Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bidirectional modulation of windup by NMDA receptors in the rat spinal trigeminal nucleus

Activation of afferent nociceptive pathways is subject to activity‐dependent plasticity, which may manifest as windup, a progressive increase in the response of dorsal horn nociceptive neurons to repeated stimuli. At the cellular level, N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor activation by glutamate released from nociceptive C‐afferent terminals is currently thought to generate windup. Most of the wide dynamic range nociceptive neurons that display windup, however, do not receive direct C‐fibre input. It is thus unknown where the NMDA mechanisms for windup operate. Here, using the Sprague–Dawley rat trigeminal system as a model, we anatomically identify a subpopulation of interneurons that relay nociceptive information from the superficial dorsal horn where C‐fibres terminate, to downstream wide dynamic range nociceptive neurons. Using in vivo electrophysiological recordings, we show that at the end of this pathway, windup was reduced (24 ± 6%, n = 7) by the NMDA receptor antagonist AP‐5 (2.0 fmol) and enhanced (62 ± 19%, n = 12) by NMDA (1 nmol). In contrast, microinjections of AP‐5 (1.0 fmol) within the superficial laminae increased windup (83 ± 44%, n = 9), whereas NMDA dose dependently decreased windup (n = 19). These results indicate that NMDA receptor function at the segmental level depends on their precise location in nociceptive neural networks. While some NMDA receptors actually amplify pain information, the new evidence for NMDA dependent inhibition of windup we show here indicates that, simultaneously, others act in the opposite direction. Working together, the two mechanisms may provide a fine tuning of gain in pain.
Does Corporate Governance Matter in Competitive Industries?

By reducing the threat of a hostile takeover, business combination (BC) laws weaken corporate governance and increase the opportunity for managerial slack. Consistent with the notion that competition mitigates managerial slack, we find that while firms in non-competitive industries experience a significant drop in operating performance after the laws' passage, firms in competitive industries experience no significant effect. When we examine which agency problem competition mitigates, we find evidence in support of a "quiet-life" hypothesis. Input costs, wages, and overhead costs all increase after the laws' passage, and only so in non-competitive industries. Similarly, when we conduct event studies around the dates of the first newspaper reports about the BC laws, we find that while firms in non-competitive industries experience a significant stock price decline, firms in competitive industries experience a small and insignificant stock price impact.
Social Media Influence on Firms' Market Performance: Through the Lens of Experts' Opinion and Wisdom of the Crowd

Drawing on social influence theory, I examine the dynamics of social media impact in influencing firm market performance in the context of financial analyst recommendations. I show that consistency between multiple social influences as a process of frame alignment guides investor behavior. Through an event study, using social media data collected on Twitter consisting of S&P 500 firms from 2010 to 2015, I find that consistency between social media sentiment and analyst recommendations is significantly associated with firm market performance. In addition, a positivity bias of social media valance and social media sentiment polarity moderate consistency’s influence on firm market performance. I conclude by discussing the need for integrating consistency and positivity bias effects of social media into the evaluation of social media influence. This study demonstrates that combining analyst expert opinions and the wisdom of the crowd provides a more nuanced view of social media influence on firm market performance.
Impact of oral disease on quality of life in the US and Australian populations.

UNLABELLED The US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 2003-2004) evaluated oral health quality of life for the first time using a previously untested subset of seven Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) questions, i.e. the NHANES-OHIP. OBJECTIVES (i) To describe the impact of dental conditions on quality of life in the US adult population; (ii) to evaluate construct validity and adequacy of the NHANES-OHIP in NHANES 2003-2004 and a comparable Australian survey. METHODS In the cross-sectional NHANES 2003-2004 survey of a nationally representative sample of US adults (n=4907), prevalence was quantified as the proportion of adults who reported experiencing one or more impacts fairly often or very often within the past year. Construct validity was tested by comparing prevalence estimates across categories of sociodemographic, dental health and utilization characteristics known to vary in oral health. In 2002, Australian cross-sectional survey of a nationally representative sample of adults (n=2644), adequacy of the NHANES-OHIP questions were tested with reference to a slightly modified version of the OHIP-14 questions. RESULTS NHANES-OHIP prevalence estimates were markedly similar in the United States (15.3%) and Australia (15.7%). In the US construct, validity was evidenced by higher NHANES-OHIP scores among groups with greater levels of tooth loss, perceived treatment need and problem-oriented visiting and with lack of private dental insurance and low income. In Australia, prevalence for the NHANES-OHIP closely resembled prevalence estimates of the modified OHIP-14. Both varied to a similar degree across levels of tooth loss, perceived treatment need, problem-oriented visiting, and private dental insurance and income, demonstrating adequacy of the NHANES-OHIP as a brief independent instrument. CONCLUSIONS There was acceptable construct validity and adequacy of the NHANES-OHIP questionnaire. In the United States, the impact of oral disease disproportionately affected disadvantaged groups, a finding that supports application of the US Healthy People 2010 major goals of improved quality of life and reduced health disparities.
An analysis of the credit union's use of Craig's commitment building measures

