Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The function neutralizing anti-TrkA antibody MNAC13 reduces inflammatory and neuropathic pain

Nerve growth factor (NGF) is involved in pain transduction mechanisms and plays a key role in many persistent pain states, notably those associated with inflammation. On this basis, both the NGF ligand and its receptor TrkA (tyrosine kinase A) represent an eligible target for pain therapy. Although the direct involvement of NGF in pain modulation is well established, the effect of a direct functional block of the TrkA receptor is still unknown. In this study, we have demonstrated that MNAC13, the only anti-TrkA monoclonal antibody for which function neutralizing properties have been clearly shown both in vitro and in vivo, induces analgesia in both inflammatory and neuropathic pain models, with a surprisingly long-lasting effect in the latter. The formalin-evoked pain licking responses are significantly reduced by the MNAC13 antibody in CD1 mice. Remarkably, treatment with the anti-TrkA antibody also produces a significant antiallodynic effect on neuropathic pain: repeated i.p. injections of MNAC13 induce significant functional recovery in mice subjected to sciatic nerve ligation, with effects persisting after administration. Furthermore, a clear synergistic effect is observed when MNAC13 is administered in combination with opioids, at doses that are not efficacious per se. This study represents a direct demonstration that neutralizing antibodies directed against the TrkA receptor may display potent analgesic effects in inflammatory and chronic pain.
Optimal Reserves and Short‐Term Interest Rates in a Model of Bank Runs

type="main" xml:id="sjpe12057-abs-0001"> A global game framework of bank runs is used to analyse a bank's choice of its reserve level and short-term interest rate. Higher level of reserves and a lower short-term interest rate would decrease the probability of bank runs. When the bank's reserve policy is transparent, it will hold excess reserves to discourage withdrawals by patient depositors. This inefficiency of excess reserves increases with the proportion of impatient depositors. When the bank has private information about its reserve level, it will follow a more risky strategy of choosing lower reserves and higher early return than what maximizes depositor welfare and increases the probability of bank runs.
Improving focus measurements using logarithmic image processing

The logarithmic image processing (LIP) model is a mathematical framework which provides algebraic and functional operations for the processing of intensity images valued in a bounded range. The LIP model has been proved to be physically consistent, most notably with some image formation models and several laws and characteristics of human brightness perception. This paper addresses the image focus measurement problem using the LIP model. The three most classical image focus measurements: the sum‐modified‐Laplacian, the tenengrad and the variance, which aim at estimating the degree of focus of an acquired image by emphasizing and quantifying its sharpness information, are considered and reinterpreted using the LIP framework. These reinterpretations notably make attempts at evaluating degrees of focus in terms of human brightness (sensation) from physical light stimuli. Their potential is illustrated and validated on shape‐from‐focus issues on both simulated data and real acquisitions in digital optical microscopy. The concept of shape‐from‐focus involves recovering the shape of an observed thick sample by locally maximizing a focus measurement throughout a sequence of differently focused images. Finally, it is shown that the LIP‐based focus measurements clearly outperform their respective classical ones.
Crime social, castigo social: desigualdade de renda e taxas de criminalidade nos grandes municípios brasileiros

Economic theory suggests that income inequality contributes to the increase of crime. Indeed, this is a recurrent result in Brazilian studies, which usually work with homicide data. The international literature, however, tends to explore data for different types of crimes, for which the results aren't always so strong. This paper explored the criminal report database from the Brazilian National Department for Crime Prevention for large cities, which afforded the possibility of unbundling crime rates into different types of crime.The results reveal a significant effect of inequality mostly upon property crimes. As this category of crime responds for the great majority of registered criminal offenses, income inequality takes a central role in determining crime rates in Brazil.
Smallholders' Access to Rural Credit: Evidence from Pakistan

This paper presents an analysis of smallholders’ access to rural credit and the cost of borrowing using survey data from Pakistan. Rural credit in Pakistan comes from formal and various informal sources. The tenure status, family labor, literacy status, off-farm income, value of non-fixed assets and infrastructure quality are found to be the most important variables in determining access to formal credit. On the other hand, the total operated area, family labor, literacy status and off-farm income are found to be the most important factors in determining the credit status of the smallholders from informal sources. The results show that the cost of borrowing from formal sources falls asthe size of holding increases. The analysis confirms the importance of informal credit, especially to the smallest of the smallholders and tenant cultivators.
Bridging the Social and Digital Divides in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala: A Capabilities Approach

