Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alpha 2 agonists in regional anesthesia and analgesia

Clonidine is a partial alpha 2 adrenergic agonist that has a variety of different actions including antihypertensive effects as well as the ability to potentiate the effects of local anesthetics. It can provide pain relief by an opioid-independent mechanism. It has been shown to result in the prolongation of the sensory blockade and a reduction in the amount or concentration of local anesthetic required to produce perioperative analgesia. Different routes for the administration of regional anesthesia, including intravenous, intrathecal and epidural ones, as well as the addition of clonidine for peripheral neural blockade, have been described. It has been also used for intra-articular administration. The latest articles describing the use of clonidine in regional anesthesia are discussed. Most authors agree that the use of clonidine for regional neural blockade in combination with a local anesthetic results in increased duration of sensory blockade with no difference in onset time.The addition of clonidine to the local anesthetic opioid mixtures seems to produce analgesia of longer duration, more rapid onset and higher quality. The higher doses of clonidine were associated with a more cephalad spread of the spinal blockade and increased sedation and hypertension. When clonidine is added to a fentanyl-bupivacaine mixture for epidural labor analgesia, it seems to provide satisfactory analgesia of a longer duration than that produced by the fentanyl-bupivacaine combination alone. Similar results were found when epidural analgesia using levobupivacaine with clonidine was used in patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty. Less clear results were seen when clonidine was used for caudal anesthesia in a pediatric patient population. The addition of clonidine to intravenous regional anesthesia resulted in prolongation of the tourniquet time and improvement of postoperative analgesia. However, the latter was found to be short-lived. In another study, the effects of clonidine used for intra-articular administration in combination with morphine were investigated. These authors found a significantly higher rate of satisfaction in the group of patients receiving clonidine plus morphine. Although several recent studies have shown certain benefits from the use of clonidine for regional anesthesia, further investigations are necessary to clarify its role.
Public participation on dam building in South Africa: a case study of the Berg Water Project

This paper examines the participatory processes which led to the building of the Berg River Dam in South Africa’s Western Cape province. The government-led formal participatory processes stand in contrast to the mobilisation of environmental activists against the building of the dam. In this case, the creation of formal participatory forums both subverted and neutralised resistance of the environmental movement and civil society against the building of the dam, largely through the mobilisation of policy discourses on water ‘scarcity’.
Catecholamine mapping within nucleus accumbens: differences in basal and amphetamine‐stimulated efflux of norepinephrine and dopamine in shell and core

The nucleus accumbens is believed to play a critical role in mediating the behavioral responses to rewarding stimuli. Although most studies of the accumbens focus on dopamine, it receives afferents from many other nuclei, including noradrenergic cell groups in the brainstem. We used in vivo microdialysis to measure extracellular levels of both norepinephrine and dopamine in the accumbens shell and core. Regional analysis of shell and core and border regions demonstrated that norepinephrine was high in shell and decreased from medial shell to lateral core, where baseline levels were low or undetectable. Conversely, extracellular dopamine in core was twice the level seen in shell. Both catecholamines increased following a single injection of amphetamine (2 mg/kg, i.p.). The norepinephrine response was greater and long‐lasting in shell compared with core. The maximal dopamine response was higher in core than in shell, but the duration of the effect was comparable in both regions. The distinct neurochemical characteristics of shell and core are likely to contribute to the functional heterogeneity of the two subregions. Furthermore, norepinephrine may be involved in many of the functions generally attributed to the accumbens, either directly or indirectly via modulation of extracellular dopamine.
Reliability guaranteed path protection under multiple constraints

The path protection with reliability guarantee is investigated under multiple constraints. The key challenge of providing ample multi-constrained loop-less paths to the detouring as candidates is addressed by a modified relaxation principle of dominated path. The loops in the new extended sub-paths are explored with an elastic depth, and additive criterions derived from the path information are adopted to obtain more accurate identification of feasible paths. Our hybrid detouring gives priority to the end to end disjoint backup paths and uses the residual space of inter-media nodes to store the potential local disjoint sub-paths. The obtained candidate backup paths are selected by appropriate cost functions according to the combined reliability and the consumed resources. Simulation results demonstrate its superiority in restoration path-finding capability leads to a significant improvement in the success rate of the QoS path protection.
Microarrays for the Functional Analysis of the Chemical-Kinase Interactome

