Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ligand-Specific Regulation of the Endogenous Mu-Opioid Receptor by Chronic Treatment with Mu-Opioid Peptide Agonists

Since the discovery of the endomorphins (EM), the postulated endogenous peptide agonists of the mu-opioid receptors, several analogues have been synthesized to improve their binding and pharmacological profiles. We have shown previously that a new analogue, cis-1S,2R-aminocyclohexanecarboxylic acid2-endomorphin-2 (ACHC-EM2), had elevated mu-receptor affinity, selectivity, and proteolytic stability over the parent compound. In the present work, we have studied its antinociceptive effects and receptor regulatory processes. ACHC-EM2 displayed a somewhat higher (60%) acute antinociceptive response than the parent peptide, EM2 (45%), which peaked at 10 min after intracerebroventricular (icv) administration in the rat tail-flick test. Analgesic tolerance developed to the antinociceptive effect of ACHC-EM2 upon its repeated icv injection that was complete by a 10-day treatment. This was accompanied by attenuated coupling of mu-sites to G-proteins in subcellular fractions of rat brain. Also, the density of mu-receptors was upregulated by about 40% in the light membrane fraction, with no detectable changes in surface binding. Distinct receptor regulatory processes were noted in subcellular fractions of rat brains made tolerant by the prototypic full mu-agonist peptide, DAMGO, and its chloromethyl ketone derivative, DAMCK. These results are discussed in light of the recently discovered phenomenon, that is, the “so-called biased agonism” or “functional selectivity”.
Innovation, Knowledge Creation and Technology Policy in Europe

This paper discusses the position of the European Union in the world economy by focussing on innovation, knowledge creation and technology policy. First, we explore and analyse the concept of knowledge and its application in a modern Schumpeterian framework. Second, we address some new insights in the diffusion and other properties of knowledge. Third, we focus on knowledge spillovers by investigating Dutch manufacturing. Thereafter, we examine technology policy.
Robust Stability Criterion for Discrete-Time Uncertain Markovian Jumping Neural Networks With Defective Statistics of Modes Transitions

This brief is concerned with the robust stability problem for a class of discrete-time uncertain Markovian jumping neural networks with defective statistics of modes transitions. The parameter uncertainties are considered to be norm-bounded, and the stochastic perturbations are described in terms of Brownian motion. Defective statistics means that the transition probabilities of the multimode neural networks are not exactly known, as assumed usually. The scenario is more practical, and such defective transition probabilities comprise three types: known, uncertain, and unknown. By invoking the property of the transition probability matrix and the convexity of uncertain domains, a sufficient stability criterion for the underlying system is derived. Furthermore, a monotonicity is observed concerning the maximum value of a given scalar, which bounds the stochastic perturbation that the system can tolerate as the level of the defectiveness varies. Numerical examples are given to verify the effectiveness of the developed results.
Comprehensiveness and interpretability of linguistic data summaries: A natural language focused perspective

We consider the important problem of comprehensiveness of linguistic data summaries equated with linguistically quantified propositions in Zadeh's sense. Motivated by Michal-ski's [29] seminal approach to the comprehensiveness of data mining and machine learning results, with a clear emphasis on natural language, we advocate the use of linguistic summaries which provide a new quality and an exceptional human consistency and comprehensiveness. Extending our previous works, we first relate our approach to some related results on the interpretability and comprehensiveness of fuzzy rule bases, both with respect to structural and semantical complexity. We show the use of a fuzzy querying interface as not only an approach that is effective and efficient but which provides an exceptional comprehensiveness through its highly human consistent HCI (human computer interface). We emphasize a psychological and cognitive aspect of comprehensibility and interpretability analyses. We advocate the use of human consistent methods based on natural language. We indicate a possibility of using quantitative evaluations. We illustrate our analysis by two examples related to the linguistic summarization of both static and dynamic data in the area of innovation and Web log analyses, and justify the results obtained by domain experts positive assessments. In general, we propose a synergistic combination of formal and natural language based methods to solve the inherently human specific problem of comprehensiveness and interpretability.
Establishing the Effectiveness of Teacher-Made Tests in Nkayi District Primary Schools

This study sought to establish the effectiveness of teacher-made tests on the performance of pupils in Nkayi District in Matabeleland North in Western Zimbabwe. The study used the quantitative paradigm and adopted the descriptive survey design. The population comprised of all primary schools in Nkayi district. The sample consisted of 120 teachers from 30 schools randomly selected. Each school provided 4 teachers for the study. Of the sampled respondents 65 were female and 56 male. All the information was collected through a questionnaire which had both close-ended and open-ended questions. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to interpret data. The results of the study indicate that teacher-made tests are given to pupils in the schools and there was overwhelming acceptance by the respondents that these tests helped to improve the academic performance of pupils. It was also found that most teachers did not have knowledge about the standard procedures of constructing, marking, scoring and grading of tests. The study recommends that there was need for schools to conduct staff development programmes to equip teachers with skills to construct teacher-made tests. Key words: Effectiveness, teacher, tests, primary school, district
Psychosocial differences between Mexican girls at risk of homelessness and those unsheltered, sheltered or emergency sheltered

