Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Features of Stroop and Reverse-Stroop Interference: Analysis by Response Modality and Evaluation

Stroop interference (the Stroop effect) is the phenomenon observed when naming the color of an incongruent stimulus, such as the word “red” printed in blue ink; typically, this color incongruence causes slower naming compared to a neutral stimulus, such as a blue square patch. Reverse-Stroop interference occurs when reading the stimulus takes longer than reading the neutral stimulus. Features of Stroop and reverse-Stroop interference were examined, focusing on the difference between the response modalities — oral response and manual response — and the difference between methods of evaluating performance (time or correct responses) and the interference score. Participants were 47 students (30 women, 17 men; M age = 20.8 yr., range = 19–29). The results were as follows: (1) the performance of the reverse-Stroop condition was higher than that of the Stroop condition for both oral and manual responses; (2) the Stroop interference score was significantly greater with the oral response than with the manual response; and (3) the reverse-Stroop interference score was constant regardless of the response modality. The results were discussed with respect to differences in processing speeds of verbal and sensory information.
Cholesterol uptake disruption, in association with chemotherapy, is a promising combined metabolic therapy for pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Significance Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is projected to become the second deadliest cancer by 2030. Advances in therapeutic treatments are urgently required to fight against this fatal disease. Here, elucidation of the metabolic signature of PDAC has identified the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR), which facilitates cholesterol uptake, as a promising therapeutic target. Blocking of LDLR reduces the proliferative and clonogenic potential of PDAC cells and decreases activation of the ERK1/2 survival pathway. Moreover, LDLR silencing sensitizes PDAC cells to chemotherapeutic drugs and potentiates the tumoral regression promoted by chemotherapy. Finally, Ldlr is highly expressed at all stages of human PDAC and expression is associated with an increased risk of PDAC recurrence. The malignant progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is accompanied by a profound desmoplasia, which forces proliferating tumor cells to metabolically adapt to this new microenvironment. We established the PDAC metabolic signature to highlight the main activated tumor metabolic pathways. Comparative transcriptomic analysis identified lipid-related metabolic pathways as being the most highly enriched in PDAC, compared with a normal pancreas. Our study revealed that lipoprotein metabolic processes, in particular cholesterol uptake, are drastically activated in the tumor. This process results in an increase in the amount of cholesterol and an overexpression of the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) in pancreatic tumor cells. These findings identify LDLR as a novel metabolic target to limit PDAC progression. Here, we demonstrate that shRNA silencing of LDLR, in pancreatic tumor cells, profoundly reduces uptake of cholesterol and alters its distribution, decreases tumor cell proliferation, and limits activation of ERK1/2 survival pathway. Moreover, blocking cholesterol uptake sensitizes cells to chemotherapeutic drugs and potentiates the effect of chemotherapy on PDAC regression. Clinically, high PDAC Ldlr expression is not restricted to a specific tumor stage but is correlated to a higher risk of disease recurrence. This study provides a precise overview of lipid metabolic pathways that are disturbed in PDAC. We also highlight the high dependence of pancreatic cancer cells upon cholesterol uptake, and identify LDLR as a promising metabolic target for combined therapy, to limit PDAC progression and disease patient relapse.
A Systems and Partnership Approach to Agricultural Research for Development

In spite of the availability of several improved agricultural technologies generated by the research system in Ethiopia over the last four decades, adoption of these innovations by smallholder farmers has been very low. This has led to stagnation of agricultural productivity and low crop yields, exposing the country to recurrent food shortfalls and national food insecurity. The old approach to agricultural research emphasized developing new technologies mainly through on-station research that were then supposed to reach farmers through the public-sector extension system. The Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) has in recent years introduced a shift in agricultural research for development, which is based on the innovation systems approach that involved cultivating partnerships with several actors along the value chain, especially farmers, farmers' cooperatives and input suppliers. This paper presents the methodology used to facilitate agricultural innovations and the diffusion of new technologies and illustrates the outcomes of this initiative with regard to technology adoption, productivity growth and the market orientation of production. The authors use examples from experiences in scaling up three grain legumes. Compared to the three-year baseline average (2003–05), crop output increased nationally by 89%, 85% and 97% in 2008 for common bean, chickpea and lentil respectively. Nationally, 53–59% of the output growth is attributable to yield growth due to technological change, while the balance is due to area expansion. These results affirm that the new approach has led to accelerated adoption of new and high-yielding or low-risk varieties.
Gender and Infrastructure in the World Bank

