Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring discourses of decarbonisation: the social construction of low carbon housing

With the UK committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80%, and British households accounting for around 25% of national carbon emissions, decarbonising the domestic sector is central to achieving this target. promoted as part of a solution to climate change, UK low carbon housing policy has developed rapidly over the last decade, leading to the development of a range of policies aimed at decarbonising the housing stock. Understood as socially constructed, the way in which social and environmental issues are interpreted and communicated can have an important influence on the success or failure of policy responses, as well as on public understandings. This thesis explores the discourses surrounding low carbon housing as they exist within di�erent sectors of society. Employing an interpretive qualitative methodology, this analysis utilises discourse and thematic analysis to explore low carbon housing discourse, investigating the policy, media, expert and public representations in turn. Rooted in Ecological modernisation, low carbon housing discourse is shown to adopt a techno-economic approach to reducing carbon emissions from housing; an approach that is embedded within policy, media and expert discourses. In contrast, public understandings of low carbon housing draw on broader discourses of Environmental concern, whilst understandings of low carbon housing are based around resource use and the embodied carbon within the material housing. Through investigation of the assumptions surrounding the incentives and mechanisms for change embedded within the discourses, this thesis highlights the socially constructed nature of low carbon housing, demonstrating the important role that environmental and everyday values play in public understandings of what is often considered to be a purely technological entity. This alternative understanding of low carbon housing within the public sphere opens up a new discursive space and may provide a new direction from which to approach the issue of reducing carbon emissions.
MOVING FROM A TRANSMISSION TO A SOCIAL REFORM TEACHING PERSPECTIVE: USING TEACHERS’ ACTION RESEARCH AS CRITICAL PEDAGOGY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

This article gives an account of an action research project that I used to examine and improve my own teaching practices. In this project, I used insights from critical pedagogy to inform my transition from a transmission to a social reform teaching perspective. When I used the critical pedagogical concept of constructed consciousness and the problem-posing teaching strategy to interact with my students as co-inquirers and to disrupt their prior knowledge, I noticed that many themes emerged, most notably that (a) students do not often question their assumptions, (b) students feel helpless to change the future, and (c) there is dissonance between students’ beliefs and their practices. The final section of the article explains what I learned about teaching and learning as I engaged in action research pedagogy.
Regional Foreign Participation and Externalities: New Empirical Evidence from Mexican Regions

Recent empirical research on externalities from foreign direct investment (FDI) is engaged with the identification of externalities along the dimensions of industry and geographical space. In this paper I explore these externality dimensions in the context of estimating FDI externalities in regional Mexican manufacturing industries. The main findings indicate that the presence of FDI creates a variety of externality effects. Intraregional foreign participation creates negative intraindustry and positive interindustry externalities. Furthermore, the estimations identify negative intraindustry externalities across regions and positive spatial interindustry FDI externalities. In addition, the estimations identify three different regional characteristics that have a negative or positive effect on spatial externalities from FDI.
Hydroxyl radical production and lung injury in the rat following silica or titanium dioxide instillation in vivo.

The hydroxyl radical (.OH) is a highly reactive oxygen free radical that has been implicated as a cause of lung injury following exposure to silica and silicates. Despite evidence that silica generates . OH in vitro, there has been no previous demonstration of in vivo production of . OH after exposure to nonfibrous mineral oxide dusts. We tested the hypothesis that instillation of silica into rat lungs is associated with greater . OH production and acute lung inflammation in vivo relative to the instillation of a less toxic nonsilicate particle, titanium dioxide. The production of . OH in the lungs following dust instillation was measured using sodium salicylate as an . OH trap. Seven days after dust exposure, the rats were given intraperitoneal salicylate, the lungs isolated, and salicylate hydroxylation products (2,3- and 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid), reflecting . OH, were measured. There was significantly more 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid in silica-exposed lungs compared with lungs instilled with titanium dioxide. In addition, the instillation of silica into rat lungs in vivo was associated with a greater acute inflammatory response. We conclude that following in vivo exposure, silica stimulates greater . OH production relative to the less toxic particle, titanium dioxide. These differences in . OH generation correspond to disparities in acute lung inflammation.
Evaluation of Chemical Derivatization Agents for the Gas Chromatographic-isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometric Determination of Morphine and Codeine in Urine

