Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is Trade Openness Suitable for Growth of the Nigerian Manufacturing Sector? An Autoregressive Distributed Lag Approach

The paper investigates the relationship between trade openness and manufacturing sector output in Nigeria from 1980–2016 using secondary data collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin (2016) and the National Bureau of Statistics (various issues). Trend analysis, descriptive statistics and unit root test were carried out for the study. For estimation analysis, we employed the Bounds (ARDL) test, Pairwise Granger Causality test, ECM test and stability test. The result conformed to economic theory and suggests that trade openness and foreign direct investments have positive and significant relationship with manufacturing sector output for the period under review. However, exchange rate did not conform to economic theory by appearing with a negative sign and it was not statistically significant for the period under review. The independent variables explained 86% of the total variation in manufacturing sector output in Nigeria. The Bounds test indicates that a long run relationship exist between trade openness, foreign direct investment, exchange rate and manufacturing sector output. Pairwise Causality test shows a bidirectional causation between trade openness and manufacturing sector output with the causation effect running from trade openness to manufacturing sector output and from manufacturing sector output to trade openness. Thus, the paper recommends that Nigeria’s manufactured products should be of top notch quality so that they can compete favourably with other manufactured goods produced by other countries in the international market. In addition, effort should be made in formulating policies that will improve both domestic and foreign trade as the economy strives to achieve growth through trade. Thus, there should be macroeconomic stability through the use of suitable trade, fiscal and monetary policies which if properly harmonized would be jointly reinforcing in achieving common macroeconomic objective of favourable balance of trade, price stability and economic growth. Finally, government should consider a set of reliable economic policies that will strengthen bilateral and multilateral trade agreements; this will go a long way in restoring the confidence of trade partners, thus increasing the rate of multilateral trade partners to Nigeria.
Formal and informal support for older adults with severe mental illness

Objectives: This study sought to examine the combination of formal and informal services supplied to older adults with severe mental illness, to assess the adequacy of services received, and to determine factors predictive of formal and informal service provision. Methods: A cross-sectional research design was employed. Seventy-five older adults diagnosed with a SMI were recruited through local community mental health center. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews using the Camberwell Assessment of Needs for the Elderly. Results: Clients most frequently received services from formal sources for psychiatric distress, physical health, information, and dangerous behavior needs while informal sources provided the greatest amount of assistance for self-care, psychiatric distress, and money management needs. Appropriate assistance was most often not provided for benefits, sight/hearing, and incontinence. Formal services were predicted by group residence and dangerous behavior, physical illness, medication, and daily activity needs. Assistance from informal sources was predicted by private residence, self-care, mobility, and money management needs. Discussion: While formal and informal sources provided adequate services for certain client needs, over 70% of the clients did not receive the correct type of help for some of their needs. Greater communication between mental health care staff and informal caregivers, and the integration of aging network services, is essential for the adequate provision of care to older severely mentally ill (SMI) adults. Education and greater linkages among care providers are necessary so that all service providers are aware of and are able to appropriately respond to the complex multi-level needs experienced by older SMI adults.
MK‐801 induces apoptotic neuronal death in the rat retrosplenial cortex: Prevention by cycloheximide and R(−)‐2‐Hexyl‐N‐ Methylpropargylamine

MK‐801 is a non‐competitive N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist which can prevent excitatory neuronal death. At higher concentrations, however, it can also induce neuronal death in the limbic system. This MK‐801‐induced selective neurotoxicity has been proposed as an animal model for dementia and psychosis. We have investigated the effects of the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide and the neurorescue agent 2‐hexyl‐N‐methylpropargylamine [R(−)‐2HxMP] on MK‐801‐induced neuronal death in the retrosplenial cortex in the rat. Cycloheximide [2 mg/kg, subcutaneously (sc)] administered either 1 hr before, or after, injection of MK‐801 (5 mg/kg, sc) prevented almost completely neuronal shrinkage and nuclear condensation of the granular retrosplenial cortex as assessed by hematoxylin‐eosin staining. The results suggest that the MK‐801‐induced neuronal death was apoptotic. This neurorescue effect by cycloheximide was time dependent: after 4 hr the effect was reduced to about 50% and by 8 hr had disappeared. R(−)‐2HxMP (0.25 mg/kg, sc), which does not inhibit protein synthesis in vitro, was also found to be effective at preventing MK‐801‐induced neuronal death. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Assessment of blood pool, soft tissue, and skeletal uptake of sodium fluoride F 18 with positron emission tomography-computed tomography in four clinically normal dogs.

