Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Postsynaptic K+ current induced by nociceptin in medullary dorsal horn neurons

The actions of the endogenous ORL1 receptor (opioid receptor-like1) ligand nociceptin on the membrane properties of rat trigeminal nucleus caudalis neurons were examined by use of whole cell and perforated patch clamp recording in brain slices. Nociceptin produced an outward current in all neurons tested (EC50 112 nM). The outward current produced by nociceptin was completely reversed with the addition of the non-peptide ORL1 antagonist J-113397. Outward currents reversed polarity at −99 ± 2 mV, close to the potential for K+ of −102 mV, suggesting that they were mediated by an increased K+ conductance. These results suggest that the analgesic action of nociceptin might be mediated by direct postsynaptic inhibition within the dorsal horn.
Multifunctional Carbon Nanotube Yarns by Downsizing an Ancient Technology

By introducing twist during spinning of multiwalled carbon nanotubes from nanotube forests to make multi-ply, torque-stabilized yarns, we achieve yarn strengths greater than 460 megapascals. These yarns deform hysteretically over large strain ranges, reversibly providing up to 48% energy damping, and are nearly as tough as fibers used for bulletproof vests. Unlike ordinary fibers and yarns, these nanotube yarns are not degraded in strength by overhand knotting. They also retain their strength and flexibility after heating in air at 450°C for an hour or when immersed in liquid nitrogen. High creep resistance and high electrical conductivity are observed and are retained after polymer infiltration, which substantially increases yarn strength.
Sustainability of Grazing Systems: Feed Base, Critical Grazing Pressure and Variability

This paper proposes a method for estimating the feed base, grazing pressure and variability as an indicator of risk, in grazing lands. Together, they may be considered as surrogate measures of biophysical sustainability. The paper applies them to four transects, each from unfertilised rangeland to relatively intensive mixed farming in temperate Australia. Across the transects, the feed base, stocking rates and grazing pressure in 1987–97 increased with increasing median annual rainfall, and grazing pressure decreased with increasing inter-year variability in the feed base. Average year-round grazing pressures generally ranged from 0.2 to 0.3–0.5. Periods of critical grazing pressure, defined as times when the calculated feed base fell below some critical value, say 0.7 tha−1, decreased markedly with increasing rainfall and decreasing variability in the feed base. Long periods of critical grazing pressure in areas receiving less than 400mm rainfall suggests grazing practices may be unsustainable. Stocking rate and annual average grazing pressure (with or without account for feral animals) did not appear to be, in themselves, good indicators of sustainability. Rather, the sustainability of different areas/systems and the impacts on sustainability of changes in management, e.g. stocking rates, may be assessed better through calculating year-to-year variability of the feed base, and periods of critical grazing pressure.
Strength exercise improves muscle mass and hepatic insulin sensitivity in obese youth.

INTRODUCTION Data on the metabolic effects of resistance exercise (strength training) in adolescents are limited. PURPOSE The objective of this study was to determine whether a controlled resistance exercise program without dietary intervention or weight loss reduces body fat accumulation, increases lean body mass, and improves insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism in sedentary obese Hispanic adolescents. METHODS Twelve obese adolescents (age = 15.5 ± 0.5 yr, body mass index = 35.3 ± 0.8 kg·m; 40.8% ± 1.5% body fat) completed a 12-wk resistance exercise program (two times 1 h·wk, exercising all major muscle groups). At baseline and on completion of the program, body composition was measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, abdominal fat distribution was measured by magnetic resonance imaging, hepatic and intramyocellular fat was measured by magnetic resonance spectroscopy, peripheral insulin sensitivity was measured by the stable-label intravenous glucose tolerance test, and hepatic insulin sensitivity was measured by the hepatic insulin sensitivity index = 1000/(GPR × fasting insulin). Glucose production rate (GPR), gluconeogenesis, and glycogenolysis were quantified using stable isotope gas chromatography/mass spectrometry techniques. RESULTS All participants were normoglycemic. The exercise program resulted in significant strength gain in both upper and lower body muscle groups. Body weight increased from 97.0 ± 3.8 to 99.6 ± 4.2 kg (P < 0.01). The major part (∼80%) was accounted for by increased lean body mass (55.7 ± 2.8 to 57.9 ± 3.0 kg, P ≤ 0.01). Total, visceral, hepatic, and intramyocellular fat contents remained unchanged. Hepatic insulin sensitivity increased by 24% ± 9% (P < 0.05), whereas peripheral insulin sensitivity did not change significantly. GPR decreased by 8% ± 1% (P < 0.01) because of a 12% ± 5% decrease in glycogenolysis (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS We conclude that a controlled resistance exercise program without weight loss increases strength and lean body mass, improves hepatic insulin sensitivity, and decreases GPR without affecting total fat mass or visceral, hepatic, and intramyocellular fat contents.
Not Just for the Money