ABSTRACT Homeless girls are one of the world’s most vulnerable sociocultural groups. Homeless girls experience forced labor victimization, sexual exploitation, abuse, discrimination and marginalization at higher rates than the general population. As a result, they often present internalized and externalized psychological disorders and lack functional problem solving, coping and emotion regulation skills, which can negatively affect mental health and well-being. Despite these serious disparities, few research studies have addressed homeless girls’ mental health and well-being. Virtually no known research addressing the psychosocial differences between sub-groups of Mexican homeless girls, including girls that are at risk of homelessness and unhoused girls or girls housed in emergency shelters, exists to date. The aim of this study was to examine differences of psychosocial characteristics in homeless girls by subgroup. Working with nongovernmental organizations that serve homeless youth, a convenience sample of 90 Mexican girls between the ages of 11 and 18, including 45 emergency sheltered or unsheltered girls and a comparison group of 45 girls at risk of homelessness, were individually interviewed using psychometric instruments developed by the authors. Findings revealed that emergency sheltered or unsheltered homeless girls experience higher levels of depression, higher levels of dysfunctional emotional regulation strategies, lower indexes of subjective well-being, and experience negative emotions more intensely and frequently than the comparison at risk for homelessness group. This study is limited in its generalizability due to its purposive sampling method. Study implications highlight the need for specific interventions by sub-group to promote the mental health and well-being of homeless girls and girls at risk for homelessness.
Does organizational climate moderate the relationship between job stress and intent to stay

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating influence of organizational climate in the relationship between job stress and intent to stay. ,This study has used a non-probability sampling design for data collection. A semi-structured questionnaire has been prepared and a street survey has been carried out at popular public places in Macau. ,This study shows that stressful employees working in organizations characterized by unsupportive organizational climate had far less desire to stay with the organization than those working in organizations with supportive organizational climate. ,Street intercept survey is a technique of convenience sampling. This makes it difficult to generalize the study’s findings to the entire population. ,Few studies to date have paid attention to the influence of organizational climate between job stress and intent to stay. The multi-industry context from which the data are collected suggests that the results and findings are useful to managers and practitioners from across a broad range of business sectors.
Multi-Scale Dictionary Learning Using Wavelets

In this paper, we present a multi-scale dictionary learning paradigm for sparse and redundant signal representations. The appeal of such a dictionary is obvious-in many cases data naturally comes at different scales. A multi-scale dictionary should be able to combine the advantages of generic multi-scale representations (such as Wavelets), with the power of learned dictionaries, in capturing the intrinsic characteristics of a family of signals. Using such a dictionary would allow representing the data in a more efficient, i.e., sparse, manner, allowing applications to take a more global look at the signal. In this paper, we aim to achieve this goal without incurring the costs of an explicit dictionary with large atoms. The K-SVD using Wavelets approach presented here applies dictionary learning in the analysis domain of a fixed multi-scale operator. This way, sub-dictionaries at different data scales, consisting of small atoms, are trained. These dictionaries can then be efficiently used in sparse coding for various image processing applications, potentially outperforming both single-scale trained dictionaries and multi-scale analytic ones. In this paper, we demonstrate this construction and discuss its potential through several experiments performed on fingerprint and coastal scenery images.
Political protest Italian-style: The dissonance between the blogosphere and mainstream media in the promotion and coverage of Beppe Grillo's V-day

We analyze the organization, promotion and public perception of V-day, a political rally that took place on September 8, 2007, to protest against corruption in the Italian Parliament. Launched by blogger Beppe Grillo, and promoted via a word of mouth mobilization on the Italian blogosphere, V-day brought close to one million Italians in the streets on a single day, but was mostly ignored by mainstream media. This article is divided into two parts. In the first part, we analyze the volume and content of online articles published by both bloggers and mainstream news sources from June 14 (the day V-day was announced) until September 15, 2007 (one week after it took place) . We find that the success of V-day can be attributed to the coverage of bloggers and small-scale local news outlets only, suggesting a strong grassroots component in the organization of the rally. We also find a dissonant thematic relationship between content published by blogs and mainstream media: while the majority of blogs analyzed promote V-day, major mainstream media sources critique the methods of information production and dissemination employed by Grillo. Based on this finding, in the second part of the study, we explore the role of Grillo in the organization of the rally from a network analysis perspective. We study the interlinking structure of the V-day blogosphere network, to determine its structure, its levels of heterogeneity, and resilience. Our analysis contradicts the hypothesis that Grillo served as a top-down, broadcast-like source of information. Rather, we find that information about V-day was transferred across heterogeneous nodes in a moderately robust and resilient core network of blogs. We speculate that the organization of V-day represents the very first case, in Italian history, of a political demonstration developed and promoted primarily via the use of social media on the web.
Thou shalt versus thou shalt not: a meta-synthesis of GPs' attitudes to clinical practice guidelines.

