Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Kantian Peace: The Pacific Benefits of Democracy, Interdependence, and International Organizations, 1885–1992

The authors test Kantian and realist theories of interstate conflict using data extending over more than a century, treating those theories as complementary rather than competing. As the classical liberals believed, democracy, economic interdependence, and international organizations have strong and statistically significant effects on reducing the probability that states will be involved in militarized disputes. Moreover, the benefits are not limited to the cold war era. Some realist influences, notably distance and power predominance, also reduce the likelihood of interstate conflict. The character of the international system, too, affects the probability of dyadic disputes. The consequences of having a strong hegemonic power vary, but high levels of democracy and interdependence in the international system reduce the probability of conflict for all dyads, not just for those that are democratic or dependent on trade.
Giving Priority to Lipid Administration Can Reduce Lung Injury Caused by Epinephrine in Bupivacaine-Induced Cardiac Depression

Background and Objectives Epinephrine is usually administered in concert with a lipid emulsion during local anesthetic toxicity. However, the timing and role of epinephrine administration in combination with a lipid emulsion remain unclear. Specifically, the temporal association of epinephrine and lipid emulsion administration with related changes in pulmonary vascular pressures that may lead to pulmonary edema and hemorrhage needs to be determined. Methods This study consisted of 2 parts, experiments A and B. In experiment A, 24 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 3 groups (n = 8) to receive 1 of 3 treatments. All rats were anesthetized with an intraperitoneal injection of chloral hydrate, and anesthesia was maintained by sevoflurane. Each treatment group was initially given an infusion of bupivacaine (15 mg/kg) in order to produce cardiac depression. Group 1 (A-LEN) received a 30% lipid infusion (3 mL/kg) followed by a rapid epinephrine bolus (10 &mgr;g/kg), which was then followed by a normal saline infusion (3 mL/kg). Group 2 (A-NEL) first received a normal saline infusion (3 mL/kg) followed by a rapid epinephrine bolus, which was then followed by a 30% lipid emulsion. Group 3 (A-NEN, considered a control group) first received a normal saline infusion (3 mL/kg) followed by a rapid epinephrine bolus (10 &mgr;g/kg), which was then followed by another normal saline infusion (3 mL/kg). Lipid and normal saline infusions were administered over 1 minute, whereas epinephrine was injected rapidly. The continuous monitoring of blood pressure, heart rate, pulmonary arterial pressure, and pulmonary venous pressure occurred for 30 minutes. After the 30-minute monitoring period, lung tissue was sampled, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was collected. In experiment B, the experimental model and resuscitation protocol were similar to experiment A (B-LEN and B-NEL groups). In this arm of the experiment, bupivacaine concentrations of cardiac tissue were determined after the second minute of normal saline infusion. Results The A-LEN group produced the best rate pressure product when compared with the A-NEL or A-NEN group (P = 0.045, P = 0.011, respectively). In regard to pulmonary venous pressure, the A-LEN group was lower than the A-NEL or A-NEN group (P = 0.031, P = 0.006, respectively). Animals in the A-NEL and A-NEN groups rapidly developed pulmonary edema after infusion of epinephrine. The wet-to-dry ratio of the lungs in the A-LEN group was lower than that of the lungs in the A-NEL group (P = 0.024). The lung permeability index of the A-LEN group was lower than that of the A-NEL group (P = 0.011). In experiment B, concentrations of bupivacaine in cardiac tissue and plasma of the B-LEN group were lower than those of the B-NEL group (P = 0.001, P = 0.03, respectively). Conclusions Giving priority to the administration of a lipid emulsion before the administration of epinephrine can reduce lung injury in bupivacaine-induced cardiac depression in rats.
Modeling and Forecasting Chinese Outbound Tourism: An Econometric Approach

ABSTRACT This paper aims to examine the demand for outbound tourism by mainland Chinese residents to 11 international destinations, and provide long-run forecasts up to the year 2020. The empirical results suggest that the income level and the cost of a stay at a tourism destination compared with that of staying at a Chinese tourism destination are two important factors that affect Chinese residents’ traveling abroad. Results also show that the long-run income elasticities for all destinations range from 0.406 to 1.785, while the own price elasticities vary from −9.490 to −0.152. Based on the response patterns of tourism demand to income and price changes, five main categories of Chinese outbound tourism markets are identified. An ex ante forecasting exercise is also carried out which shows that outbound tourists from China mainly travel to Asian countries/regions during the period 2012–2020. The total number of outbound tourists is expected to reach 138.7 million by 2020.
Measuring the Rule of Law

This paper describes the methodology used to build the WJP Rule of Law Index – a new quantitative assessment tool designed to offer a comprehensive picture of the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law in practice. The WJP Rule of Law Index provides new data on nine dimensions of the rule of law − limited government powers; absence of corruption; order and security; fundamental rights; open government; regulatory enforcement; access to civil justice; effective criminal justice; and informal justice − and is compiled from original surveys of the general public and local legal experts. The paper also presents estimates for an initial group of 66 countries.
A Test of the Expected Utility Model: Evidence from Earthquake Risks