In Not Just for the Money Professor Frey challenges traditional economic theory and argues that people do not act in expectation of monetary gain alone, nor do they work solely because they are paid. Furthermore, the author claims that higher monetary compensation as well as regulations crowd-out motivation in important circumstances. Offering higher pay may make people less committed to their work and may reduce their performance. They thus behave in exactly the opposite way the fundamental price-effect of economics predicts.
Does Inflation Impact on Financial Sector Performance in the MENA Region

This study gives some issues regarding the relationship between inflation and the financial sector performance for some MENA region countries. The negative association is confirmed through the estimation of a dynamic panel model using the GMM methodology. Moreover, a threshold effect must be also identified in order to prove that negative effect of inflation on the financial sector performance becomes appreciable once the rate of inflation exceeds some threshold.
Power versus Plenty as Objectives of Foreign Policy in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries economic thought and practice were predominantly carried on within the framework of that body of ideas which was later to be called “mercantilism. ” Although there has been almost no systematic investigation of the relationship in mercantilist thought between economic and political objectives or ends in the field of foreign policy, certain stereotypes have become so prevalent that few scholars have seriously questioned or examined their validity. One of these stereotypes is that mercantilism was a “system of power,” that is, that “power” was for mercantilists the sole or overwhelmingly preponderant end of foreign policy, and that wealth, or “plenty,” was valued solely or mainly as a necessary means to attaining or retaining or exercising power. It is the purpose of this paper to examine in the light of the available evidence the validity of this interpretation of mercantilist thought and practice. Tracing the history of ideas, however, always runs to many words, and limitations of space force me to confine myself, even with respect to bibliographical references, to samples of the various types of relevant evidence. That the samples are fair ones I can only attest by my readiness in most cases to expand them indefinitely.
Effects of tea tree oil on Escherichia coli

Tea tree oil (TTO) stimulates autolysis in exponential and stationary phase cells of Escherichia coli. Electron micrographs of cells grown in the presence of TTO showed the loss of electron dense material, coagulation of cell cytoplasm and formation of extracellular blebs. Stationary phase cells demonstrated less TTO‐stimulated autolysis and also had greater tolerance to TTO‐induced cell death, compared to exponentially grown cells. It was also revealed that a subpopulation of stationary phase cells demonstrated increased tolerance to TTO‐bactericidal effects.
Discrepancies between Turkish mothers' and adolescents' reports of adolescents' emotion regulation difficulties.

OBJECTIVES The aim of the present study was to examine discrepancies between Turkish mothers' and adolescents' reports in terms of adolescents' difficulties in emotion regulation. In addition, the mediating role of mothers' own emotion regulation difficulties between mothers' psychological symptoms and the discrepancy on reports of adolescents' difficulties in emotion regulation was examined. METHOD A total of 595 first-year high school students (300 females and 295 males) whose ages ranged between 14 and 17 years participated in the study. In addition, 365 mothers (61.34%) completed the questionnaires. Mean age of mothers was 41.86 years (standard deviation = 5.02) ranging from 32 to 61 years. RESULTS The results revealed that adolescents tended to report higher levels of difficulties in emotion regulation for themselves as compared with mothers' report, and girls reported more difficulties for their emotion regulation than boys. It was also found that mothers' own emotion regulation difficulties mediated the relation between mothers' psychological symptoms and discrepancy on reports of adolescents' emotion regulation difficulties. CONCLUSIONS Mothers may be less likely to endorse their children's emotion regulation difficulties since they cannot observe various aspects of their children's emotion regulation. On the other hand, the mothers' perception of their children's emotion regulation could be affected from their own emotion regulation difficulties, which could be a result of their psychological problems.
Explaining the mortality decline in the eighteenth‐century British slave trade

decline in mortality on French vessels up to the 1 770s, death rates increased thereafter. On Portuguese ships, death rates in the nineteenth century were extraordinarily high, presumably due to the illegality of the slave trade. It is unlikely that the decline in crude death rates on British ships was attributable to changes in the age and sex composition of the slave population: the new database shows little difference in the loss rates of males and females, and of adults and children (suggesting that very few infants, who were most at risk, were carried). Furthermore, the decline in death rates was not the result of changes in the regional composition of slaves: crude death rates declined on voyages departing from all regions of Africa.3
The impact of skills and performance on earnings: evidence from retail bankers in Portugal

This article contributes to the debate on wage flexibility by estimating the return to skills and performance for a sample of Portuguese retail bankers. If the relevance of skills in the contemporary workplace is unquestionable, their role as the main determinant of earnings is doubtful. The argument of this article is that firms are not adjusting individual wages according to information obtained from on-the-job appraisals subsequent to employment. The banks show a selective approach to rewarding skills and performance, and they still manage as an internal labour market. The idiosyncratic nature of skills may offer a partial explanation for the persistence of this model. However, the evidence points to the presence of hybrid models. While the return to organisational skills reinforces the role of specific skills, the return to cognitive skills suggests that there is competition around general skills in the banking industry.
Corporatism, Monetary Policy and Macroeconomic Performance: A Simple Game Theoretic Analysis