OBJECTIVE To determine the ideal interval to image acquisition after IV injection of sodium fluoride F 18 ((18)F-NaF) and evaluate biodistribution of the radiopharmaceutical in clinically normal skeletally immature dogs. ANIMALS 4 female dogs. PROCEDURES Each dog was anesthetized for evaluation with a commercial hybrid positron emission tomography (PET)-CT instrument. A low-radiation dose, whole-body CT scan was acquired first. An IV injection of (18)F-NaF (0.14 mCi/kg) was administered, and a dynamic PET scan centered over the heart and liver was acquired during a period of 120 minutes. Uptake of (18)F-NaF in the blood pool, soft tissues, and skeletal structures was evaluated via region of interest analysis to derive standardized uptake values and time-activity curves, which were used to determine the optimal postinjection time for skeletal image acquisition. Biodistribution was also assessed from a final whole-body PET-CT scan acquired after the dynamic scan. RESULTS Time-activity curves revealed a rapid decrease in the amount of radiopharmaceutical in the blood pool and soft tissues and a rapid increase in the amount of radiopharmaceutical in bones soon after injection. At 50 minutes after injection, the greatest difference in uptake between soft tissues and bones was detected, with continued subtle increase in uptake in the bones. Uptake of (18)F-NaF was slightly increased at growth plates and open ossification centers, compared with that at other parts of the bone. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE At 50 minutes after IV injection of (18)F-NaF at the dose evaluated, PET-CT yielded excellent bone-to-background ratio images for evaluation of the skeletal system in dogs.
Impact of citrus soft drinks relative to grapefruit juice on ciclosporin disposition.

AIMS A recent case report had suggested a citrus soft drink (Sun Drop) may have caused clinically relevant elevations in ciclosporin levels through a grapefruit juice-like mechanism via inactivation of intestinal cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4). This study was conducted to investigate the effect of grapefruit juice and citrus sodas Sun Drop and Fresca, the latter soda containing 83-fold higher concentration of the proposed CYP3A4 inhibitor bergamottin than Sun Drop, relative to water on oral ciclosporin pharmacokinetics. METHODS In a randomized four-way crossover study with a washout of at least 1 week, 12 healthy volunteers received a single oral dose of ciclosporin (Neoral) with Sun Drop, Fresca, grapefruit juice and water (control). Each drink (591 ml) was consumed twice on the prior day and three times on the study day. Whole blood concentrations of ciclosporin were measured up to 24 h with a fluorescence polarization immunoassay. RESULTS Grapefruit juice increased area under the concentration-time curve by 186% (P < 0.0001; 95% confidence interval of mean difference 3302-6240 ng ml h(-1)) and peak concentration by 150% (P < 0.0001) of ciclosporin with a significant decrease in oral clearance of 43% (P < 0.0001) when compared with water. Neither citrus soda altered significantly ciclosporin pharmacokinetic variables; changes in mean values ranged from +/- 3 to 11% of the corresponding water value. CONCLUSION Although our results do not support a clinically relevant grapefruit juice-like interaction between oral ciclosporin and citrus constituent containing sodas Sun Drop or Fresca, an effect in the setting of chronic ciclosporin therapy cannot be ruled out.
Regional hypoplasia of somatosensory cortex in growth‐retarded mice (grt/grt)