Combining empirical evidence with Amartya Sen's concept of capabilities, this article argues that the digital divide is not merely a problem of access to ICTs. It is part of a larger developmental problem in which vast sections of the world's population are deprived of the capabilities to use ICTs, acquire information and convert information into useful knowledge. Fieldwork research including sample surveys conducted in rural locations in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh in India shows that these capabilities can only be created through large-scale complementary interventions in economic and social development.
Empirical investigations on boards, business characteristics, human capital and environmental reporting

Purpose – The objectives of this paper are to examine the level of environmental disclosure in annual reports made by Malaysian public listed companies for the year ended 2009, and to investigate whether there are any relationships between board characteristics (board size and board independence), firm characteristics (business type) and human capital characteristics (age, knowledge background and proportion of female directors) and environmental disclosure in Malaysian public listed companies' annual reports for the year ended 2009. Design/methodology/approach – The study constructs the environmental disclosure index with 11 disclosure themes based on research by Sharifah et al. to determine the environmental disclosure level. The study uses content analysis to find the environmental disclosure items and constructs an environmental disclosure index from the companies' annual reports. Hierarchical regression analysis is used to examine the relationships between the environmental disclosure index and board.
CHOICE OF EMPLOYMENT STATUS AND THE WAGES OF EMPLOYEES AND THE SELF-EMPLOYED: SOME FURTHER EVIDENCE

SUMMARY Using US data drawn from the 1978 young men NLS sample, this paper replicates a key finding reported by Rees and Shah in their analysis of self-employment using large-scale British data. A wage equation, which allows for sample selectivity, is estimated for subsamples of employees and the self-employed. Despite differences between the data sets and the variables analysed, the NLS results support Rees and Shah's conclusion that there is positive selection bias in the observed earnings of employees. choice of employment status in separate paid-employment/self-employment earnings equations to allow for self-selectivity and was tested using data drawn from the General Household Survey for 1978 (GHS78). One key finding reported by Rees and Shah is that there is positive selection bias in the observed earnings of paid employees. This result, which is consistent with comparative advantage in chosen work activities, suggests that failure to account for this selection process will result in biased parameter estimates of the earnings equation. This paper re-examines the potential selection bias in the earnings of paid employees and the self-employed using US data drawn from the 1978 young men sample of the National Longitudinal Surveys. Despite important differences between the data sets and variables analysed, the NLS results support Rees and Shah's finding of positive selection bias in paid employment. Together, these findings should raise questions about the appropriateness of OLS estimation of wage or earnings equations for subsamples of workers which exclude the self- employed. *
Deforestation in Cameroon: immediate causes and consequences

The effects of deforestation in Cameroon such as the erosion of agricultural lands, drying up water bodies during dry seasons, desertification, disappearance of plant and animal species, modifications of both local and regional climatic conditions and global warming through its effect on the global carbon cycle are likely to affect agricultural activities and economic growth. This paper investigates the immediate causes and consequences of deforestation in Cameroon between 1970 and 2000. Quantitative estimates show that coffee, and cocoa producer prices, food crop prices, and the timber export price index, on the one hand, and the oil boom, the structural adjustment policies, and the devaluation of the CFA franc, on the other hand, are quite important in stimulating the clearing of forests. Equally, the agricultural value added per hectare increases the profitability of maintaining forests. The implication of these results is that the importance of non-forest policies is underappreciated in Cameroon.
Correlates of a single-item Self-Rated Mental Health Question in people with schizophrenia

Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the correlates of a single-item Self-Rated Mental Health Question in people with schizophrenia, in order to achieve a better understanding of what it is measuring. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted exploring the responses of 71 adults with schizophrenia to a single-item Self-Rated Mental Health Question and the relationship with psychological distress, illness perception, and self-rated general health. Measures included the 10-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, and the single-item Self-Rated Health Question. Results: People with schizophrenia who reported poorer levels of mental health on a single-item Self-Rated Mental Health Question were more likely to have: higher levels of psychological distress; depressive and anxiety symptoms; and negative illness perceptions, especially a lack of perceived personal control over their illness. There was a moderate positive correlation between self-rated mental health and self-rated general health. Conclusion: The single-item Self-Rated Mental Health Question is a predictor of important clinical features in people with schizophrenia. As such, there are implications for health services, with a possible role as a brief, easily administered screening tool for the detection of clinical vulnerability.
Competence and Competitive Advantage: Towards a Dynamic Model

Over the last ten years the concept of ‘competence’ has emerged as a central concept for competitive strategy. Several rich theoretical streams have contributed an extensive array of frameworks, definitions and papers using the concept. There is now a need to integrate these many contributions. Indeed, some of the frustration expressed recently by academics may be due to the large volume of conversation and the low level of integration. A concept that is considered so useful that many writers have incorporated it in their work will be of little value if it takes on different meanings for every use. If competence is to be used to explain relationships among variables and to build richer understandings of the roots of competitive advantage, then the field needs to engage in a serious conversation that attempts to focus this concept. Competence needs to be understood in a way that is faithful to its theoretical roots, allows the multiple dimensions that underpin competitive advantage to be meaningfully integrated and is specific enough that meaningful differences can emerge when used as a variable in empirical research. This paper seeks to begin a conversation toward that end by presenting a conceptualization that meets all of these requirements. The paper builds its conceptualization around satisfying the elements of a dynamic model of the relationship between competence and competitive advantage.
Role of Prostaglandins in the Cardiovascular Effects of Bradykinin and Angiotensin‐Converting Enzyme Inhibitors

The cardiovascular effects of bradykinin require additional vasoactive mediators for a fully balanced response. This includes arachidonic acid (eicosatetraenoic acid) and its metabolites, the eicosanoids (prostaglandins, leukotrienes, thromboxanes, and others). Eicosanoid generation by bradykinin is started by binding of the peptide to specific B2 receptors at the plasma membrane. This initiates G-protein coupled stimulation of phospholipase C, IP3-induced increases in cytosolic Ca2+, and stimulation of protein kinase C. Arachidonic acid is liberated from membrane phospholipids primarily via Ca2+-induced stimulation of phospholipase A2 and converted into tissue-specific eicosanoids by enzymes in the vicinity. In vascular tissue, most of the available arachidonic acid is converted into vasodilator prostaglandins, i.e., prostacyclin (PGI2) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). These prostaglandins are involved in vasodilator actions of the kinins. There is also some evidence for generation of vasoconstrictor eicosanoids, such as thromboxane A2, under certain conditions. The biological significance of kinin-related prostaglandin formation becomes apparent after inhibition of kinin breakdown by ACE inhibitors. These compounds prevent generation of vasoconstrictor angiotensin II and stimulate endothelial eicosanoid formation via local kinin accumulation. There is evidence suggesting that kinin-induced prostaglandin generation contributes to anti-ischemic, inotropic, and blood pressure-lowering effects of the compounds. This also includes inhibition of polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) accumulation in injured myocardial tissue, which is antagonized by PGI2-related pathways, stimulated by ACE inhibition and/or bradykinin.
Planning policy and flood risk: The translation of national guidance into local policy

Scientists and policy-makers generally agree that the likelihood of flooding in the UK will increase as a result of climate change. It is also accepted that sensible land use and development planning plays an important role in the management of flood risk, while allowing necessary development to continue (Evans et al., 2004; Department of Communities and Local Government – DCLG, 2006a; Thorne et al., 2007). As the planning system operates on different spatial scales, it can be used to integrate flood risk management measures at the strategic planning scale and deliver these in practice at the individual site level (White & Howe, 2004; Richards, 2005). Indeed, it is worth noting that the planning system may actually be the most sustainable method to manage flood risk, in that not only can it provide for risk management, it can also avoid or even reduce risk, due to its ability to influence factors such as the location, type, design and function of development. Progress with regard to planning policy and practice has been made, but it is acknowledged that the rapidly evolving flood risk management policy framework may take time to effectively translate into the local planning practice arena (Richards, 2005; White 2005; White & Howe, 2005; Wynn, 2005). This implementation gap between policy and practice was also recently identified by the then planning minister, Keith Hill:
Skill as a relational construct: hiring practices from the standpoint of Chinese immigrant engineers in Canada

Under-employment and unemployment of immigrants has often been attributed to immigrants’ lack of human capital skills and/or cultural and social capital endowments. Few studies have addressed the fact that despite these possible ‘capital’ disadvantages, immigrant niches are occasionally made in professional fields. Based on an institutional ethnographic study, this article sheds light on this phenomenon. Specifically, it traces some of the hiring practices found within the engineering profession in Canada from the standpoint of Chinese immigrant engineers. It unveils a hard versus soft skill discourse that ideologically relegates minoritized immigrants to the bottom of the hiring queue. It also maps a project-based and network-dependent hiring schema that paradoxically renders immigrants without ‘desirable’ skills simultaneously dismissible and indispensable. It further argues that the skill discourse revealed constitutes a rationalizing mechanism through which racialization and capitalist pursuit of maximum surplus value interact to produce differential opportunities for immigrants at different places and times.
Teacher effectiveness of secondary school teachers of Punjab in relation to school organizational climate