The effects of corporatism on inflation and output are analyzed in a model of a game between a government and a union. This model allows consideration of aspects of corporatism other than centralization of wage bargaining and permits monetary policy to be endogenized. Corporatist attitudes on the part of the union have beneficial effects on economic performance, provided the game is played noncooperatively with simultaneous moves, through the nature of their impact depends critically on the government's preferences. If the government leads, certain forms of corporatism can be inflationary. Cooperative play reduces inflation but has an ambiguous effect on output. Copyright 1995 by The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics.
The Role of Alcohol Consumption in Female Victimization: Findings from a French Representative Sample

Alcohol is frequently related to interpersonal aggression, but information regarding the role of alcohol consumption by victims of severe aggression is however lacking. In order to better understand the dynamic of victimization, we investigated contextual, facilitator, and psychological impact variables related to victimization in a French sample composed of 1,033 females aged 18–74 years. The participants were recruited using quota sampling methodology, and responses were measured using Computer-Assisted Self-Interviewer. A logistic regression was conducted using a backward elimination procedure to identify the significant predictors of blows and wounds suffered in the past 24 months. The results indicated that victims, relative to nonvictims, did binge drink significantly more often, had a higher aggression trait, and had experienced more social hardships in the past. The study's limitations are noted.
Political Data for Applied Political Economy Research

The availability of appropriate empirical measures to represent political and institutional factors is a crucial issue in the applied political economy research. This paper is intended as a contribution to the collection and circulation of political data. Having been involved for quite a considerable time in projects on the empirical analysis of political economy models, I have in the end assembled a data-set for the group of western European countries that includes a variety (about 40) of indicators. Some of these indicators have been previously used in the literature, but others are innovative. The categories of variables in the data set are presented and two econometric applications discussed. The first application is an analysis of the determinants of government duration. Differently from most of the literature in this area, the specification of the statistical model is theory-based and not driven by an inductive approach. The second application is an analysis of the determinants of government spending decisions. Again, specific theoretical predictions are tested. The focus is on the role of the ideological (and numerical) fragmentation of the government. The data-set will be soon made available on the WWW and, for the time being, is available from the author upon request.
Dispersion of stores of the same type in shopping malls: theory and preliminary evidence

A theoretical justification is set out for the dispersion of non-anchor stores by store type in shopping malls and some preliminary evidence presented to support it. The basic theoretical outline of spatial economic behaviour developed by Ingene and Ghosh (Geographical Analysis, 22(1), 70-93, 1990) is first considered and it is expanded to include customer traffic in two directions. The results of this economic model of customer behaviour are discussed in the context of shopping malls. Simple assumptions about points of supply and demand in shopping malls provide the basis for a general test of the model. Using an algorithm called the p-median problem, and a data base of several regional and super-regional shopping malls scattered throughout the United States, it was found that the supply of goods of the same type was dispersed throughout the mall and consistent with the model.
TOBIN'S MARGINAL q AND AVERAGE q: A NEOCLASSICAL INTERPRETATION