Within an increasingly competitive financial services market, huge resources are pumped into the creation and maintenance of customer loyalty. Within a member-owned co-operative such as a credit union, member loyalty is of even greater importance because it is reliant on its members for its continued existence. This paper focuses on commitment which is the process whereby the end product of loyalty is created. Various writers have labelled three different types of commitment: utilitarian which is based on a rational calculation of costs and benefits; affective meaning an emotional attachment to the organisation; and finally ideological which revolves around attachment to an ideal or vision which transcends the organisation. A co-operative should attempt to build all three types of commitment. This study examines four Irish credit unions in terms of their use of these commitment building measures. It was found that the measures used by Irish credit unions build utilitarian commitment more so than affective or ideological commitment. vulnerability and maintain its ethos, it needs more than utilitarian commitment from its members4. • Affective commitment can be defined as, “an emotional attachment to an organisation”5. Compared with utilitarian commitment, which is based on a “cold calculation of cost and benefits”, affective commitment implies the possibility of an “emotional bond”6, which may involve feelings of loyalty, affection, warmth, belongingness, fondness, happiness, pleasure and so on7. Such an emotional bond between the member and their co-operative is highly desirable as they will be more inclined to support it themselves and also encourage others to use the co-operative. • Ideological commitment is based on a cause or vision which is beyond either the group or individuals in it. Ideological commitment is usually referred to in the literature as moral8 or normative commitment9 or as moral obligation10. Ideological commitment can be defined as a “psychological attachment to an organisation through internalisation of its goals and values”11. This form of commitment differs from affective commitment in that it involves a moral responsibility to the organisation or a sense of duty but not necessarily an emotional attachment. It differs from utilitarian commitment in that it does not necessarily fluctuate with personal calculation of price and benefits. Ideological commitment is the most difficult kind of commitment to build but is persistent and creates lasting loyalty12. As co-operatives are founded out of a distinct ideology, their continued success
An Analysis of the Relationship Between Job Satisfaction and Employee Engagement

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between employee engagement and job satisfaction. People spend most of their time at work, and their motivation is considered to be an important factor for job performance. Enthusiastic employees, who focus their efforts on achieving their companies′ goals are a key competitive advantage in the modern world. The effect of employee engagement on business performance has been studied by various experts. They found out the similar conclusion: “the more enthusiastic the workers are, the better operating results they achieve for the company”. An occasional sample of 594 respondents who are employed in the public and non-public sector in Slovenia was used for the purpose of this study. The main goal of the research is to determine whether (and how) the employee engagement influences job satisfaction. A written survey was conducted from 4 January 2016 to 14 March 2016. IBM SPSS 20 was used for the statistical analysis. The results confirm that the relationship between employee engagement and job satisfaction is positive and statistically significant (5 % significance level), based on the linear regression F (1, 583) =296.14, p-value = 0.000, R-square = 0.337. The results also show that there is no statistically significant difference between employee engagement and gender and there is no statistically significant difference between job satisfaction and gender.
Resource Use Efficiency and Constraints in Farming in the Tank Commands : the Case of North Eastern Karnataka

The study was conducted in three districts namely Bidar, Bellary and Raichur of north-eastern Karnataka in the selected tank commands rejuvenated by JalaSamvardhaneYojanaSangha, Government of Karnataka with an objective of studying the resource use efficiency and to identify the constraints faced by farmers in farming activities. Multi-stage proportionate random sampling is adopted in selecting the respondents. Majority of the farmers in the study area were practising only animal husbandry as subsidiary enterprise, field crops were the major enterprises. Results revealed that the inputs like feeds + concentrates were over-utilised and number of cows and seeds were under-utilised in Bidar district. The resources like land, number of cows, fertiliser + FYM were over-utilised and labour, PPC + veterinary charges were under-utilised in Bellary districts. In Raichur, fertiliser + FYM and labour were under-utilised. Results indicate the scope for reorganisation of resources to optimise their use to enhance returns. In all the districts, the use of resources that are showing negative production elasticity should be decreased to achieve the optimality in the resource use and the use of resources showing more than one elasticity should be encouraged to enhance the profitability condition. There are several problems associated which are grouped under two heads namely production constraints and marketing constraints. For safeguarding the farmers' interest to enhance farm efficiency, arrangements should be made to avail timely and adequately the credit and storage, inputs and market information.
Management of Risk in Supply Chains: SCOR Approach and Analytic Network Process