BACKGROUND GPs' adherence to clinical practice guidelines is variable. Barriers to guideline implementation have been identified but qualitative studies have not been synthesised to explore what underpins these attitudes. AIM To explore and synthesise qualitative research on GPs' attitudes to and experiences with clinical practice guidelines. DESIGN OF STUDY Systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies. METHOD PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, Social Science Citation Index, and Science Citation Index were used as data sources, and independent data extraction was carried out. Discrepancies were resolved by consensus. Initial thematic analysis was conducted, followed by interpretative synthesis. RESULTS Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria. Five were excluded following quality appraisal. Twelve papers were synthesised which reported research in the UK, US, Canada, and the Netherlands, and covered different clinical guideline topics. Six themes were identified: questioning the guidelines, GPs' experience, preserving the doctor-patient relationship, professional responsibility, practical issues, and guideline format. Comparative analysis and synthesis revealed that GPs' reasons for not following guidelines differed according to whether the guideline in question was prescriptive, in that it encouraged a certain type of behaviour or treatment, or proscriptive, in that it discouraged certain treatments or behaviours. CONCLUSION Previous analyses of guidelines have focused on professional attitudes and organisational barriers to adherence. This synthesis suggests that the purpose of the guideline, whether its aims are prescriptive or proscriptive, may influence if and how guidelines are received and implemented.
Enhancing Physics Learning With Cognitively Activating Instruction: A Quasi-Experimental Classroom Intervention Study

Physics educators today face two major challenges: supporting the acquisition of a solid base of conceptual knowledge and reducing the persisting gender gap. In the present quasi-experimental study, we investigated the potential of physics instruction that is enriched with evidence-based cognitively activating methods, such as inventing with contrasting cases or metacognitive questions, to overcome both of these challenges. Four physics teachers in charge of two parallel classes each applied our cognitively activating instruction in one of their classes (CogAct classes). The other classes received regular physics lessons (regular classes) on the same content. The sample consisted of 172 individuals from the advanced track of Swiss secondary school. Controlling for several individual student variables, CogAct classes (N = 87) outperformed regular classes (N = 85) in conceptual understanding at posttest (p < .01, &bgr; = 0.19, 95% CI [0.07, 0.32]) and three months later (p < .05, &bgr; = 0.13, 95% CI [0.00, 0.26]). The CogAct classes’ advantage in conceptual understanding was not at the expense of their quantitative problem-solving performance, which even exceeded the quantitative problem-solving performance of the regular classes at posttest (p < .05, &bgr; = 0.14, 95% CI [0.00, 0.28]). In addition, female students with above-average intelligence (PR >75) particularly benefited from CogAct instruction, as indicated by descriptive statistics and the interaction between intelligence and condition in the group of the female students for posttest conceptual understanding (p < .05, &bgr; = 0.88, 95% CI [0.06, 1.69]). We conclude that teachers can successfully be supported in implementing cognitively activating methods that improve their students’ conceptual understanding and reduce the gender gap in physics.
Retrieval of CO, H2O, CH4, CO2, and N2O Columns from SCIAMACHY/Envisat by WFM-DOAS: Current Status

The spectra measured by SCIAMACHY contain information on a number of important atmospheric trace gases. The near-infrared nadir spectra enable the retrieval of total column amounts of CO, H2O, CH4, CO2, and N2O. We are developing a modified DOAS algorithm (WFM-DOAS) to accomplish this task. Here we give an overview about the current status of this activity (using WFM-DOAS Version 0.4). We show that encouraging higher level data products can be obtained despite the preliminary calibration of the operational spectra. For example, accurate water vapour columns can been retrieved over ocean and land, plumes of CO can be detected, the relatively small (few percent) interhemispheric difference of the methane mixing ratio is visible in single day data, and there are strong indications that for the first time a CO2 source/sink region has been identified from space. We highlight a number of issues that need further study and, if solved, are expected to result in improved data products.
Games with imperfectly observable commitment

