Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of multilateral institutions

In line with its mission of alleviating poverty through support for environmentally and socially sustainable economic development, The World Bank (along with some other multilateral development banks) is working to help developing countries capture a share of the emerging global market in greenhouse–gas–emissions reductions (‘carbon trading’). Under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Joint Implementation instrument and the Clean Development Mechanism now provide an opening for substantial international resource transfers and potential for supporting sustainable development through the transfer of cleaner technologies or sustainable forestry and agro–forestry practices. For example, carbon sequestration represents a non–extractive non–consumptive sustainable use of living natural resources that can be incorporated within a multiple–use ‘integrated ecosystem management’ approach. The World Bank initiated the Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF) in April 2000, to help spur the development of a global carbon market and to ‘learn by doing’ how to use carbon–purchase transactions across a range of energy–sector technologies (and some forestry applications) to achieve environmentally credible and cost–effective emissions reductions that benefit developing countries and economies in transition. Building on the success of the PCF ($145 million raised from public and private–sector investors), The World Bank expects to launch two new funds in 2002: the Biocarbon Fund and the Community Development Carbon Fund. These funds will target synergies between carbon markets and objectives such as biodiversity conservation, combating desertification and small–scale community–driven development. Experience from the PCF shows that developing countries can have a comparative advantage in supplying this global market, as emissions reductions can be achieved in developing countries in the range of $3–$5 per ton of CO2 equivalent, compared with a marginal abatement cost of $10–$15 per ton of CO2 equivalent in most countries within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. However, realizing this economic potential over the next decade, and targeting the market to the rural poor, will require substantial assistance with project development and government legal and institutional capacity building. Specific needs include raising awareness of the potential of carbon markets at all levels (particularly in energy and land–use sectors), clarifying property rights, particularly in the case of communally held land and resources, ensuring the existence of an attractive investment climate, eliminating policies that create perverse incentives and constraints, and mitigating logistical, political and ‘reputational’ risks that could deter private–sector investors. It will also be necessary to find ways to reconcile the short–term needs of the rural poor and the typically long–term revenue stream associated with carbon sequestration.
The effect of copper on the uptake and translocation of spirotetramat insecticide on kiwifruit

Spirotetramat (Movento®) is a systemic insecticide that is used to control scale insects on kiwifruit. The use of protectant copper sprays on kiwifruit has become increasingly common due to the bacterial disease Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae. This study investigated the interaction of copper with spirotetramat and how it influenced the uptake and translocation of spirotetramat within the plant. Movento® 100SC sprays should not be tank- mixed with copper sprays because the uptake and translocation of spirotetramat is likely to be compromised. These negative effects were minimised when an organosilicone/organic fluid blend adjuvant (Du-Wett®) was included in the tank mix. Pre-and post spray applications of copper, at least 1 week either side of spirotetramat applications, are unlikely to significantly affect the uptake and translocation of spirotetramat, and thus have any effect on its activity. There were no marked differences between two commercial copper formulations, in their effects on spirotetramat uptake but minor differences in translocation were observed.
Tanning as a Behavioral Addiction

Background: Persistent tanning despite potentially fatal consequences suggests a compulsive behavior similar to other addictive disorders. Objectives: To review the literature supporting tanning addiction from an epidemiological, behavioral, and neurobiological perspective. Methods: A comprehensive review of the medical literature was conducted to assess the health consequences of tanning, behaviors and other psychiatric disorders associated with tanning, and central rewarding effects of ultraviolet light. Results: Many frequent tanners endorse signs and symptoms adapted from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV (DSM IV) substance abuse or dependence criteria. Recent studies suggest biochemical mechanisms may reinforce ultraviolet light seeking behavior. Conclusions and Scientific Significance: Frequent and persistent tanning may reveal itself to be a dermatologic-psychiatric disorder with carcinogenic sequelae. Multidisciplinary studies are required to determine the validity of an addiction diagnosis and to explore pharmacologic and cognitive therapeutic options for affected persons.
Both Extremes of Arterial Carbon Dioxide Pressure and the Magnitude of Fluctuations in Arterial Carbon Dioxide Pressure Are Associated With Severe Intraventricular Hemorrhage in Preterm Infants

