Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EU Membership and FDI: Is There an Endogenous Credibility Effect?

ABSTRACT The European sovereign debt crisis has increased the uncertainty regarding the benefits and costs of membership in the Economic and Monetary Union. In this article, we decided not to propose a general model but to focus on one of the important components of the European financial integration. In particular, we develop a structural gravity model, influenced by some very recent theoretical and econometric advancements. This new structural gravity approach provides needed theoretical underpinnings as well as strong support for the econometric estimation of gravity models.
Enhancement of the stability of a distribution system through synchronous PV

Distributed renewable energy sources progressively gain importance in power systems, with which new challenges, but also new opportunities, arise. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the interaction between this type of generators and the grid, and to study adequate control methods that allow small generating units to operate harmoniously within power systems and contribute to their control, stability, and reliability. In this paper, the stability of a distribution system with several renewable energy generators is studied, focusing on its ability to maintain power supply during a transmission blackout. The response of the distribution system after a sudden disconnection from the main network is simulated and analyzed, comparing the results obtained using a conventional control for the renewable generators with those of controllers that enable a synchronous interaction between these generators and the power system.
Alterations of CXCR4 function in μ‐opioid receptor‐deficient glia

The chemokine receptor CXCR4 and the μ‐opioid receptor (MOR) are G‐protein‐coupled receptors that are essential for normal function of the nervous and immune systems. Several studies have suggested that MOR is a key regulator of CXCR4 in the brain; however, the molecular basis of the opioid–chemokine interaction is not fully understood, and it may involve different mechanisms in neuronal and glial cells. Our previous studies demonstrated that MOR stimulation specifically upregulates the protein ferritin heavy chain – an inhibitor of CXCR4 – in neurons, and suggested that additional mechanisms could be operative in glia. In this study, we investigated CXCR4 function in brains and astroglial cultures deprived of MOR. Reduced coupling of CXCR4 to G‐proteins was found in brain slices and tissue homogenates of MOR−/− mice as compared with wild‐type controls. CXCR4‐induced signaling was also reduced in glial cultures from MOR−/− mice, as shown by analysis of CXCR4 downstream targets (Akt and ERK1/2). Pharmacological studies with δ‐opioid receptor (DOR)‐specific ligands suggested that DOR–CXCR4 interactions are implicated in the inhibition of CXCR4 in MOR‐deficient cells both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, increased CXCR4/DOR co‐immunoprecipitation was found in brain tissue and cultured glia from MOR−/− mice. Importantly, CXCR4 function was restored by pretreatment with a DOR antagonist. Overall, these findings indicate that DOR plays a crucial role in the regulation of CXCR4 in glia, probably via silent receptor heterodimers. The data also suggest that the opiate system interferes with normal CXCR4 function in different ways, depending on receptor subtypes.
Significance of urinary liver-fatty acid-binding protein in cardiac catheterization in patients with coronary artery disease.

OBJECTIVES We investigated the significance of urinary liver fatty acid-binding protein (U-L-FABP) monitoring during cardiac catheterization in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methods The subjects included 27 consecutive patients with stable angina (SAP group) or acute coronary syndrome (ACS group) who had undergone successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and 12 patients were also enrolled as controls (C group). Urinary and serum parameters were measured immediately before and after and 1 day after PCI. RESULTS The ratio of U-L-FABP to U-creatinine (U-Cr) (U-L-FABP/U-Cr) in the ACS group was significantly higher than those in both the SAP and C groups before PCI. In addition, none of the patients in the SAP group showed contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) based on the levels of serum (S)-Cr and U-L-FABP/U-Cr after PCI. Although none of the patients in the ACS group showed CIN according to S-Cr, the level of U-L-FABP/U-Cr was continuously high throughout the study period. Moreover, since there were significant differences in U-L-FABP/U-Cr, U-N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase, S-uric acid and % medication with calcium channel blockers before PCI between the ACS and SAP groups, a multiple regression analysis was performed using these parameters. It showed that U-L-FABP/U-Cr was most closely associated with the classification of SAP and ACS (p<0.0001). The cut-off level for the greatest sensitivity and specificity for U-L-FABP for the diagnosis of ACS was 13.4 microg/g. Cr in all subjects (sensitivity 0.800, specificity 0.963). CONCLUSIONS To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report indicating that the measurement of U-L-FABP can be beneficial for in the diagnosis of ACS.
Health-related quality of life, optimism, and coping strategies in persons suffering from localized scleroderma