With the aid of gas chromatography (GC)-isotope dilution mass spectrometry (MS) and an ion-trap GC-MS instrument, twelve chemical derivatization (ChD) agents which showed different potentials in derivatizing morphine (Mo) and codeine (Co) were further evaluated in terms of ease and efficiency of the ChD, analyte-internal standard (IS) ion cross contribution, shelf-life of the derivative, and experimental conditions of the ChD to see which ChD agent was best suited for the title drug urinalysis. It turned out to be N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)acetamide (BSA), a silylation agent. Thus, optimum data quality of the total analysis was achieved starting with 100L BSA plus 100L ethyl acetate being added to the extracts previously obtained upon the automated solid-phase extraction (SPE) of the urine specimen, and followed by incubation at 100 for 30 min. The GC-MS qualifier ions for Mo-BSA were m/z 401, 414 and 429, with m/ z 429 being the quantifier ion; the qualifier ions for Co-BSA were m/z 234, 343 and 371, with m/z 371 being the quantifier ion. Under optimal experimental conditions, the average recovery of Mo and Co as their BSA-derivatives from five serial spikes was 73.5%, with all individual recoveries exceeding 60%. The regression calibration curves for urinary spikes were typically linear within 50-1000 ng/mL, with correlation coefficients consistently exceeding 0.99. The limits of detection (LODs) and quantitation (LOQs) for electron impact (EI), positive ion chemical ionization (PCI) and negative ion chemical ionization (NCI) mode analyses were exclusively below 50 ng/mL no matter which definitions of the limits were adopted; that is, all were much lower than the legal cutoff, 300 ng/mL. The coefficients of variance (CVs) calculated for the triplicate quantitations of four BQC (blind quality control) samples ranged 6.8-14.2% for Mo, and 5.0-9.2% for Co. The precisions calculated for triplicate quantitations of a real-case specimen which TDx has screened as "opiates-high" were 7.0% for Mo and 7.1% for Co.
Does Public R&D Funding Distort Competition? ⁄

In this paper we analyze whether public subsidies for private R&D has a distortive effect on competition. The we measure the effect on competition by investigating the impact of public R&D subsidies on the companies’ likelihood to survive as an independent entity. Companies cease to exist for two different reasons which have quite different implications for competition. First, companies are acquired by other companies or second, they go out of business and exit. The data used in this analysis is drawn from Statistics Finland’s business register and patent statistics. The information about the R&D subsidies is supplied by the National Technology Agency, which is responsible for more than 90% of the R&D grants in Finland. Companies which cease to exist as independent entities vanish from the business register Each firm vanishing from the panel data set is classified as exit or acquisition. As there is no reliable information on exit and acquisition available in the register, we use a labor tracking methodology to infer about whether a company has exited or has been acquired. For that we track the employees in the vanishing firm one year after the company’s vanishing from the panel. If the majority of the vanished firm’s employees can be found in the same company in the subsequent year, we classify the vanishing company as being acquired. If we find the employees being scattered over several firms we classify the firm as having exited. To track the employment we use Statistics Finland’s employment register covering the whole Finnish working population. Microeconometric matching techniques, in particular kernel based matching, are used to estimate a control group of not subsidized companies such that the selection bias, associated with receiving a subsidy, is eliminated. We find that public R&D subsidies reduce the companies’ likelihood to vanish. R&D subsidies have a substantial impact on the companies’ likelihood of being acquired. We find that R&D subsidies support companies’ independence by aiding the companies’ to overcome financing constraints in the context of R&D. R&D subsidies, however, have a far smaller if not negligible impact on lowing the companies exit probability.
Comparison of tacrolimus with microemulsion cyclosporine as primary immunosuppression in hepatitis C patients after liver transplantation.

BACKGROUND Immunosuppression in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) following orthotopic liver transplantation can lead to significant increases in serum viral loads. Our aim was to analyze the effect of a randomized study of two immunosuppressive agents (tacrolimus vs. microemulsion cyclosporine) on the outcome of HCV patients following orthotopic liver transplantation. METHODS From December 1995 to September 1996, 50 adult patients transplanted for HCV cirrhosis were randomly assigned to receive tacrolimus (Prograf) (group 1, 25 patients) or microemulsion cyclosporine (Neoral) (group 2, 24 patients). All patients received alpha-interferon after transplantation, and the overall steroid doses were no different between the groups. Serum RNA levels were measured by signal amplification of Chiron. Biopsies were taken when transaminases were greater than 2x base line or when there was an inappropriate response to alterations in immunosuppression regimens. RESULTS There were more episodes of rejection in the Neoral group, but there were no differences in bacterial and viral infections, nor in the rate of HCV recurrence between the two groups. There were seven deaths in group 1 and eight in group 2. Overall patient and graft survival rates in the Prograf and Neoral groups at 18 months were 72 and 68% and 67 and 64%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS (a) Both immunosuppression regimens had similar HCV recurrence rates; (b) there were no differences in bacterial or opportunistic infections; and (c) patient and graft survival was similar between the two groups.
Building the Post-Colonial State: Villagization and Resource Management in Zimbabwe