OBJECTIVE. The goal was to test the hypothesis that extremes of Paco2 during the first 4 days after birth are associated with severe intraventricular hemorrhage (grades 3 and 4). METHODS. A single-center retrospective review of clinical and blood gas data in the first 4 postnatal days for 849 infants with birth weights of 401 to 1250 g was performed. The univariate and multivariate relationships of severe intraventricular hemorrhage with maximal and minimal Paco2, Paco2 averaged over time (time-weighted Paco2), and measures of Paco2 fluctuation (SD of Paco2 and difference in Paco2 [maximum minus minimum]) were assessed. RESULTS. Birth weight (mean ± SD) was 848 ± 212 g, and the median gestational age was 26 weeks. Infants with severe intraventricular hemorrhage had higher maximal Paco2 (median: 72 vs 59 mm Hg) and time-weighted Paco2 (mean: 49 vs 47 mm Hg) values but lower minimal Paco2 values (32 vs 37 mm Hg). High Paco2, low Paco2, SD of Paco2, and difference in Paco2 predicted severe intraventricular hemorrhage, but time-weighted average Paco2 was not as predictive. CONCLUSIONS. Both extremes and fluctuations of Paco2 are associated with severe intraventricular hemorrhage. It may be prudent to avoid extreme hypocapnia and hypercapnia during the period of risk for intraventricular hemorrhage.
Bilateral parieto‐frontal network for verbal working memory: an interference approach using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)

Verbal working memory has been attributed to a left‐dominant neuronal network, including parietal, temporal and prefrontal cortical areas. The current study was designed to evaluate the contribution of these brain regions to verbal working memory processes and to assess possible hemispheric asymmetry. The effect of repetitive transcranial stimulation (rTMS) on performance in a verbal working memory task both during, and after an rTMS train (110% of individual motor threshold, 4 Hz) over nine different scalp locations was studied [bilateral middle frontal gyrus (MFG), bilateral supramarginal gyrus (SMG), bilateral inferior parietal cortex (IP) and three different midline control sites]. Significant performance deterioration was observed during rTMS over the left and right MFG and left and right IP. There was no consistent interference effect across subjects over the left or right SMG and the three different midline control sites. The interference effect with the given stimulation parameters did not last beyond the rTMS train itself. The data provide evidence for a symmetrical, bilateral parieto‐frontal verbal working memory network. The data are discussed with respect to the competing ideas of a parieto‐frontal central executive network vs. a network that processes the inherent semantic and object features of the visually presented verbal stimuli in parallel.
Dupilumab for the treatment of asthma

ABSTRACT Introduction: Dupilumab (REGN668/SAR231893), produced by a collaboration between Regeneron and Sanofi, is a monoclonal antibody currently in phase III for moderate-to-severe asthma. Dupilumab is directed against the α-subunit of the interleukin (IL)-4 receptor and blocks the IL-4 and IL-13 signal transduction. Areas covered: Pathophysiological role of IL-4 and IL-13 in asthma; mechanism of action of dupilumab; pharmacology of IL-4 receptor; phase I and phase II studies with dupilumab; regulatory affairs. Expert opinion: Patients with severe asthma who are not sufficiently controlled with standard-of-care represent the target asthma population for dupilumab. If confirmed, efficacy of dupilumab in both eosinophilic and non-eosinophilic severe asthma phenotype might represent an advantage over approved biologics for asthma, including omalizumab, mepolizumab, and reslizumab. Head-to-head studies to compare dupilumab versus other biologics with different mechanism of action are required. Pediatric studies with dupilumab are currently lacking and should be undertaken to assess efficacy and safety of this drug in children with severe asthma. The lack of preclinical data and published results of the completed four phase I studies precludes a complete assessment of the pharmacological profile of dupilumab. Dupilumab seems to be generally well tolerated, but large studies are required to establish its long-term safety and tolerability.
Big Five Personality, Academic Entrepreneurial Motivation, and Academic Entrepreneurial Intention: A Research Method Based on Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Scholars are the main force behind academic entrepreneurship. The method of how to stimulate scholars’ academic entrepreneurial intention and how to further promote social and economic development are important questions for the academic community. Research on the “net effect” of the factors affecting academic entrepreneurial intention has achieved some theoretical results. However, the results that affect academic entrepreneurial intention are complex and not influenced by a single factor, but rather by the interaction between various factors. Therefore, this study used a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis research method to explore how various factors can affect scholars’ academic entrepreneurial intention from two dimensions: the Big Five personality traits and academic entrepreneurial motivation. Our findings showed two configurations that affect high academic entrepreneurial intention of university scholars: the openness to experience—ribbon—dominant path, and the ribbon—dominant path. Additionally, two configurations were revealed for the formation of not-high academic entrepreneurial intention: extraversion—conscientiousness—inhibition and extraversion—agreeableness—gold—hindrance paths. Moreover, this study revealed that a causal asymmetry exists between the high and the not-high academic entrepreneurial intention configurations. This study broadens the application of the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method in the research of academic entrepreneurial intention and provides theoretical and practical insights for researchers and practitioners on how to effectively stimulate scholars’ academic entrepreneurial intention.
Epidemiological observations on sarcoids in a population of donkeys (Equus asinus)

An epidemiological study of equine sarcoid in a population of 4126 donkeys showed that the peak incidence of the disease was 15.2 cases per 100 animal-years and occurred in animals in their fourth year of life. The crude incidence of the disease was 0.6 cases per 100 animal-years. The disease occurred most frequently in younger, male animals during their first five years in the population. The lesions were observed most commonly in the paragenital region. Pre-entry quarantine procedures did not appear to play a significant role in the spread of the disease but there was an indication that close in-contact animals were more likely to have sarcoids than animals in the general population. This suggested that a transmissible agent might have been involved in the aetiopathogenesis or that the animals had encountered some event that had predisposed them to the disease.
Maternal acculturation and childhood immunization levels among children in Latino families in Los Angeles.

OBJECTIVES This study examined the relationship between acculturation levels of poor Latina women in Los Angeles and their children's immunization status. Receipt of three doses of diphtheriatetanus-pertussis vaccine and two doses of oral polio vaccine by the age of 12 months was considered adequate immunization. METHODS Household interviews were conducted in East Los Angeles and South Central Los Angeles with mothers (n = 688) about one randomly selected child aged 12 to 36 months. RESULTS One fourth of the children were inadequately immunized. Less-acculturated mothers were more likely to have adequately immunized children. Inadequate prenatal care, absence of close family members, the child's birth position as other than firstborn, and more than one family relocation during the child's lifetime were associated with inadequate immunization. CONCLUSIONS The findings challenge the notion that children of recent immigrants bear a higher risk of underimmunization.
Are self-efficacy beliefs and subjective task demand related to apathy in aging?

Objective: Apathy, defined as a reduction in voluntary goal-directed behaviors (GDBs), is common in aging, but the processes underlying apathy are still unclear. Self-efficacy beliefs are likely to play a key role in GDBs, by influencing goal setting, perceived difficulty, and the necessary amount of effort to achieve goals. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between apathy and perceived self-efficacy.Method: Sixty-three healthy elderly participants worked on a memory task without fixed performance standard (‘do your best’) and indicated perceived difficulty and effort investment after performing the task. They also completed two short scales assessing general self-efficacy and negative mood. In addition, a close relative of each participant completed the Initiative Interest Scale, a new questionnaire assessing apathetic manifestations in aging.Results: The main results showed that subjective task demand (i.e., perceived difficulty and estimated effort) operated as a mediator between self-efficacy beliefs and apathy. These results suggest that elderly people with low self-efficacy beliefs who face a challenge judge the task to be highly difficult and effort demanding, which might result in GDB reduction.Conclusion: These results shed new light on the processes related to apathy in aging and open up an interesting prospect for psychological interventions.
Prosodic manifestations of the Effort Code in Catalan, Italian and Spanish contrastive focus

This paper investigates the relevance of three prosodic parameters (alignment, duration and scaling) in the conveyance of contrastive focus in Catalan, Italian and Spanish. In particular, we seek to determine how the Effort Code is instantiated in the expression of contrastive focus in both production and perception. According to the Effort Code, putting more effort into speech production will lead to greater articulatory precision (de Jong 1995, Gussenhoven 2004) and this is related to the expression of focus in the sense that wider pitch excursions will be used to signal meanings that are relevant from an informational point of view. A dual production and perception experiment based on an identification task was conducted. Results for the production part show that contrastive focus accents have earlier peaks for all three languages but f0 peaks are systematically lower only in Italian. Syllables bearing the contrastive focus accents are also longer in the three languages. Regarding the results for the perception part, converging evidence is found not only for an active perceptual use of the three prosodic parameters present in production but also for language-specific preferences for particular prosodic parameters.
IL-6 and type 1 diabetes mellitus: T cell responses and increase in IL-6 receptor surface expression.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) is an autoimmune disease characterized by beta cell destruction (1), associated with cellular infiltration and inflammatory responses in the islets of Langerhans (2). The cellular components of this infiltrate include monocytes, macrophages, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells (3), and the balance between Th1 and Th2 cells is crucial in the pathogenesis of this disease (4).
Quantifying Operational Synergies in a Merger/Acquisition

Merger and acquisition activity has increased sharply in the last decade. It seems useful to have models that can help senior managers of bidder firms make informed decisions about the amount of premium, over the target's share prices prevailing prior to merger announcement, that can be justified on the basis ofoperational synergies. The goal of this article is to capture important parameters from the production side that have a bearing on the valuation of the target's shares. We show that the production characteristics of both the bidder and the target matter in a significant way. For example, if the bidder and target operate in independent markets, the bidder has flexible production facilities but the target's production facilities are inflexible, then an increase in the bidder's demand can make the target less attractive and lower the value of operational synergy.
Current licensing authority standards for peripheral visual field and safe on‐road senior aged automobile driving performance

Background: The current licensing authority's (Austroads) visual field standards are met when a person demonstrates an intact visual field extending horizontally at least 120 degrees within 10 degrees above and below the horizontal midline. A person cannot be licensed unconditionally if they have a hemianopia, quadrantanopia or any significant visual field loss (scotoma) that is likely to impede driving performance. Despite fairly rigorous implementation of these vision standards by licensing authorities, there is little scientific evidence available to demonstrate that a driver will or will not be safe on road depending on the extent of their visual field.
HLA-Class II Alleles in Egyptian Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is linked to environmental, dietary, and life style factors. Its incidence and distribution vary widely among ethnic groups, sex, and geographic regions. HBV and HCV Infection, liver cirrhosis, male gender, and old age are important risk factors of HCC. Variability in outcome following exposure, and the clustering of HCC within families raise the possibility that genetic factors are also involved in susceptibility to HCC. The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) plays a key role in anti-virus and tumor defense. HLA polymorphism is implicated in conferring genetic susceptibility to a large number of immune-mediated diseases, including some cancers. The association between HLA class II antigen and HCC in different ethnic populations that has been reported is controversial. Therefore, the aim of this work was to study the association between HLA class II-DRB1 and DQB1 polymorphism and HCC in Egyptian patients and to investigate their role as risk factors for the development of HCC. Methods: HLA-class II (DRB1 and DQB1) typing was done by SSP for 100 subjects; 50 patients suffering from HCC (45 males and 5 females) with age range 40–64 years (51.16 years (y) ± 6.16); and 50 normal healthy control subjects. Results: 1. A significantly increased frequency of DRB1*04, and DQB1 *02 in HCC patients versus control group (p = 0.016, and 0.032, respectively) was found; 2. A significantly decreased frequency of DQB1*06 (p = 0.032) was found; 3. A significantly increased frequency of DRB1*07 (odds ratio (OR) = 4.929) was found; and 4. A significantly decreased frequency of DRB1*15 (OR = 0.316) was seen. In conclusion, while some alleles are significantly associated with HCC (DRB1*04, DQB1*02) and others are not associated (DQB1*06); therefore, it can be concluded that the DRB1*04 and DQB1*02 alleles might be risk factors for the occurrence of HCC (OR = 4.373 and 3.807, respectively), and DQB1*06 may be a protective allele (OR = 0.259).
Type 1 Interferons Potentiate Human CD8+ T-Cell Cytotoxicity Through a STAT4- and Granzyme B–Dependent Pathway

Events defining the progression to human type 1 diabetes (T1D) have remained elusive owing to the complex interaction between genetics, the immune system, and the environment. Type 1 interferons (T1-IFN) are known to be a constituent of the autoinflammatory milieu within the pancreas of patients with T1D. However, the capacity of IFNα/β to modulate human activated autoreactive CD8+ T-cell (cytotoxic T lymphocyte) responses within the islets of patients with T1D has not been investigated. Here, we engineer human β-cell–specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes and demonstrate that T1-IFN augments cytotoxicity by inducing rapid phosphorylation of STAT4, resulting in direct binding at the granzyme B promoter within 2 h of exposure. The current findings provide novel insights concerning the regulation of effector function by T1-IFN in human antigen-experienced CD8+ T cells and provide a mechanism by which the presence of T1-IFN potentiates diabetogenicity within the autoimmune islet.
The lung alveolar lipofibroblast: an evolutionary strategy against neonatal hyperoxic lung injury.

SIGNIFICANCE Oxygen, the main mode of support for premature infants with immature lungs, can cause toxicity by producing reactive oxygen species (ROS) that disrupt homeostasis; yet, these same molecules were entrained to promote vertebrate lung phylogeny. By providing a deeper understanding of this paradox, we propose physiologically rational strategies to prevent chronic lung disease (CLD) of prematurity. RECENT ADVANCES To prevent neonatal hyperoxic lung damage biologically, we have exploited the alveolar defense mechanism(s) that evolutionarily evolved to combat increased atmospheric oxygen during the vertebrate water to land transition. CRITICAL ISSUES Over the course of vertebrate lung evolution, ROS promoted the formation of lipofibroblasts, specialized adepithelial cells, which protect the alveoli against oxidant injury; peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), the master switch for lipofibroblast differentiation, prevents such oxidant lung injury, both by directly promoting mesodermal differentiation and its antioxidant defenses, and indirectly by stimulating the developmental epithelial-mesenchymal paracrine interactions that have physiologically determined lung surfactant production in accord with the lung's phylogenetic adaptation to atmospheric oxygen, preventing Respiratory Distress Syndrome at birth. FUTURE DIRECTIONS The molecular strategy (PPARγ agonists) to prevent CLD of prematurity, proposed by us, although seems to be robust, effective, and safe under experimental conditions, it awaits detailed pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies for its safe and effective clinical translation to human infants. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 21, 1893-1904. "I have procured air [oxygen]…between five and six times as good as the best common air that I have ever met with. " -Joseph Priestley, 1775.