type="main" xml:id="dpr12128-abs-0001"> This article conducts a critical analysis of the World Bank's current infrastructure strategy from a feminist perspective, arguing that failures to define gender and set meaningful targets and indicators have meant that gender has not been integrated into the implementation of infrastructure projects. It sets out three limitations to the Bank's approach to gender and infrastructure: lack of awareness of gender in the four sectors that comprise infrastructure; the Bank's narrow approach to gender equality and women's empowerment; and the failure of the Bank to mainstream gender in its current infrastructure strategy.
Welcome to a virtual world

Forecasts that virtual assets — knowledge and information — will transform the way business is undertaken, requiring the business success rulebook to be rewritten. Posits that both the ‘virtual economy’ and the ‘virtual company’ are fast becoming a reality, stimulated by technological changes. Recounts that there are four ways of the information revolution affecting many different business functions: research and development; manufacturing; distribution; and marketing. Concludes the information revolution helps to provide a timely reminder that the changes taking place in business go far beyond just a discovery of new retailing ways.
The Garp Architecture and C Compiler

Various projects and products have been built using off-the-shelf field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) as computation accelerators for specific tasks. Such systems typically connect one or more FPGAs to the host computer via an I/O bus. Some have shown remarkable speedups, albeit limited to specific application domains. Many factors limit the general usefulness of such systems. Long reconfiguration times prevent the acceleration of applications that spread their time over many different tasks. Low-bandwidth paths for data transfer limit the usefulness of such systems to tasks that have a high computation-to-memory-bandwidth ratio. In addition, standard FPGA tools require hardware design expertise which is beyond the knowledge of most programmers. To help investigate the viability of connected FPGA systems, the authors designed their own architecture called Garp and experimented with running applications on it. They are also investigating whether Garp's design enables automatic, fast, effective compilation across a broad range of applications. They present their results in this article.
Ezetimibe plus simvastatin for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of death, and hypercholesterolemia is a major risk factor. Statins, with simvastatin among the most widely used, have ample evidence demonstrating prevention of cardiovascular events and mortality. Ezetimibe is effective at improving serum lipids in combination with statins or alone, but its role has been controversial. Areas covered: Here, we provide an overview of the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of each component of the combination, as well as pharmacogenetic contributors. Regarding clinical efficacy, our focus will be on the post-marketing clinical trials of ezetimibe–simvastatin combination therapy. We broach the controversy around the role of ezetimibe, particularly in light of the results of the IMProved Reduction of Outcomes: Vytorin Efficacy International Trial (IMPROVE-IT). Expert opinion: Ezetimibe in combination with simvastatin or other statins provides an excellent means of incremental lipid-lowering effect, although the clinical benefit has been uncertain. IMPROVE-IT is the first to demonstrate incremental cardiovascular risk reduction with the addition of ezetimibe to simvastatin. What the literature lacks is evidence around the common use of ezetimibe as monotherapy or add-on therapy to lower doses of statins in patients who fail to achieve adequate lipid lowering or do not tolerate high-dose statins.
Randomization, Statistics, and Causal Inference

This paper reviews the role of statistics in causal inference. Special attention is given to the need for randomization to justify causal inferences from conventional statistics, and the need for random sampling to justify descriptive inferences. In most epidemiologic studies, randomization and random sampling play little or no role in the assembly of study cohorts. I therefore conclude that probabilistic interpretations of conventional statistics are rarely justified, and that such interpretations may encourage misinter pretation of nonrandomized studies. Possible remedies for this problem include deemphasizing inferential statistics in favor of data descriptors, and adopting statistical techniques based on more realistic probability models than those in common use. (Epidemi
The Time-Varying NAIRU and Potential Output in Finland

This study presents statistical estimates of Non Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment, or NAIRU, and potential output in Finland.The estimates are obtained by applying the structural time series/unobserved components method to quarterly data on inflation, rate of unemployment, aggregate production and a number of auxiliary variables covering the period 1982:1-1996:4.According to the basic idea underlying these methods, noisy estimates of the unobserved NAIRU and potential output can be obtained from the so called measurement equations, which in the present study are provided by the now standard specifications of the Okun's law and Phillips-curve.To pin down the dynamics of the unobserved components the study assumes that they are driven by stochastic trends.One of the main features of the method applied in the study is the system estimation of the NAIRU and potential output time seria along with other parameters.According to the results NAIRU and potential output variate in the long run less than the actual unemployment rate and output.Until the latter part of 1991 NAIRU has been above the unemployment rate.After this the NAIRU has remained clearly below the unemployment rate although it has risen trendwise to a level between 8 and 9.5 per cent in the 1990ies. Key words: NAIRU, potential output, Phillips curve, structural time series models, unobserved components method
Beyond the Myths and Magic of Mentoring: How to Facilitate an Effective Mentoring Program

Part 1 The mentoring concept, benefits, and pitfalls: what mentoring is - what it is not mentoring at work in organizations the upside and the downside for the organization payoffs and penalties for the protege the mentor's motivation and concerns. Part 2 Facilitated mentoring - how to make it work: mentoring models and applications assessing needs and determining organizational readiness structuring the mentor role - qualifications, recruitment, selection, and rewards selecting proteges and diagnosing their development needs involving the boss who is not the mentor the coordinator - selection, training, and responsibilities negotiating sound mentoring agreements evaluating program effectiveness gender, culture, and relationship concerns making facilitated mentoring work resource - sources of instruments for assessing growth and development.
Nepali Female Migrants and Informalization of Domestic Care Work: Service or Servitude?

Nepali female migrants are among the fastest-growing immigrant workforces in the South Asian community, particularly in service and domestic work in big cities of the United States. However, there has not until now been a study investigating the work experiences of Nepali immigrants/migrants employed in the service and domestic sectors in these cities. This article investigates the work experiences of Nepali female migrants who work in service and domestic/child care work in Boston and New York, focusing on examining the type and nature of women’s work, labor practices, work and living conditions, women’s experiences and views about their work, and their responses to labor policies. The data for this research were collected through semistructured, informal, in-depth interviews and narrative collection in 2005-2006. Twenty research participants (16-65 years of age) were selected using snowball sampling. The cases of Nepali women reported here support existing literature asserting that migrant/immigrant women are greatly involved and preferred in domestic (including child care) work, and that they encounter labor exploitation, emotional abuse, and prejudice. By demonstrating the downward occupational mobility/status of educated professional Nepali female migrants, however, this study also deconstructs the myths *The first version of this article was presented at the International Sociological Association conference in Barcelona, 2008.
Integrals of Higher Binary Options and Defaultable Bonds with Discrete Default Information

In this article, we study the problem of pricing defaultable bond with discrete default intensity and barrier under constant risk free short rate using higher order binary options and their integrals. In our credit risk model, the risk free short rate is a constant and the default event occurs in an expected manner when the firm value reaches a given default barrier at predetermined discrete announcing dates or in an unexpected manner at the first jump time of a Poisson process with given default intensity given by a step function of time variable, respectively. We consider both endogenous and exogenous default recovery. Our pricing problem is derived to a solving problem of inhomogeneous or homogeneous Black-Scholes PDEs with different coefficients and terminal value of binary type in every subinterval between the two adjacent announcing dates. In order to deal with the difference of coefficients in subintervals we use a relation between prices of higher order binaries with different coefficients. In our model, due to the inhomogenous term related to endogenous recovery, our pricing formulae are represented by not only the prices of higher binary options but also the integrals of them. So we consider a special binary option called integral of i-th binary or nothing and then we obtain the pricing formulae of our defaultable corporate bond by using the pricing formulae of higher binary options and integrals of them.
Models of self-employment in a competitive market

A survey is given of models in the literature that can be used to explain the number of self-employed individuals in the framework of a competitive market. Apart from giving a survey, this paper also intends to explain how the various models work. Thus, the connections between the various models can be shown. Copyright 1993 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd
INVESTMENT TRUST DISCOUNTS AND ABNORMAL RETURNS: UK EVIDENCE

Attempts to explain the apparent anomaly of the discount to Net Asset Value of investment trust (or closed-end fund) shares have had little success. The present study of UK monthly data finds that investment trust shares selected on the basis of high (low) discounts tend to experience high (low) abnormal returns in the year following selection, which implies mean reversion in the discounts and hence market inefficiency. Furthermore, evidence is presented that the Net Asset Value and the price of investment trust shares are cointegrated, which implies the existence of profitable trading rules based on the identification of Error Correction Mechanisms.
Biochemical and pharmacological effects of the fermentation-derived antitumor agent, (alphaS,5S)-alpha-amino-3-chloro-4,5-dihydro-5-isoxazoleacetic acid (AT-125).