The present study was undertaken with the objectives: To study teacher effectiveness among secondary school teachers of Punjab in relation to their school organizational climate, gender, location, teaching experience and stream (science, social science and languages). A sample of 75 senior secondary schools (45 rural and 30 urban) were selected. Further all the teachers (totally 450) working in these schools were administered research tools, namely school organizational climate, teacher effectiveness scale, teacher attitude inventory and job satisfaction scale. It was concluded that the secondary school teachers perceiving autonomous and familiar type of school organizational climate have exhibited significantly higher level of teacher effectiveness as compared to those perceiving school climate to be of closed type. There is no significant difference in teacher effectiveness of secondary school teachers across gender, location, stream and teaching experience groups.
Asset Prices and Real Exchange Rates with Deep Habits

I introduce an external habit for each consumption good, known as deep habits, into an otherwise standard international equilibrium model with multiple consumption goods and multiple countries. I show that deep habits coupled with consumption home bias account for a wide range of asset pricing and exchange rate moments. Calibrated to a set of ten countries, the model reproduces the cross-sectional evidence on currency risk premiums when sorting on interest rates, interest rate volatility, innovations to global exchange rate volatility, and value. Hence, the model provides an equilibrium interpretation of these empirical regularities.
Pharmacologic retinoid signaling and physiologic retinoic acid receptor signaling inhibit basal cell carcinoma tumorigenesis

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common human cancer. Patients with basal cell nevus syndrome (Gorlin syndrome) are highly susceptible to developing many BCCs as a result of a constitutive inactivating mutation in one allele of PATCHED 1, which encodes a tumor suppressor that is a major inhibitor of Hedgehog signaling. Dysregulated Hedgehog signaling is a common feature of both hereditary and sporadic BCCs. Recently, we showed remarkable anti-BCC chemopreventive efficacy of tazarotene, a retinoid with retinoic acid receptor (RAR) β/γ specificity, in Ptch1+/- mice when treatment was commenced before carcinogenic insults. In this study, we assessed whether the effect of tazarotene against BCC carcinogenesis is sustained after its withdrawal and whether tazarotene is effective against preexisting microscopic BCC lesions. We found that BCCs did not reappear for at least 5 months after topical drug treatment was stopped and that already developed, microscopic BCCs were susceptible to tazarotene inhibition. In vitro, tazarotene inhibited a murine BCC keratinocyte cell line, ASZ001, suggesting that its effect in vivo is by direct action on the actual tumor cells. Down-regulation of Gli1, a target gene of Hedgehog signaling and up-regulation of CRABPII, a target gene of retinoid signaling, were observed with tazarotene treatment. Finally, we investigated the effects of topical applications of other retinoid-related compounds on BCC tumorigenesis in vivo. Tazarotene was the most effective of the preparations studied, and its effect most likely was mediated by RARγ activation. Furthermore, inhibition of basal RAR signaling in the skin promoted BCC carcinogenesis, suggesting that endogenous RAR signaling restrains BCC growth. [Mol Cancer Ther 2008;7(5):1275–84]
Identifying the Sources of Gains From Takeovers

In the research literature on UK take-overs there seems to be an appar-ent conundrum. First, it appears that, in general, the market anticipatesoverall equity cash ﬂow gains from a take-over in the sense that theshare price of the acquiree ﬁrm typically increases relative to someappropriately market-adjusted benchmark over the period of time fromthe announcement of the take-over to the date when the take-over offeris declared unconditional while the share price of the acquirer ﬁrm doesnot decrease over the same period of time
Cyclical Persistence and the Cyclicality of R &

We propose cyclical persistence as an important factor inuencing the timing of innovation. Schumpeter (1939) argues innovation should be concentrated during recessions when its marginal opportunity cost as forgone output is low. We propose the timing of innovation should be a¤ected additionally by innovations marginal expected return. A simple theory is presented, showing higher persistence raises the cyclical response in innovations marginal expected return, makes the dominance of innovations marginal opportunity cost more di¢ cult, and therefore drives R&D pro-cyclical. We carry the theory to an industry panel of R&D and output. Our estimation results suggest persistence helps to account for the observed cross-industry di¤erences in R&Ds
Managerial economics and business strategy

"Baye's Managerial Economics and Business Strategy" remains the best-selling managerial economics textbook in which it continues to provide students with the tools from intermediate microeconomics, game theory, and industrial organization to make sound managerial decisions. Baye is known for its real-world examples, frontier research, inclusion of modern topics not found in other managerial books, as well as balanced coverage of traditional and modern microeconomic tools. The seventh edition retains all of the key signature features of previous editions and incorporates new features to enhance students' learning experiences and make it easier to teach from the book. These include updated headlines, new and updated inside business applications, and new end-of-chapter material.