The clinical course of localized scleroderma may consist of bodily deformations, and bodily functions may also be affected. Additionally, the secondary lesions, such as discoloration, contractures, and atrophy, are unlikely to regress. The aforementioned symptoms and functional disturbances may decrease one’s quality of life (QoL). Although much has been mentioned in the medical literature regarding QoL in persons suffering from dermatologic diseases, no data specifically describing patients with localized scleroderma exist. The aim of the study was to explore QoL in localized scleroderma patients and to examine their coping strategies in regard to optimism and QoL. The study included 41 patients with localized scleroderma. QoL was evaluated using the SKINDEX questionnaire, and levels of dispositional optimism were assessed using the Life Orientation Test-Revised. In addition, individual coping strategy was determined using the Mini-MAC scale and physical condition was assessed using the Localized Scleroderma Severity Index. The mean QoL score amounted to 51.10 points, with mean scores for individual components as follows: symptoms = 13.49 points, emotions = 21.29 points, and functioning = 16.32 points. A relationship was detected between QoL and the level of dispositional optimism as well as with coping strategies known as anxious preoccupation and helplessness–hopelessness. Higher levels of optimism predicted a higher general QoL. In turn, greater intensity of anxious preoccupied and helpless–hopeless behaviors predicted a lower QoL. Based on these results, it may be stated that localized scleroderma patients have a relatively high QoL, which is accompanied by optimism as well as a lower frequency of behaviors typical of emotion-focused coping strategies.
Gender, participation and the right to health: health committees in Cape Town, South Africa

Community participation is now widely recognized as an integral part of health systems and the right to health. Health Committees are an example of participation, influenced by multiple social factors, yet little research has covered the impact of gendered power relations in health committees themselves. Committees are also deemed to be accountability structures, aiming to bolster the efforts of an overburdened health system and aid in responding to the need for often under-resourced services relating to women's and sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) minorities’ health and sexual reproductive health rights. Current literature affirms the social mobilisation of communities via participation structures, with all committee members needing to be empowered in their roles to provide a greater reach and platform for marginalised groups as both committee and community members. A qualitative, exploratory study was undertaken to answer the question: What is the role of gendered power relations in Health Committees in the Western Cape? Multiple methods were used during March to December 2015 that included observation of Health Committee meetings, group discussions and in-depth interviews. A Gender-based Analysis using African Feminist Theory was applied, with Connell’s 1987 theory of gender and power as well as considerations of community participation as a function of citizenship. Findings showed that the perception of gender equality and gender relations amongst Health Committees remains largely misunderstood and unaddressed. The Draft Western Cape Health Boards and Facilities Bill of 2015 provided an unstable political backdrop during fieldwork. Democratic group processes did not nullify manipulation of gender roles, and a disconnection between leadership positions and influential agents could be seen. This was accompanied by no notable gender bias concerning health need foci and a non-discriminatory outlook towards committee participants or service recipients, however there was no action to engender such claims, such as special training or materials to support sexual and gender minorities. Adequate representation and reinforcing accountability of Health Committees remains a challenge. Gender mainstreaming in inclusive policy needs to be operationalised at facility level, and gendersensitivity training for Health Committees is a viable approach with which to address the continuing poor policy to implementation problem. The Western Cape Health Boards and Facilities Act of 2016 shows some promise towards recognising and broadening committee governance and diversity. Women and SOGI minorities must be supported in leadership roles to strengthen scaling up efforts and enable the Health Committees to function as truly accountable and participatory instruments for public
Lymphscintigraphy in peripheral lymphedema using technetium-labelled human serum albumin: normal and abnormal patterns.

Lymphscintigraphy using Tc-99m human serum albumin (HSA) was examined in 23 patients with peripheral leg lymphedema. Each was injected intradermally with one mCi in the medial web space bilaterally. Images of the lower pelvis and both thighs were obtained within five minutes after injection using an extralarge field view camera GE 500A with low energy all purpose collimator interfaced with G.E. Star computer. These images were acquired in dynamic byte mode, 128 X 128 matrix size, every minute for 40 minutes. Delayed images for this region and of both legs were also taken at 90 minutes and time activity curves from comparable regions of interest over the inguinal area bilaterally were generated. Three patterns emerged: 1--normal lymph flow (12 patients) characterized by symmetrical or nearly symmetrical early appearance of lymphatics (medial bands) with visualization of inguinal and pelvic lymph nodes in both early and delayed images. Time activity curves showed step ladder rise, in "pulses" every three to four minutes. 2--enhanced lymph flow pattern (6 patients) was characterized by rapid movement of radiolabelled albumin through dilated lymphatics, occasionally with subcutaneous pooling, and both larger and more numerous inguinal and pelvic nodes on the lymphedematous side. 3--obstructed lymph flow (5 patients) was characterized by subcutaneous pooling, absent lymphatics, (medial bands) and flat, time activity curve on the lymphedematous side (only background activity) and absent inguinal and pelvic nodes. On delayed images, where lymphatic obstruction was incomplete there was delayed appearance of inguinal pelvic nodes which were fewer and smaller compared to the nonedematous side. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Managing Catastrophic Risk in Agriculture through Ex Ante Subsidized Insurance or Ex Post Disaster Aid