Today’s uncertain business environment requires supply chain managers to assess the degree of risk across the whole gamut of activities in a supply chain and develop suitable strategies to mitigate them. The purpose of this paper is to select the best alternative to diminish risk in supply chains. Integrating the analytic network process (ANP) approach and supply chain operations reference model (SCOR), this study models supply chain risks. As an illustration, the new approach has been applied to a medium-sized enterprise supply chain. The proposed model will aid supply chain managers to consider simultaneously different types of risks, their interdependence, and the feedback used to select the best alternative to manage risk in supply chains. Application of SCOR in the development of an ANP-based framework for risk mitigation in supply chains enables us to account for indirect relationships and the complex interactions existing among the supply chain risk variables.
Opposite effects of Zn on the in vitro binding of [3H]LY354740 to recombinant and native metabotropic glutamate 2 and 3 receptors

We investigated the effect of Zn on agonist binding to both recombinant and native mGlu2 and mGlu3 receptors. Zn had a biphasic inhibitory effect on recombinant mGlu2 with IC50 values for the high‐ and low‐affinity components of 60 ± 10 µm and 2 ± 0.7 mm, respectively. Zn induced a complex biphasic effect of inhibition and enhancement of [3H]LY354740 binding to mGlu3. Observations with a series of chimeric mGlu2/3 receptors suggest that the Zn effect resides in the N‐terminal domain of mGlu2 and mGlu3. We observed that the His56 of mGlu2, which corresponds to Asp63 in mGlu3 was largely accountable for the second phase of the Zn effect. As revealed by quantitative receptor radioautography, the addition of up to 100 µm Zn to brain sections of wild‐type mice resulted in significant decreases in binding density in most brain regions. In particular, the mid‐molecular layer of the dentate gyrus (DGmol) and the CA1 lacunosum moleculare of hippocampus (CA1‐LMol) showed reductions of 62 and 67%, respectively. In contrast, the addition of 300 µm Zn to brain sections of mGlu2–/– mice caused large increases in binding density of 289 and 242% in DGmol and CA1‐LMol, respectively. Therefore, Zn might play a role as a physiological modulator of group II mGlu receptor function.
Perceptions of ESL Program Management in Canadian Higher Education: A Qualitative Case Study

ESL programs at post-secondary institutions must often generate revenue in addition to teaching students English. Institutions often impose explicit expectations on these programs to generate profit, creating unique challenges for those who administer them. This qualitative case study investigated challenges faced by ESL program directors at one university in Canada. Semistructured interviews were used to collect data from program directors ( N = 3) on topics relating to administration, marketing, the mandate to generate revenue, and the complexities of ESL program legitimacy and marginalization in higher education contexts. Five key themes emerged from the data: (a) the necessity for directors to be highly qualified and multilingual, as well as have international experience; (b) a general lack of training, support, and resources for program directors; (c) institutional barriers such as working with marketers and recruiters with little knowledge of ESL contexts; (d) program fragmentation and marginalization on campus; and (e) reluctance to share information and program protectionism. Findings point to the need for increased training and support for ESL program directors, along with the need for institutions to elevate the profile of these programs so they are not viewed as having less value than other academic programs on campus. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.16. 9.2
Peran Social Support Terhadap Relationship Quality Dan Social Commerce Intention

In the era of social commerce, individuals share their knowledge,experience, and information about products and services with people in theirneighborhood or close friends. Formed on the basis of social support theory,relationship quality, and social media concepts, this study proposes a model thataims to investigate or analyze more deeply about the role of social factors thatinfluence relationship quality with its three dimensions (commitment, trust andsatisfaction), as well as social commerce intention. Surveys were conducted usingonline-survey platforms and questionnaires distributed on which are the mostpopular social networking sites in Indonesia (APJII, 2016), and the PLS-SEMmethod was used to prove empirically the proposed model. The results of thisstudy related to social factors that give a significant influence on relationshipquality and social commerce intention. This study highlights the changingbehavior of consumers in the era of social commerce. It also contributespositively to the development of theory in the context of social commerce.Practically, the results of this study indicate that technology changes in the ecommerceis a new opportunity and challenge for practitioners to be able toadjust and take advantage of these opportunities.
Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Leptospirosis in Catbalogan City, Samar, Philippines