Growth‐retarded mouse (grt/grt) is a spontaneous mutant that is known as an animal model for primary congenital hypothyroidism caused by resistance to TSH signaling. The regional pattern of cerebral cortical hypoplasia was characterized in grt/grt mice. Ex vivo computed tomography (CT)‐based volumetry was examined in four regions of the cerebral cortex, i.e., prefrontal, frontal, parietal and occipito‐temporal regions, which were demarcated by structural landmarks on coronal CT images. A region‐specific reduced volume of the parietal cortical region covering most of the somatosensory cortex was noted in grt/grt mice rather than in both heterozygous (grt/+) and wild‐type (+/+) mice. We concluded that the cortical hypoplasia in grt/grt was seen in identical cortical regions corresponding to human congenital hypothyroidism.
Developing context-specific peace education programmes with and for host populations

Grounded in in-depth empirical example from Bolivia, this qualitative study develops the theory, analysis, and practice needed to contextualise peace education programmes with and for host populations, from beginning to end. On a broader level, this research helps to advance understandings of the complexity surrounding if, how, and to what extent peace and education programmes designed to be universal can be adapted to specific contexts. This study addresses the gap between the broadly accepted precept in scholarship that peace programmes need to be context-specific and the ways in which they are carried out in practice. The research was carried out in three main phases: the design phase, the delivery phase, and the evaluation phase. The approach used throughout was participatory action research and narrative inquiry, a research process which included trying out ideas, and finding out if, how, and in which ways they worked, as well as learning from the story and experiences of those involved in informing the process throughout. Conceptualising the work as research collaboration, the study demonstrates how thirty-four research collaborators and I used a combination of methods (semi-structured interviews, focus groups, participant observation, ongoing dialogue, and learning journals) to examine the process and outcomes. The major contributions from this research include the development of an original conceptual framework and methodology for how to work with and for host populations' throughout the process of developing peace education programmes specific to their context. In doing so, the study explores key aspects relevant to this task, including ethics, fieldwork, power, agency, praxis, dialogue, voice, reflexivity, friction, hybridity, and the relationship between the researcher and the researched. This study is subjected to critical scrutiny throughout by research collaborators. The overall research develops the argument that context-specific peace education programmes can be best achieved through research and practice done with and for host populations. The findings not only have far-reaching implications for the field of peace education and led to a number of theoretically-informed and empirically-grounded recommendations for further work. They have also laid some foundations for what is possible in terms developing peace and education-related programmes in ways that pay just as much attention to interrogating the processes that produce these types of context-specific practices ("the how") as the products ("the what).
MAP1A Light Chain 2 Interacts with Exchange Protein Activated by Cyclic AMP 1 (EPAC1) to Enhance Rap1 GTPase Activity and Cell Adhesion*

We have recently demonstrated that light chain 2 (LC2) of the microtubule-associated protein MAP1A interacts with the cyclic AMP (cAMP)-binding domain of exchange protein directly activated by cyclic AMP 1 (EPAC1). In the present study we used a simultaneous expression system and found that LC2 enhances both basal and 8-(4-chloro-phenylthio)-2′-O-methyladenosine-3′:5′-cyclic monophosphate (8-CPT-2Me-cAMP)-stimulated Rap1 activation by EPAC1. LC2 is known to stabilize microtubules; therefore we examined whether microtubules enhanced Rap1 activation by LC2. Nocodazole inhibited Rap1 activity in cells transfected with EPAC1 alone but had little effect on Rap1 activity in cells transfected with both EPAC1 and LC2. This indicates that part of the actions of LC2 in enhancing EPAC1 activity may be through stabilization of microtubules. We also found that in cells transfected with LC2, Rap1 was more sensitive to activation by 8-CPT-2Me-cAMP. Moreover, LC2 enhanced the ability of transfected and endogenous EPAC1 to interact with cyclic AMP-agarose, indicating that LC2 elicits conformational changes in the cAMP domain of EPAC1, enhancing its ability to be activated by cyclic AMP. We also found that disruption of the interaction of endogenous EPAC1 and LC2 with antibodies to the cAMP domain of EPAC1 abolished Rap1 activity in PC12 cell lysates, demonstrating the importance of LC2 for EPAC1 activation in these cells. Consistent with a role of EPAC1 in controlling integrin activity, we found that cell adhesion to laminin was enhanced in LC2- and EPAC1-transfected cells stimulated with 8-CPT-2Me-cAMP. LC2 is therefore a biological enhancer of EPAC1 activity toward Rap1 and associated downstream signaling mechanisms.
Invited Review: A Contemporary Overview of Chronic Progressive Nephropathy in the Laboratory Rat, and Its Significance for Human Risk Assessment

CPN (chronic progressive nephropathy) is a spontaneous age-related disease that occurs in high incidence in the strains of rat commonly used in preclinical toxicology studies, exhibiting a male predisposition. Although increasing in incidence and severity with age, evidence indicates that CPN should be regarded as a specific disease entity and not just a manifestation of the aging process. A number of factors, mainly dietary manipulations, have been shown to modify the expression of CPN. Amongst these, restriction of caloric intake is the most effective for inhibiting the disease process. The precise etiology of CPN and the mechanism(s) underlying its pathogenesis remain unknown, but the long-standing assumption that glomerular dysfunction is the primary basis is challenged in the light of contemporary developments in understanding filtration and postglomerular cellular processing of albumin. CPN is not only a degenerative disease, but also has regenerative aspects with a high cell proliferative rate in affected tubules. Accordingly, evidence is emerging that advanced, particularly end-stage CPN, is a risk factor for a marginal increase in the background incidence of renal tubule tumors. Many chemicals are known to exacerbate the severity of CPN to an advanced stage, and this interaction between chemical and CPN can result in a small increase in the incidence of renal adenomas in 2-year carcinogenicity bioassays. Review of the pathological entities associated with chronic renal failure in man emphasizes that this rodent condition has no strict human counterpart. Because CPN is a rodent-specific entity, the finding of a small, statistically significant increase in renal tubule tumors, linked to exacerbation of CPN by a test chemical in a preclinical study for carcinogenicity, can be regarded as having no relevance for extrapolation in human risk assessment.
Dysregulation of corticostriatal ascorbate release and glutamate uptake in transgenic models of Huntington's disease.

SIGNIFICANCE Dysregulation of cortical and striatal neuronal processing plays a critical role in Huntington's disease (HD), a dominantly inherited condition that includes a progressive deterioration of cognitive and motor control. Growing evidence indicates that ascorbate (AA), an antioxidant vitamin, is released into striatal extracellular fluid when glutamate is cleared after its release from cortical afferents. Both AA release and glutamate uptake are impaired in the striatum of transgenic mouse models of HD owing to a downregulation of glutamate transporter 1 (GLT1), the protein primarily found on astrocytes and responsible for removing most extracellular glutamate. Improved understanding of an AA-glutamate interaction could lead to new therapeutic strategies for HD. RECENT ADVANCES Increased expression of GLT1 following treatment with ceftriaxone, a beta-lactam antibiotic, increases striatal glutamate uptake and AA release and also improves the HD behavioral phenotype. In fact, treatment with AA alone restores striatal extracellular AA to wild-type levels in HD mice and not only improves behavior but also improves the firing pattern of neurons in HD striatum. CRITICAL ISSUES Although evidence is growing for an AA-glutamate interaction, several key issues require clarification: the site of action of AA on striatal neurons; the precise role of GLT1 in striatal AA release; and the mechanism by which HD interferes with this role. FUTURE DIRECTIONS Further assessment of how the HD mutation alters corticostriatal signaling is an important next step. A critical focus is the role of astrocytes, which express GLT1 and may be the primary source of extracellular AA.
The Association between Changes in Accounting Estimates and Accounting Restatements