We consider a political economy in which government cares about risk-averse farmers’ loss of income but incurs political cost if it provides monetary support to farmers. Farmers’ expectations of government disaster aid and overconfidence (optimism bias) regarding their risk prevent farmers from purchasing full insurance under actuarially fair rates. Considering this conclusion, government prefers to subsidize farmers’ purchases of insurance ex ante rather than solely relying on disaster aid ex post. The resulting subsidy rate depends on the political environment, the degree of systemic risk, the distribution of farmers’ risk preferences, and the nature and distribution of farmers’ risk perceptions.
The Risk Profile of Infrastructure Investments: Challenging Conventional Wisdom

Even though infrastructure investments have gained increasing investor attention over the past decade, the empirical evidence on their risk characteristics is still limited. To fill this gap, we analyze the risk properties of a cross-sectional sample of more than 1,400 publicly listed firms worldwide across all infrastructure sectors. We find that infrastructure stocks on average exhibit significantly lower market risk than MSCI World equities, confirming their portfolio diversification benefits. Yet, as there are large variations within the infrastructure asset class, the low risk hypothesis cannot be maintained for all sectors. In contrast to the widespread belief that total corporate risk is lower for infrastructure firms, we show that across all sectors they exhibit a similar volatility to non-infrastructure firms. Hence, infrastructure is characterized by significant exposure to idiosyncratic risks despite the lower competition in infrastructure industries. This peculiar risk profile can be partly explained by construction risks, operating leverage, the exposure to regulatory changes, and the lack of product diversification. This finding highlights the need for diversified infrastructure portfolios, advanced risk management capabilities, and efficient mechanisms for sharing risk between the private and public sectors.
Epigenetic Pathways and Glioblastoma Treatment: Insights From Signaling Cascades

There is an urgent need to identify novel therapies for glioblastoma (GBM) as most therapies are ineffective. A first step in this process is to identify and validate targets for therapeutic intervention. Epigenetic modulators have emerged as attractive drug targets in several cancers including GBM. These epigenetic regulators affect gene expression without changing the DNA sequence. Recent studies suggest that epigenetic regulators interact with drivers of GBM cell and stem‐like cell proliferation. These drivers include components of the Notch, Hedgehog, and Wingless (WNT) pathways. We highlight recent studies connecting epigenetic and signaling pathways in GBM. We also review systems and big data approaches for identifying patient specific therapies in GBM. Collectively, these studies will identify drug combinations that may be effective in GBM and other cancers. J. Cell. Biochem. 116: 351–363, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Bullying and Cyberbullying: Their Legal Status and Use in Psychological Assessment

Bullying and cyberbullying have severe psychological and legal consequences for those involved. However, it is unclear how or even if previous experience of bullying and cyberbullying is considered in mental health assessments. Furthermore, the relevance and effectiveness of current legal solutions has been debated extensively, resulting in a desire for a specific legislation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychological and legal components of bullying and cyberbullying. This is a qualitative research that includes interviews with five practitioner psychologists and four lawyers in the United Kingdom (UK). Thematic analysis revealed three main themes. One theme is related to the definition, characteristics, and impact of bullying and cyberbullying and the need for more discussion among the psychological and legal professions. Another theme is related to current professional procedures and the inclusion of questions about bullying and cyberbullying in psychological risk assessments. The third theme emphasised the importance of intervention through education. Two key messages were highlighted by the lawyers: ample yet problematic legislation exists, and knowledge will ensure legal success. The study recommends the necessity of performing revisions in the clinical psychological practices and assessments, and the legal policies regarding bullying and cyberbullying. In addition to improving legal success, this will reduce bullying prevalence rates, psychological distress, and psychopathology that can be comorbid or emerge as a result of this behaviour.
Finding anchor words of separable-nonnegative matrix factorization based on singular value decomposition

Topic detection is a process to find topics or subjects of discussion in a collection of documents such as tweets on Twitter. Manual detection of topics on Twitter is difficult because of too many tweets. Therefore, it is necessary to detect topics automatically. One of the automatic methods for topic detection is the Separable-Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (SNMF) method with the AGM algorithm. SNMF is a matrix factorization-based model that can be solved directly using the assumption that each topic has one word, called anchor words, that is not present in other topics. SNMF with AGM algorithm consists of three stages, namely the constructing the co-occurrence matrix, finding the anchor words, and recovering the topics. The common method to find the anchor words is the convex hull-based method. In this paper, we examine the process of finding anchor words based on Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). The results show that by considering all words as anchor word candidates, the SVD-based method gives better results than the convex hull-based method. Meanwhile, when the anchor finding was done by using anchor threshold, the convex hull-based method still gives a better result than the SVD-based method.
Examining School Elements through Collective Awareness: A Case Study of Six Students at a Special Education Day School