In a recent paper, Kyle liagwell claimed that the power to commit onesel( to an arliun durs not confer any strategic benefit if this commitment can only bo observed impr~rfor l.l,y. In this paper we show t.hat the validit,y o( this claim depeuds crucially un thr~ rentrictiun t.o pure strategy equi~ibria. speeificauy, the game analyse~d by liaKwcll always has a mixed equilibriurn that is rlosc to thc Stackelberg eyuilibriurn of the game in which the commitment is observed perfectly. We introduce a new theory of equilibrium selection that combines elements from the theory of Harsanyi and Selten (1988) with elements from the theory of Harsanyi (1993). When the noise is sufficiently small, this theory selects the Stackelberg equilibriurn.
Corona based clustering with mixed routing and data aggregation to avoid energy hole problem in wireless sensor network

In a Wireless sensor network, the energy hole problem is a severe issue that forces the nodes near the sink to exhaust their energy sooner than the nodes deployed in the outer region, resulting the reduced the network lifetime. To overcome this problem, a novel clustering scheme with load balancing is proposed for a corona model network, where the coronas are divided into sector and form homogenous clusters. In the homogenous cluster, some nodes inside the circular centroid region (CR) forms cluster head (CH) to control network operation. It is important that the Load handled by the cluster heads are to be balanced by means of mixed routing strategy together with data aggregation. It is seen that this technique balances the energy in the network. The simulation result shows that this technique out performs other clustering scheme in terms of network lifetime and energy dissipation.
Central limit theorem for sequential Monte Carlo methods and its application to Bayesian inference

The term sequential Monte Carlo methods or, equivalently, particle filters, refers to a general class of iterative algorithms that performs Monte Carlo approximations of a given sequence of distributions of interest (π t ). We establish in this paper a central limit theorem for the Monte Carlo estimates produced by these computational methods. This result holds under minimal assumptions on the distributions π t , and applies in a general framework which encompasses most of the sequential Monte Carlo methods that have been considered in the literature, including the resample-move algorithm of Gilks and Berzuini [J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. B Stat. Methodol. 63 (2001) 127-146] and the residual resampling scheme. The corresponding asymptotic variances provide a convenient measurement of the precision of a given particle filter. We study, in particular, in some typical examples of Bayesian applications, whether and at which rate these asymptotic variances diverge in time, in order to assess the long term reliability of the considered algorithm.
Evaluation of Effective Indexes on Quality of Life Related to Health in Western Iran in 2013

Background Today, indexes regarding longevity and life expectancy have increased; the most important issue now is how to spend time loving or in other words quality of life. Objectives This study was aimed to evaluate effective indexes on quality of life related to health in western Iran in 2013. Materials and Methods In this cross-sectional research, 918 families were selected among different counties of Ilam Province by multi-stage clustering sampling. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire used to measure the general economic and quality of life: the SF-36 health status questionnaire. Data were analyzed using multivariate regression models. Results The mean age of the study participants was 32.97 ± 9.5 years, and the mean score for their quality of life was 61.74 ± 12.31. There was a significant statistical relationship between people’s quality of life and their marital status, province of residency, income, economic situation, and life satisfaction (P < 0.05). Also, there was a significant and inverse correlation between people’s age and quality of life (r = 0.21), physical health summary (r = 0.21) and mental health summary (r = 0.08). Conclusions The mean quality of life among the individuals studied was in the middle level, however, it is important to consider the different dimensions of their living situations, such as economic protections, social cooperation, ability to present suitable behaviors to solve problems, and living situation, especially among deprived people.
Adaptive time slotted channel hopping for wireless sensor networks

The performance of wireless sensor networks (WSN) is prone to adverse influences from a number of factors such as the interference from co-located wireless systems utilising the same spectral space. Channel hopping technique was proposed to mitigate the problem via periodic change of the operating frequency, and has been adopted in the form of time slotted channel hopping (TSCH) by IEEE 802.15. 4e standard. This paper proposes adaptive slotted channel hopping (A-TSCH), an enhanced version of the TSCH aided by blacklisting technique. Complete design and implementation specifics are provided; and the results of experiments are analysed to show its advantages over existing TSCH. The main finding of this work is that A-TSCH can significantly improve the reliability of channel hopping scheme and thus provide better protection from interference for wireless sensor networks.
Generalization in Qualitative Research

Earlier treatments of moderatum generalization (e.g. Williams, 2000a) explicitly addressed interpretivist sociology. This article extends that earlier argument by examining some of its implications for a wider range of qualitative research methods. It first adopts an empirical approach, providing concrete illustrations from the most recent volume of Sociology of what sociologists actually do when describing the meaning of their findings. In the light of this, we reconsider the significance of moderatum generalization for research practice and the status of sociological knowledge, in particular making the case that research design should plan for anticipated generalizations, and that generalization should be more explicitly formulated within a context of supporting evidence.