Le gouvernement du Zimbabwe rencontre des difficultes dans la construction de son autorite et du nationalisme dans les campagnes. La strategie de villagisation et la gestion des ressources sont des reponses aux problemes de gestion sociale et de legitimation etatique en reorientant les identites communautaires. Mais des contraintes structurelles et politiques habitent le projet meme et freinent la construction de l'Etat post-colonial
Profiling German-speaking socially responsible investors

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the main motives of investors in allocating their money in a socially responsible (SR) way. Design/methodology/approach - – The paper is based on primary data collected in a survey using an online questionnaire. This paper applies tests for continuous and categorical data and (ordered) logit models. Findings - – In a multivariate analysis that investigates determinants of SR investing, this study finds little influence of the demographic factors of gender and investment volume and none of educational level. Furthermore, it shows that the regions investors allocate their money to are significant along with the preference toward the order of return, risk and liquidity. Moreover, there appears to be a gap between supply and demand of SR investments. Additionally, there are indications that a very important inducement for SR investing is the expectation of a high financial performance. Originality/value - – There are very few international studies concerning the link between SR investments and the explanation of preferences with factors other than demographic ones. This study broadens the scope of the literature by providing novel empirical evidence for the German-speaking market.
Sectoral Transformation in the Photovoltaics Industry in Australia, Germany and Japan: Contrasting the Co‐evolution of Actors, Knowledge, Institutions and Markets 1

This paper studies the evolution of the photovoltaics industry in Australia, Germany and Japan taking a comparative perspective. A modification of the sectoral innovation system framework is used to discuss: knowledge and technologies, actors and interactions, institutions and funding, development of markets and technological structure, as a way to understand the changes. In the process of transition from niche to mass production, national players have specialised in different activities, and the institutions’ building block has been a key determinant. In the case of Australia, it is also the least developed area which ultimately exposes the country to losing its innovation benefits.
A Counterfactual Analysis on Unlimited Surplus Labor in Rural China

Using a counterfactual analysis approach, the present paper examines a host of conventional wisdoms relating to issues of farmer, the countryside and agriculture, which are believed to be all originated from the existence of mass surplus laborers in China. When analyzing various sources of statistics, evidence shows that there is no longer a large pool of surplus laborers in rural China as most people believe. Based on this counterfactual result, all related events, such as the direction of agricultural technological changes, the level of comparative productivity of agricultural labor, and the degree of rural-urban income gap must be reconsidered.
The SWI2/SNF2 Chromatin Remodeling ATPase BRAHMA Represses Abscisic Acid Responses in the Absence of the Stress Stimulus in Arabidopsis[W]

This work shows that the chromatin remodeling ATPase BRAHMA ensures that postgermination growth arrest is triggered only upon sensing of the water stress hormone ABA. BRAHMA directly represses expression of ABA-responsive genes, including ABI5 by modulating nucleosome occupancy and position. Furthermore, brahma mutants display drought tolerance. The survival of plants as sessile organisms depends on their ability to cope with environmental challenges. Of key importance in this regard is the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA). ABA not only promotes seed dormancy but also triggers growth arrest in postgermination embryos that encounter water stress. This is accompanied by increased desiccation tolerance. Postgermination ABA responses in Arabidopsis thaliana are mediated in large part by the ABA-induced basic domain/leucine zipper transcription factor ABA INSENSITIVE5 (ABI5). Here, we show that loss of function of the SWI2/SNF2 chromatin remodeling ATPase BRAHMA (BRM) causes ABA hypersensitivity during postgermination growth arrest. ABI5 expression was derepressed in brm mutants in the absence of exogenous ABA and accumulated to high levels upon ABA sensing. This effect was likely direct; chromatin immunoprecipitation revealed BRM binding to the ABI5 locus. Moreover, loss of BRM activity led to destabilization of a nucleosome likely to repress ABI5 transcription. Finally, the abi5 null mutant was epistatic to BRM in postgermination growth arrest. In addition, vegetative growth defects typical of brm mutants in the absence of ABA treatment could be partially overcome by reduction of ABA responses, and brm mutants displayed increased drought tolerance. We propose a role for BRM in the balance between growth or stress responses.
Differential expression of thymosin genes in human tumors and in the developing human kidney

Thymosins β4 and β10 are 2 structurally related polypeptides originally defined in the rat immune system. To date, no truly unambiguous functions have been formally ascribed to these small (<4.9 kDa) acidic proteins. Previous research has demonstrated relationships between expression of these genes and cell growth/differentiation. These observations prompted the present study which has used cDNA and synthetic oligonucleotide probes in combination with high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to examine the differential expression of these 2 genes in normal and neoplastic human tissues and in the developing human kidney. Low levels of β4 and β10 mRNA species prevailed in normal tissues; in contrast, these gene transcripts were notably more abundant in malignant renal tumors and in the normal human embryonic kidney. These findings show that the thymosin β4 and β10 genes are constitutively expressed at higher levels in embryonic/neoplastic as compared to normal/benign tissues and that thymosin in β10 in particular may be a new molecular marker for renal‐cell carcinoma as well as other malignancies.
Representing the complexity, diversity and particularity of the doctoral enterprise in Australia