This paper presents and utilizes a method to explore and describe a school using the voices of those within it. Six case studies of students with special needs attending a special education day school in the United States provide data for the analysis. Qualitative coding of student-cited elements of the school allows for categorization of the elements by degree of collective awareness by students. The analysis reveals the elements at the forefront of student focus, ranging from academic content structure to cultural and environmental contexts of the school. These elements are presented as a holistic conceptualization of the school experience, drawing attention to voices and perspectives that are often overlooked when describing schools through quantitative external accountability measures. Implications for educational research, accountability systems, and school improvement efforts are discussed.
Age‐related differences in cellular and molecular profiles of inflammatory responses after spinal cord injury

Previous experimental and clinical studies have suggested that the behavioral and pathological outcomes of spinal cord injury (SCI) are affected by the individual's age at the time of injury. However, the underlying mechanism responsible for these differences remains elusive because it is difficult to match injuries of similar severities between young and adult animals due to differences in the sizes of their respective spinal cords. In this study, the spinal cord size‐matched young (4‐week‐old) and adult (10‐week‐old) mice were compared to evaluate their locomotor functions and inflammatory cellular/molecular responses after standardized contusion SCI. During the acute phase of SCI, young mice showed better functional recovery and lower pro‐inflammatory cytokines/chemokines compared to adult mice. Flow‐cytometric analysis revealed that the time courses of leukocyte infiltration were comparable between both groups, while the number of infiltrating neutrophils significantly decreased from 6 h after SCI in young mice. By combining flow‐cytometric isolation and gene expression analysis of each inflammatory cell fraction, we found that microglial cells immediately initiate the production of several cytokines in response to SCI, which serve as major sources of IL‐6, TNFa, and CXCL1 in injured spinal cord. Interestingly, the secretion of pro‐inflammatory cytokines/chemokines but not anti‐inflammatory cytokines by microglia was significantly lower in young mice compared to that in adult mice at 3 h after SCI, which will be attributed to the attenuation of the subsequent neutrophil infiltration. These results highlight age‐related differences in pro‐inflammatory properties of microglial cells that contribute to the amplification of detrimental inflammatory responses after SCI. J. Cell. Physiol. 227: 1335–1346, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Platelet-leukocyte aggregation under shear stress: Differential involvement of selectins and integrins

Summary Platelets and leukocytes can form heterotypic aggregates. We studied how shear stress influences platelet-leukocyte aggregation (PLA). Shear stress was applied to hirudinized blood, using a cone-and-plate(let) analyzer. Platelet and leukocyte activation and PLA formation were monitored by flow cytometry. Shear stress per se increased platelet P-selectin expression, leukocyte CD11b expression, and PLA formation. Shear-induced hetero-typic aggregation was seen among monocytes and neutrophils, but not lymphocytes. ADP induced marked PLA formation, but this was reduced by shear stress. fMLP mildly increased PLA formation, and this effect was enhanced by shear stress. P-selec-tin blockade abolished, whilst GPIIb/IIIa blockade enhanced shear- and agonist-induced PLA formation. At 1800 s-1, shear-and agonist-induced PLA formation were maintained or further enhanced with GPIIb/IIIa blockade alone, but reduced by simultaneous blockade of GPIIb/IIIa, CD11b, and CD18. In conclusion, shear stress per se enhances PLA formation. With agonist stimulation, shear stress enhances PLA formation primarily mediated by integrins, but attenuates PLA formation primarily mediated by P-selectin. The present results indicate that P-selectin-mediated bridging is essential for the initiation of PLA formation, while integrin-bridgings contribute importantly to the stability of heterotypic conjugates under high shear stress.
Effectiveness verification of an educational program about hearing protection for noise-exposed workers.

PURPOSE To verify the effectiveness of an educational action in the form of training, emphasizing the importance of hearing protection for workers exposed to occupational noise. METHODS The study included 78 male individuals. All participants answered a questionnaire before they were submitted to audiological evaluation. For the second application of the questionnaire, participants were randomly divided into two groups: Research Group, constituted by 44 subjects that received educational training before the second questionnaire application, and Control Group, comprising 34 individuals that answered the questionnaire before the educational training. Training was based on material with graphic images and text, in the form of conversation. The topics covered included: the importance of hearing, noise effects on health, importance of preventing hearing loss and using hearing protection, conservation and cleaning of hearing protectors, levels of noise in the workplace and noise attenuation provided by hearing protectors. The questionnaire contained 14 multiple choice questions that addressed the same themes explored in the educational training. RESULTS There was a significant increase of correct responses in the second application of the questionnaire, only in the Research Group, in all comparisons. CONCLUSION Educational action performed with workers exposed to occupational noise are effective, and the questionnaire is a stable and viable tool to evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs.