of CRISPR-based infection networks provided a new perspective on virus-host interactions in glacial ice. Moreover, we searched for transduction events in metagenomic data by looking for viral sequences containing microbial DNA. Further analysis of the viral sequences in the CRISPRs indicated that Ralstonia phages might be agents of transduction in Arctic glacial ice.