A central challenge in chemical biology is profiling the activity of a large number of chemical structures against hundreds of biological targets, such as kinases. Conventional 32P-incorporation or immunoassay of phosphorylated residues produces high-quality signals formonitoring kinase reactions but is difficult to use in high-throughput screening (HTS) because of cost and the need for well-plate washing. The authors report a method for densely archiving compounds in nanodroplets on peptide or protein substrate-coated microarrays for subsequent profiling by aerosol deposition of kinases. Each microarray contains over 6000 reaction centers (1.0 nL each) whose phosphorylation progress can be detected by immunofluorescence. For p60c-src, the microarray produced a signal-to-background ratio of 36.3 and Z' factor of 0.63 for HTS and accurate enzyme kinetic parameters (K m ATP = 3.3 µ M) and IC50 values for staurosporine (210 nM) and PP2 (326 nM) at 10 µ M adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Similarly, B-Raf phosphorylation of MEK-coatedmicroarrayswas inhibited in the nanoliter reactions by GW5074 at the expected IC 50of 9 nM. Common kinase inhibitors were printed onmicroarrays, and their inhibitory activities were systematically profiled against B-Raf (V599E), KDR, Met, Flt-3 (D835Y), Lyn, EGFR, PDGFRβ, and Tie2. All results indicate that this platform is well suited for kinetic analysis, HTS, large-scale IC 50 determinations, and selectivity profiling.
Restoration of sea surface temperature images by learning-based and optical-flow-based inpainting

Sea surface temperature (SST) images taken from satellites are partially occluded by clouds. In this paper, we propose an inpainting approach for restoration of the partially occluded images. Assuming the sparseness of the SST images, we employ a learning based inpainting for filling the occluded parts. Images taken in the past several days is another clue for filling the occluded parts. These images are regarded as time series data and a video inpainting method is also available. We employ PCA-based inpainting as a learning-based approach and optical-flow-based inpainting as video inpainting, and combine the two restored images according to the expected their restoration error. Experimental results with real satellite images show the effectiveness of our method.
On the limitations of armchair economics: Some views of an armchair agricultural economist

A large portion of economists' activities can be labeled armchair economics. In this paper, the limitations of armchair economics, with respect to explaining and predicting aggregate phenomena, are discussed. It is argued that, due to ambiguity of sophisticated theory and compensating errors in empirical estimations, armchair economics is likely to face more serious limitations than is generally acknowledged by the mainstream of the profession. Copyright 1989 by Oxford University Press.
Mobility Pattern Based Relationship Inference from Spatiotemporal Data

The popularity of location-based services and the ubiquity of Internet of Things (IoT) devices have resulted in rich spatiotemporal data. These data enable researchers to study people's social relationship based on their co-occurrences and many inference models were proposed. However, there are still two challenges: How to distinguish co-occurrences between acquaintances and strangers? What kind of co-occurrence contributes to strong social strength? In this paper, we propose a mobility pattern based relationship inference model (MPRI) to address above challenges. We extract mobility patterns from spatiotemporal data and adopt them to characterize co-occurrences. A classification model is trained for social relationship inference. The experimental results on two real-world datasets demonstrate that the proposed MPRI model can properly differentiate co-occurrences by simultaneously considering spatial and temporal features. The comparison results also indicate that MPRI model significantly outperforms state-of-the-art social relationship inference models.
KazrinA is required for axial elongation and epidermal integrity in Xenopus tropicalis

Kazrin is a recently described desmosomal protein that binds the cornified envelope precursor periplakin. In this study, we have examined kazrin isoform A expression during the development of Xenopus tropicalis and investigated the consequences of its depletion. Whole mount in situ hybridisation revealed that kazrinA mRNA is expressed throughout the embryo at least until tadpole stages. Xenopus tropicalis embryos that had been injected with antisense morpholino oligonucleotides directed against kazrinA failed to elongate properly and showed defects in development of the head, eye, notochord, and somites. We also observed that the epidermis became disorganised and frequently separated from the underlying mesoderm, causing the formation of epidermal blisters. Together, our results suggest that loss of kazrinA causes defects in cell adhesion that affect axial elongation, cell differentiation, and epidermal morphogenesis. Developmental Dynamics 237:1718‐1725, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Assessing Whether Tourist Arrivals are Stationary: Evidence from Taiwan using Sequential Panel Selection Method

This study applied the Sequential Panel Selection Method (SPSM) procedure proposed by Chortareas and Kapetanios (2009) to test the non-stationarity of long-run tourist arrivals to Taiwan for a sample of six main visiting countries from 1970 to 2010. This Panel KSS test (Ucar & Omay, 2009) with a Fourier function for the SPSM procedure considers both structural breaks and non-linear adjustment and, thus, more powerfully determines whether tourist arrivals are stationary compared to conventional unit root tests. The empirical results of the first and the second generations are mixed; however, when the nonlinear panel unit root test with a Fourier function for the SPSM procedure is conducted, evidence indicates that the series of tourist arrivals to Taiwan are trend stationary except Korea.
A Novel Trajectory Pattern Learning Method Based on Sequential Pattern Mining

Trajectory pattern learning is an important and meaningful issue for intelligent visual surveillance system. This paper puts forward a novel trajectory pattern learning method through sequential pattern mining. In our method, the flow vectors are firstly quantified by fuzzy C means clustering method; then a modified Prefixspan algorithm is applied to mine the sequential patterns from the trajectory sequences; finally, an approximate string matching method is adopted to detect whether a given trajectory is anomaly or not. The simulation experiments on different scenes demonstrate that our method is feasible and effective.
Intuition May Not Be Enough : Cautionary Tales

Buried in a list of 20 million Web search queries collected by AOL and recently released on the Internet is user No. 4417749. The number was assigned by the company to protect the searcher’s anonymity, but it was not much of a shield. No. 4417749 conducted hundreds of searches over a three-month period on topics ranging from “numb fi ngers” to “60 single men” to “dog that urinates on everything. ” And search by search, click by click, the identity of AOL user No. 4417749 became easier to discern. There are queries for “landscapers in Lilburn, Ga,” several people with the last name Arnold and “homes sold in shadow lake subdivision gwinnett county georgia. ” It did not take much investigating to follow that data trail to Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old widow who lives in Lilburn, Ga. Ms. Arnold, who agreed to discuss her searches with a reporter, said she was shocked to hear that AOL had saved and published three months’ worth of them. “My goodness, it’s my whole personal life,” she said. “I had no idea somebody was looking over my shoulder. ” . “We all have a right to privacy,” she said. “Nobody should have found this all out. ” Privacy and Data-Based Research
A Critical Review of Marital Therapy Outcome Research

Objective: This review critically examines conceptual and methodological issues of outcome research designed to evaluate the efficacy of marital therapy (MT). Behavioural marital therapy (BMT), cognitively orientated marital therapy (COMT), emotionally focused marital therapy (EFMT), and insight-oriented marital therapy (IOMT) have provided evidence for efficacy. Method: The initial literature search involved the use of the MEDLINE and Psychlit CD-ROM data bases. A secondary literature search based on citations in articles discovered in the initial search was also conducted. Three broad categories involving the delineation of the client sample, study design considerations, and determination of treatment effects were addressed to investigate the quality of evidence concerning the efficacy of MT. Results: None of the 4 approaches has proven superiority in efficacy, and the research does not provide evidence for the superiority of any one approach in distinct types of marital discord. There is some evidence to indicate that future outcome research should avoid the use of “waiting list control groups,” since their use appears to be neither ethical nor humane in marital discord research. Conclusions: The authors suggest that the concept of treatment efficiency may be more clinically relevant to outcome research. A gold standard for “efficiency” would suggest that a marital therapy approach should produce subjective and objective improvement in 50% of eligible couples, and this improvement should be maintained in half of these couples at the one-year follow-up assessment. This standard would be comparable to the data on the 4 effective approaches described in this review.
Guelphs, Ghibellines and Etruscans: Archaeological Discoveries and Civic Identity in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Tuscany

This paper examines the rediscovery of the ancient Etruscans, in central Italy, during the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries AD. Knowledge about the Etruscans from this earlier period was overshadowed by the interest in Etruscan antiquities promoted by Pope Leo X (1513–1521) and Cosimo I de Medici (1519–1574) during the late Renaissance. I argue that the sixteenth century appropriation of the Etruscan past would not have been possible without the discoveries of earlier generations of Tuscans, and, more particularly, without a reversal in attitudes towards the Etruscan past that began during the late thirteenth century. Prior to this, the Etruscans were perceived negatively, as allied to darkness and paganism. In this paper, I argue that this change in the perception of the Etruscans was closely allied to the particular political situation of the city-state of Florence, and that the origins of Etruscan archaeology can be elucidated in the centre of the maelstrom of war, famine and plague that characterised the fourteenth century in central Italy.
The Determinants of Risk Premia on the Italian Stock Market: Empirical Evidence on Common Factors in Asset Pricing Models

We study the pricing factor structure of Italian equity returns using 25 years of data. A two-step empirical analysis is provided where first we estimate an unrestricted multifactor model to test if there is any evidence of misspecification. Then, we estimate the restricted model through the Generalized Methods of Moments. We find that the market premium and the size premium for stocks are confirmed for a domestic Italian investor. On the contrary, weak evidence is found for the value premium. Finally, we highlight, that augmenting the model with a momentum factor may at least partially improve its performance. As a robustness check we control if the above results also hold for three shorter sub-periods taking into account the macroeconomic and financial conditions that characterized the Italian economy. The results are generally confirmed in the case of the size and value factors while the momentum effect shows an irregular trend playing any role in the first sub-period but becoming more important in the subsequent two.
Design and Assessment of an Interactive Digital Tutorial for Undergraduate-level Sandstone Petrology