This thesis addresses the need to reconceptualise the doctoral experience at a time when the boundaries between education, training, research, work and career development are becoming increasingly blurred. It does so by means of a detailed analysis of what candidates do and how they operate in a variety of disciplinary, employment and other contexts. In order to synthesise and interpret the outcomes of that analysis a broader concept of the doctoral enterprise is developed within which the lived experience is embedded. It is argued that effective representation of the doctoral enterprise is as important as its reconceptualisation, and that both processes are required to generate in-depth understanding of the complexity, diversity and particularity of this phenomenon. Case narratives incorporating the perspectives of candidates—as well as those whom they deem to be influencing their research and learning—are employed to portray distinctive elements of doctoral work and its associated outcomes. Quantitative data and analysis derived from a national survey of doctoral candidates are combined subsequently with this qualitative material in order to generate further insight regarding doctoral activities and the entities that are integral to their enactment. Drawing on theories of practice, an integrative model of the doctoral enterprise is then presented. This comprises two basic components, one of which is a set of doctoral practices classified in terms of curriculum, pedagogy, research and work. The other is a set of doctoral arrangements that reflect configurations of entities inclusive of the participants, the academy and the community. The purpose of the model is to increase understanding of the dynamic and evolving nature of the doctoral enterprise and the interrelationships involving practices and arrangements. This model has implications for candidates and others involved directly in the doctoral enterprise, regardless of their sector, role or status.
Cost-effectiveness of vortioxetine versus venlafaxine (extended release) in the treatment of major depressive disorder in South Korea

ABSTRACT Objective: To assess the cost-effectiveness of vortioxetine versus venlafaxine XR (extended-release) in major depressive disorder (MDD) patients in South Korea. Methods: A 1-year cost-effectiveness analysis from a limited societal perspective was performed using a combined model consisting of a decision-tree and a Markov model. Patients entered the model when initiating or switching antidepressant treatment following inadequate response to previous treatment. Remission, relapse and recovery were the main health states. Results: Vortioxetine dominated venlafaxine XR, with quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gains of 0.0131 and cost savings of KRW 623,229/year [US$530/year] from a limited societal perspective. Safety contributed more than efficacy to the incremental QALY gains. More patients were in recovery after initial treatment and after 1 year with vortioxetine (31%, 40%) compared to venlafaxine XR (23%, 36%). Vortioxetine remained dominant in 98% of probabilistic simulations. Conclusion: Vortioxetine dominated venlafaxine XR in South Korea and is a relevant treatment option for MDD patients initiating or switching therapy.
Drug eruptions in Bangkok: a 1‐year study at Ramathibodi Hospital

Background As new drugs are introduced onto the market, it is important to determine those that can cause cutaneous reactions and with what frequency. In addition, drugs that have been used for a long period of time may cause new types of eruption that have not been observed previously. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the types of drug eruption and the causative agents in a hospital‐based population for a period of 1 year.
Neuroprotective Potential of Silymarin against CNS Disorders: Insight into the Pathways and Molecular Mechanisms of Action

Silymarin, a C25 containing flavonoid from the plant Silybum marianum, has been the gold standard drug to treat liver disorders associated with alcohol consumption, acute and chronic viral hepatitis, and toxin‐induced hepatic failures since its discovery in 1960. Apart from the hepatoprotective nature, which is mainly due to its antioxidant and tissue regenerative properties, Silymarin has recently been reported to be a putative neuroprotective agent against many neurologic diseases including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and cerebral ischemia. Although the underlying neuroprotective mechanism of Silymarin is believed to be due to its capacity to inhibit oxidative stress in the brain, it also confers additional advantages by influencing pathways such as β‐amyloid aggregation, inflammatory mechanisms, cellular apoptotic machinery, and estrogenic receptor mediation. In this review, we have elucidated the possible neuroprotective effects of Silymarin and the underlying molecular events, and suggested future courses of action for its acceptance as a CNS drug for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
The Determinants of Football Match Attendance Revisited

An attendance equation is estimated using data on individual games played in the Spanish First Division Football League. The specification includes as explanatory factors: economic variables, quality, uncertainty and opportunity costs. The authors concentrate the analysis on some specification issues such as controlling the effect of unobservables given the panel data structure of the data set, the type of functional form, and the potential endogeneity of prices. The authors obtain the expected effects on attendance for all the variables. The estimated price elasticities are, in general, smaller than one in absolute value but are sensitive to the specification issues, in particular, the endogeneity of prices.