Abstract (αS,5S)-α-Amino-3-chloro-4,5-dihydro-5-isoxazoleacetic acid (AT-125; α-amino-3-chloro-2-isoxazoline-5-acetic acid; U-42126; NSC 163501) is a fermentation-derived amino acid antimetabolite with significant antitumor activity. It has been shown previously to act in mammalian cells as a glutamine antagonist. In the present studies, AT-125 has been shown to exhibit sex-related toxicity towards mice; females are considerably more sensitive than males. Further, especially in male mice, toxicity appears to be age related, younger animals being more sensitive. Similar effects have been observed previously with another antitumor agent, 3-deazauridine, suggesting common biochemical mechanisms of action. Coadministration of testosterone with AT-125 alleviates the toxicity of the agent and, in L1210 leukemic mice, allows administration of higher doses and a resulting enhanced therapeutic activity. Cytidine triphosphate synthetase, a glutamine-dependent amidotransferase and the primary locus of 3-deazauridine activity, was also shown to be inhibited strongly by AT-125 (Ki 2 × 10−6m). The effects of AT-125 on L1210 cell ribonucleotide pools (elevation of uridine triphosphate levels, decreases in cytidine triphosphate and guanosine triphosphate levels) were consistent with such inhibition and also suggested that inhibition of another glutamine-dependent enzyme, xanthosine monophosphate aminase, might be important in the action of this agent. Further support for such a hypothesis was provided when it was observed that a combination of cytosine and guanosine ribonucleosides (or deoxyribonucleosides) acted synergistically in reversing the growth-inhibitory activity of AT-125 towards L1210 cells in culture.
Review article: intestinal serotonin signalling in irritable bowel syndrome

Alterations in motility, secretion and visceral sensation are hallmarks of irritable bowel syndrome. As all of these aspects of gastrointestinal function involve serotonin signalling between enterochromaffin cells and sensory nerve fibres in the mucosal layer of the gut, potential alterations in mucosal serotonin signalling have been explored as a possible mechanism of altered function and sensation in irritable bowel syndrome. Literature related to intestinal serotonin signalling in normal and pathophysiological conditions has been searched and summarized.
The Right of Public Access – Opportunity or Obstacle for Nature Tourism in Sweden?

Abstract Access to countryside areas – by means of personal ownership, designated areas or free access – is fundamental to outdoor recreation and nature tourism. This paper examines the role of the Right of Public Access for public participation in outdoor recreation and nature tourism supply in Sweden. This right can be seen both as a “free space” for recreation and a way of restricting land ownership. Our study shows that the Right of Public Access has strong support among the Swedish public in general and that designated areas for recreation are less important than public access for outdoor recreation participation. Among nature tourism entrepreneurs, the Right of Public Access is considered a success factor to a much higher extent than an obstacle. We identify a tension between the general public and nature tourism entrepreneurs with respect to traditional backcountry activities such as hiking, cross‐country skiing and nature studies. One important challenge for the future will be to balance the demand for outdoor recreation with nature tourism opportunities for local economic development, and the paper concludes with a set of topics suggested for further discussion concerning the Right of Public Access in a dynamic world.
Bank of England Interest Rate Announcements and the Foreign Exchange Market

Since 1997, the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has met monthly to set the UK policy interest rate. We examine evidence of systematic patterns in exchange rate movements on MPC days over the first decade of operation of the MPC. Daily data reveal significant differences in volatility on the last of three meeting days when the interest rate announcement surprises the market. Intraday, five-minute return data are then used to provide a microscopic view. We use a Markov-switching framework that incorporates endogenous transition probabilities, which allows for an interesting alternative characterization of macroeconomic news effects on the foreign exchange market. We find evidence for non-linear regime switching between a high-volatility, informed-trading state and a low-volatility, liquidity-trading state. MPC surprise announcements are shown significantly to affect the probability that the market enters and remains within the informed trading regime, with some limited market positioning just prior to the announcement.