A digital interactive tutorial has been created to provide undergraduates a ‘virtual microscope’ resource for learning sandstone petrology. The tutorial does not replace hands-on laboratory experiences with the petrographic microscope, but lends efficiency and breadth to the learning process. Students are able to obtain practice with identification of a wide array of sandstone components outside of the laboratory and independently of the instructor. The efficacy of traditional petrography instruction versus instruction supplemented by the tutorial was assessed in two semesters of GEO 416M, “Sedimentary Rocks” at the University of Texas at Austin. Students in the first semester were not provided with the tutorial, providing a baseline or control for comparison. In the second semester, the digital tutorial was provided to all students on CD and assigned as a required resource in laboratory exercises. Investigation of student attitudes towards the tutorial demonstrates a high level of approval, and subject matter attainment appears to improve with tutorial use. Individualized, one-on-one instruction should remain a key element in effective teaching of petrography. Digital materials have a clear benefit in terms of enhancing the quality, availability, and breadth of the demonstration materials that can be provided to students. Based on this preliminary assessment, there are benefits in student learning as well.
Hacking with Chinese Characteristics

From the rising number of hackerspaces to an increase in hardware start-ups, maker culture is envisioned as an enabler of the next industrial revolution—a source of unhindered technological innovation, a revamp of broken economies and educational systems. Drawing from long-term ethnographic research, this article examines how China’s makers demarcate Chinese manufacturing as a site of expertise in implementing this vision. China’s makers demonstrate that the future of making—if to materialize in the ways currently envisioned by writers, politicians, and scholars of the global tech industry—rests on taking seriously the technological and cultural fabrics of professional making outside familiar information technology innovation hubs like Silicon Valley: making-do, mass production, and reuse. I trace back to China’s first hackerspace, documenting how a collective of makers began to move away from appropriating Western concepts of openness toward promoting China as source for knowledge, creativity, and innovation. This article demonstrates that when China’s makers set up open hardware businesses and articulate a unique culture of “hacking with Chinese characteristics,” they draw boundaries between the professional making they saw embodied in Chinese industrial production and the hobbyist making embodied in Western histories and cultures of hacking. In so doing, they position China as site of both technological and cultural expertise, intervening in dominant conceptions of computing that split manufacturing and innovation along geographical lines. This article contributes to critical scholarship of innovation and making cultures, technological expertise, and authorship.
Idiosyncratic Risk, Costly Arbitrage, and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns

We test a new cross-sectional relation between expected stock return and idiosyncratic risk implied by the theory of costly arbitrage. If arbitrageurs find it more difficult to correct the mispricing of stocks with high idiosyncratic risk, there should be a positive (negative) relation between expected return and idiosyncratic risk for undervalued (overvalued) stocks. We combine several well-known anomalies to measure stock mispricing and proxy stock idiosyncratic risk using an exponential GARCH model for stock returns. We confirm that average stock returns monotonically increase (decrease) with idiosyncratic risk for undervalued (overvalued) stocks. Overall, our results support the importance of idiosyncratic risk as an arbitrage cost.
Hidden from History? Housing Studies, the Perpetual Present and the Case of Social Housing in Britain

This paper examines the use and abuse of historical method in the field of housing studies, with specific reference to predictions about the future shape of social housing in Britain. It reflects on the debates about council housing in the early 1990s and sets these against subsequent policy developments. The paper suggests that this exercise reveals some shortcomings in dominant paradigms within housing studies, such as the misreading and misrepresentation of tenants' responses and reactions; the over-emphasis on consumption in assessing processes of housing sector change; the neglect of increasing spatial differentiation in housing markets across Britain; and the failure to appreciate the causes behind increasing volatility in some local housing markets. The paper argues for a more nuanced historical sensibility and a more adventurous methodology when forecasting the future direction of housing policies and the future characteristics of housing systems.
Analysis of the Current Account Position of Four Asian Countries Before the 1997 Crisis

The current paper presents an empirical analysis of the current account positions during the pre Asian crisis period, in the four most crisis-hit countries (namely Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea and Indonesia). We have employed the procedures advocated by Husted for the presence of stationarity in current accounts by estimating a cointegration relationship between any country's exports and imports. The results do not substantiate the presence of cointegration between the series, implying that the macroeconomic fundamentals in these countries prior to the crisis were far from robust, at least from the perspective of current account sustainability. Copyright 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Is the Family an “Asset” or “Liability” for Firm Performance? The Moderating Role of Environmental Dynamism

By integrating the stewardship and agency perspectives, our study extends the understanding of the dynamics that regulate the family as either an asset or liability for the firm. Our results show that the percentage of family members on the top management team (TMT) has an inverted U‐shaped relationship with firm performance. However, when environmental dynamism is low, this curvilinear relationship becomes steeper. When environmental dynamism is high, an increased percentage of family members on the TMT enhances firm performance.