Leptospirosis is a global bacterial infection that can kill millions of people through contact of mucous membranes or broken skin with water moist soil contaminated with the urine of infected animals. This study determines Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Leptospirosis among barangay residents, health workers, and barangay officials in Catbalogan, City Samar. The study employed the analytical research design, analysis as to any differences in the level of knowledge and extent of practice of prevention and control strategies were made with the use of T-test. There were 187 respondents of the study which included the health workers, barangay officials, and selected residents of six barangays in Catbalogan City. Findings revealed that information dissemination through mass media (TV) is the number one preventive and control strategy to avoid leptospirosis and this could be one of the information that they could share to members of the family and friends. The common prevention and control strategies practiced by the three groups of respondents were to maintain cleanliness on the surrounding and to keep good hygiene. The health workers and barangay officials “frequently practiced” them while the barangay residents “always practiced” them. The Barangay health workers in the RHU and local government unit must have proper information dissemination regarding Leptospirosis, it emphasized environmental sanitation, teaching about the proper safety precautions and develops the interest of the respondents. Moreover, another study is conducted in other city/municipality to ascertain the level of awareness and knowledge of the community residents, thereby validating the findings of this study.
Dynamic interaction between breast cancer cells and osteoblastic tissue: Comparison of Two‐ and Three‐dimensional cultures

Breast cancer cell colonization of osteoblast monolayers grown in standard tissue culture (2D) is compared to colonization of a multi‐cell‐layer osteoblastic tissue (3D) grown in a specialized bioreactor. Colonization of 3D tissue recapitulates events observed in clinical samples including cancer penetration of tissue, growth of microcolonies, and formation of “Single cell file” commonly observed in end‐stage pathological bone tissue. By contrast, adherent cancer cell colonies did not penetrate 2D tissue and did not form cell files. Thus, it appears that 3D tissue is a more biologically (clinically) relevant model than 2D monolayers in which to study cancer cell interactions with osteoblastic tissue. This direct comparison of 2D and 3D formats is implemented using MC3T3‐E1 murine osteoblasts and MDA‐MB‐231 human metastatic breast cancer cells, or the metastasis‐suppressed line, MDA‐MB‐231BRMS1, for comparison. When osteoblasts were co‐cultured with metastatic cells, production of osteocalcin (a mineralization marker) decreased and secretion of the pro‐inflammatory cytokine IL‐6 increased in both 2D and 3D formats. Cancer cell penetration of the 3D tissue coincided with a changed osteoblast morphology from cuboidal to spindle‐shaped, and with osteoblasts alignment parallel to the cancer cells. Metastasis‐suppressed cells did not penetrate 3D tissue, did not cause a change in osteoblast morphology or align in rows. Moreover, they proliferated much less in the 3D culture than in the 2D culture in a manner similar to their growth in bone. In both systems, the cancer cells proliferated to a greater extent with immature osteoblasts compared to more mature osteoblasts. J. Cell. Physiol. 226: 2150–2158, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Expertise Rents from Insider Trading for Financial Experts on Audit Committees

Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) Section 407 requires firms to disclose if there is a financial expert serving on their audit committees. The extant literature has largely documented SOX 407 benefits, ranging from controlling earning management to reducing internal control weaknesses. Our paper investigates whether there is a cost associated with SOX 407. Using a sample of executive and director transactions from 2003 to 2007, we test whether financial experts obtain information rents or expertise rents on stock purchases. Information rent is earned due to access to superior information, whereas expertise rent is earned due to superior processing skill of the same information. We first find that audit committee members obtain significantly higher abnormal returns than other independent board members. This suggests that audit committee members, including both financial and non-financial experts, earn information rent due to their access to privileged information in audit committees. We then find that financial experts on audit committees obtain higher abnormal returns than non-financial experts on audit committees. Because financial experts and non-financial experts have access to the same information in audit committees, our finding suggests that audit committee financial experts earn additional rents due to their financial expertise. The existence of such expertise rents indicates that there is a cost associated with SOX 407.
American Call Options for Power System Balancing

We study the problem of offering American call options on electricity with immediate physical delivery for real-time balancing of a power system. This involves timing the purchase of electricity to physically cover the contract and valuing the call option itself. The real-time price is assumed to be the composition of a price stack function with a stochastic process modelling physical imbalance in an electrical power system. We apply methods of optimal stopping and obtain explicit solutions for the stopping regions and value functions. As a result we are able to characterise when such options are sustainable for the market and to provide optimal operational strategies for the option writer.
Mushroom Production for Self Employment – An Impact Study

India is primarily an agriculturebased country. The diversity in soil and climatic conditions allows a production of variety of crops in different parts of the country. This provides vast potential for the cultivation of mushrooms due to ample availability of raw materials and conducive climatic conditions. In a country, like India where vegetarians dominate, every attempt should be made to popularise a vegetable protein source like mushroom (Nita bahal, 1998). FAO has recommended mushrooms as a food item contributing to protein nutrition of the developing countries. Hence, there is a demand for technology at grass root level to enable people to break away from the poverty trap and to acquire a sense of livelihood. Extension and training have a generally been considered the outlet for an exchange of concepts with in a community. Therefore, trainings have been widely accepted strategy with high returns on investment.