This paper investigates the relationship between changes in accounting estimates and subsequent restatements. Theory suggests that depending on the underlying reason for an estimate change, this relationship can be either negative (for changes in estimates made in response to new developments or management having obtaining new information) or positive (for changes in accounting estimates made with an objective of managing earnings or changes that are not reliably estimated and are poorly audited). We hypothesize and find a positive relationship between changes in estimates and restatements. There is also support for the prediction that the presence of a change in accounting estimate(s) is associated with an increased likelihood of subsequent restatement to correct intentional misstatement. The findings of the study are of interest to accounting academics, regulators, and audit practitioners.
Quantifying the effect of urodynamic catheters on urine flow rate measurement

The effect of urodynamic catheters on urine flow rate (Qmax) is well documented but under‐researched. Several studies show reduced Qmax but methodologies and patient demographics differ. The aims of this study were to further quantify the effect of urodynamic catheters on Qmax and to explore if this was consistent across different urodynamic diagnoses.
A temperature-regulated, retrotransposon-like element from Candida albicans

A repetitive element was isolated from the genome of Candida albicans. This repetitive element, which we designated alpha, was localized to a 500-bp fragment of genomic DNA. The alpha element was dispersed in the genome and varied in copy number and genomic location in the strains examined. Analyses of various loci containing the alpha element identified a locus containing a composite element. This composite element consisted of two direct repeats of the alpha element separated by approximately 5.5 kb of DNA, a structural arrangement similar to that of retrovirus-like transposable elements. The flanking alpha elements of the composite structure were 388 bp in length and were identical in sequence. They were bounded by the nucleotides 5'-TG. CA-3', which were part of a delimiting inverted repeat, a feature conserved in the long terminal repeats of retroviruses and retrovirus-like elements. As in retrovirus-like elements, the entire composite element, including the alpha elements, was transcribed into an approximately unit-length mRNA. The expression of this transcript was greatly increased when cells were grown at 25 versus 37 degrees C. As has been found in many retrotransposons, the composite element was flanked by a 5-bp duplication and varied in both copy number and genomic location in various strains. We conclude that the composite element is a retrotransposon-like element, and we have designated this element Tca1. We suggest that Tca1 may be relevant to the genomic evolution of C. albicans and the pathogenic potential of the organism.
Altered motor network recruitment during finger tapping in boys with tourette syndrome

In Tourette syndrome (TS), not only the tics but also the findings on deficits in motor performance indicate motor system alterations. But our knowledge about the pathophysiology of the motor system in TS is still limited. To better understand the neuronal correlates of motor performance in TS, 19 treatment‐naïve boys [age 12.5 (SD 1.4) years] with TS without comorbid symptomatology were compared to an age‐matched healthy control group [n = 16; age 12.9 (SD 1.6) years] in regard to brain activation during right‐hand index finger tapping by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging. Group differences were found mainly in the left (contralateral) precentral gyrus, which was less activated in boys suffering from TS and in caudate nucleus as well as in medial prefrontal cortex, which was more activated compared to healthy boys. These results show that even in the first years after the onset of the disorder, an altered brain network of motor performance is recruited. These alterations in brain regions frequently associated with TS are probably based on functional changes, which are discussed in terms of early compensatory mechanisms of the motor execution network. Hum Brain Mapp, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Investor Legal Protection, Capitalized Development Costs, and Audit Fees: A Cross‐Country Analysis

Our study explores the association between capitalized development costs and audit fees. International Accounting Standard No. 38 stipulates the discretion to capitalize the development costs of internally generated intangible assets. We find a positive association between capitalized development costs and audit fees, which reflects auditors’ concern that managers may use the discretion of development cost capitalization to manipulate earnings. Moreover, this positive association is mitigated by stronger investor legal protection because stronger investor legal protection alleviates the earnings management concern from capitalized development costs. These results suggest that country-level legal regimes affect auditors’ perception on client firms’ accounting choices. Our study contributes to the literature exploring how legal regimes affect auditor behaviors.