It is increasingly recognized that Tobin's conjecture that investment is a function of marginal q is equivalent to the firm's optimal capital accumulation problem with adjustment costs. This paper formalizes this idea in a very general fashion and derives the optimal rate of investment as a function of marginal q adjusted for tax parameters. An exact relationship between marginal q and average q is also derived. Marginal q adjusted for tax parameters is then calculated from data on average q assuming the actual U.S. tax system concerning corporate tax rate and depreciation allowances. IN THE LAST DECADE and a half, the literature on investment has been dominated by two theories of investment-the neoclassical theory originated by Jorgenson and the "q" theory suggested by Tobin. The neoclassical theory of investment starts from a firm's optimization behavior. The objective of the firm is to maximize the present discounted value of net cash flows subject to the technological constraints summarized by the production function. It seems useful to divide the neoclassical theory into two stages. The earlier version of the neoclassical approach developed by Jorgenson [11] derives the optimal capital stock under constant returns to scale and exogenously given output. To make the rate of investment determinate, the model is completed by a distributed lag function for net investment. This earlier version of the neoclassical investment theory has a couple of drawbacks. The assumption of exogenously given output (which makes the optimal capital stock determinate) is inconsistent with perfect competition. The theory itself cannot determine the rate of investment; rather, it relies on an ad hoc stock adjustment mechanism. Some sort of adjustment costs are introduced implicitly through the distributed lag function for investment.
The superoxide dismutase mimetic MnTBAP prevents Fas-induced acute liver failure in the mouse.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Acute liver failure (ALF) of viral origin results from massive hepatocyte apoptosis induced by the interaction between Fas expressed on hepatocytes and Fas ligand on activated T lymphocytes. Because Fas-induced apoptosis of hepatocytes involves mitochondrial damages and potential reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction, we investigated whether manganese III tetrakis (5,10,15,20 benzoic acid) (MnTBAP), a nonpeptidyl mimic of superoxide dismutase (SOD), can inhibit Fas-induced ALF. METHODS An agonist anti-Fas monoclonal antibody was used to induce hepatocyte apoptosis in vitro and ALF in vivo. RESULTS Preventive and curative treatments by MnTBAP significantly increased survival rates and significantly reduced aspartate aminotransferase levels and parenchymal lesions. ROS generation was suggested by those beneficial effects and significant increases in SOD and Gpx activities after anti-Fas injection. Flow cytometry of isolated hepatocytes incubated with anti-Fas monoclonal antibody showed that ROS production was associated with the collapse of transmembrane potential and loss of cardiolipin content. After injection of anti-Fas monoclonal antibody, mitochondrial Bcl-2 was decreased, cytochrome c released, and caspase-3 activated. Mitochondrial alterations and their consequences were abrogated by MnTBAP. CONCLUSIONS ROS are key executioners in Fas-induced hepatocyte apoptosis. This finding explains why a nonpeptidyl mimic of SOD can cure ALF in a model of viral hepatitis, pointing out the potential interest of this molecule in humans.
Financial Development, Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions: Evidence from ARDL Approach for Pakistan

The paper explores the existence of a long run equilibrium relationship among CO2 emissions, financial development, economic growth, energy consumption, and population growth in Pakistan. ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration is implemented to the data for 1974-2009. The results confirm a long run relation among these variables. Financial development appears to help reduce CO2 emissions. The main contributors to CO2 emissions however are: economic growth, population growth and energy consumption. Our results also lend support to the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve for Pakistan. Based on the findings we argue that policy focus on financial development might be helpful in reducing environmental degradation.
Political Failures and Intergovernmental Competition

In normative public economics, intergovernmental competition is usually viewed as harmful. Although empirical support for this position does not abound, market integration has intensified competition among developed countries. In this paper we argue that when assessing welfare effects of intergovernmental competition for various forms of political failures (the public choice critique), the outcome is ambiguous and competition can be welfare improving.
Anticipation in myotonic dystrophy type 1 parents with small CTG expansions

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 is the most common form of adult muscular dystrophy and has the world's highest prevalence in the Saguenay‐Lac‐St‐Jean region, due to a founder effect. This autosomal dominant disorder results from an unstable CTG repeat expansion in DMPK. This region of Canada has had a family screening and predictive testing program for this disorder since 1988. Heterozygotes for small expansions (50–100 CTG repeats) can be asymptomatic or minimally affected. The aim of this study was to assess anticipation for these individuals. At the time of this study, the molecular data of 40 individuals and their 76 affected children were available. We compared 76 parent‐child pairs. Most offspring (92.1%) had a larger number of repeats than their parent and the median number of repeats in the offspring was 325 (range, 57–2000). The number of CTG repeats was significantly greater when the mutation was transmitted by a father (median, 425 repeats; range, 70–2000), than when it was transmitted by a mother (median, 200 repeats; range, 57–1400). The majority (65.8%) of children also had a more severe phenotype than their parent but the sex of the parent had no significant influence on the severity of the child's phenotype. No congenital phenotype was observed. These results confirm that anticipation is present even when the parent is heterozygous for a small CTG expansion. The parental sex has an impact on the size of the repeat in the next generation, larger increases being transmitted by males with a small expansion. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A new look at private rates of return to education in Switzerland

Shows the results of a new model for calculating private rates of return to education. The so‐called “cost‐benefit‐model” takes into account the influence of the existing wage structure, institutional factors as the cost of education and the fiscal system and risk premiums for dropping out of school as well as differences in unemployment. The model produces results that are relatively easy to interpret at the economic policy level and can easily be used to simulate the effects of changing parameters. The first empirical results for Switzerland indicate that once educational costs have been deducted, wage‐earning advantages for different educational groups are insignificant. The empirical results speak against the political demand – at least in Switzerland – that those who directly benefit from education should pay more towards its costs.
Destination Branding: A Critical Overview

The concepts of brand, brand image, and brand personality are well documented in literature but their application to tourism and destinations is relatively new. Destinations need to create a brand to help their positioning and to emphasize the uniqueness of the place. This paper examines the concepts of brand image and brand personality and its applications in the field of tourism destinations, in order to understand the common ground as well as the boundaries between the two constructs. From the comparative analysis of concepts of brand image and brand personality, a framework which interrelates and explains the common grounds of these concepts is suggested.