The purposes of this paper are twofold. The first is to demonstrate that the expected utility hypothesis is a reasonable description of behavior for consumers who face a low-probability, high-loss natural hazard event, given that they have adequate information. The second is to demonstrate that in California information on earthquake hazards was generated by a 1974 state law that created a market for safe housing that previously did not exist.
Environmental Citizenship and Electric Vehicles - A Case Study of Norway and Denmark

This thesis focuses on the sale of electric vehicles (EVs) in Denmark and Norway in an attempt to gain insights into what stimulates and maintains pro-environmental behaviour. Norway stands out as an exceptional case with a significantly better marketshare of EVs than anywhere else in the world. In an attempt to shed more light on what causes these results, the study applies the theoretical framework of environmental citizenship and specifically investigates to what extent behaviour towards EVs is driven by pro-environmental attitudes or fiscal incentives. The analysis is based on surveys and sales data. The study concludes that attitudes play less of a role in generating long-term behavioural change towards EVs than previous studies have otherwise shown regarding other forms of pro-environmental behaviour. Fiscal incentives prove central to promote further progress. The conclusions leave room for new context-driven theoretical discussions of what causes pro-environmental behaviour.
Calendar Anomalies in the Indian Stock Market

This paper examines the month-of-the-year and day-of-the-week effect in the Indian stock market, during the period 1998-2007. The Standard GARCH model, GARCH-in-Mean, Exponential GARCH and Threshold ARCH models have been employed to test for calendar anomalies using the monthly and daily stock returns of the National Stock Exchange Index. The results confirm the presence of a significant 'December effect' in the Indian stock market even after taking time varying volatility into account. However, the 'Wednesday effect' detected by the Ordinary Least Squares model disappeared when time varying volatility was considered. The other findings of the study confirm that there are no information asymmetries in the Indian stock market as seen in the results produced by the EGARCH and TARCH models. An abridged version of this paper has been published by the National Stock Exchange of India Limited.
Plant Pathogen Recognition Mediated by Promoter Activation of the Pepper Bs3 Resistance Gene

Plant disease resistance (R) proteins recognize matching pathogen avirulence proteins. Alleles of the pepper R gene Bs3 mediate recognition of the Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv) type III effector protein AvrBs3 and its deletion derivative AvrBs3Δrep16. Pepper Bs3 and its allelic variant Bs3-E encode flavin monooxygenases with a previously unknown structure and are transcriptionally activated by the Xcv effector proteins AvrBs3 and AvrBs3Δrep16, respectively. We found that recognition specificity resides in the Bs3 and Bs3-E promoters and is determined by binding of AvrBs3 or AvrBs3Δrep16 to a defined promoter region. Our data suggest a recognition mechanism in which the Avr protein binds and activates the promoter of the cognate R gene.
Weighted Sparse Representation Regularized Graph Learning for RGB-T Object Tracking

In this paper, we propose a novel graph model, called weighted sparse representation regularized graph, to learn a robust object representation using multispectral (RGB and thermal) data for visual tracking. In particular, the tracked object is represented with a graph with image patches as nodes. This graph is dynamically learned from two aspects. First, the graph affinity (i.e., graph structure and edge weights) that indicates the appearance compatibility of two neighboring nodes is optimized based on the weighted sparse representation, in which the modality weight is introduced to leverage RGB and thermal information adaptively. Second, each node weight that indicates how likely it belongs to the foreground is propagated from others along with graph affinity. The optimized patch weights are then imposed on the extracted RGB and thermal features, and the target object is finally located by adopting the structured SVM algorithm. Moreover, we also contribute a comprehensive dataset for RGB-T tracking purpose. Comparing with existing ones, the new dataset has the following advantages: 1) Its size is sufficiently large for large-scale performance evaluation (total frame number: 210K, maximum frames per video pair: 8K). 2) The alignment between RGB-T video pairs is highly accurate, which does not need pre- and post-processing. 3) The occlusion levels are annotated for analyzing the occlusion-sensitive performance of different methods. Extensive experiments on both public and newly created datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed tracker against several state-of-the-art tracking methods.
Potential attenuation of p38 signaling by DDB2 as a factor in acquired TNF resistance

Our previous study demonstrated that DDB2, a DNA repair protein, attenuates cell surface membrane‐associated death signal induced by UV or FasAb; DDB2 is overexpressed in cisplatin‐selected cells. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the protective role of DDB2 along the apoptotic pathway remains unknown. Our study identified the cross‐resistance of the cisplatin‐selected cells to tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α). Since knock‐down of the DDB2 level rendered cells (HR18) sensitive to the treatment, the cell sensitivity to TNF‐α appears inversely proportional to the cellular level of DDB2. Treatment of HeLa cells with TNF‐α transiently induced activation of p38MAPK signal, but this induction was significantly reduced in the resistant cells. Overexpression of DDB2 attenuated the activation of p38 in cells. TNF‐α‐induced apoptotic signals, represented by caspase‐8 and downstream substrate cleavage, were reduced in resistant cells compared to their sensitive counterparts. Inhibition of p38 signal by SB202190 clearly attenuated TNF‐α‐induced apoptotic signals. Moreover, overexpression of DDB2 in HR18 cells also attenuated TNF‐α induced caspase activation. These results suggest that p38MAPK activation may be a key upstream signal of TNF‐α‐induced apoptosis and that attenuation of p38 signal by DDB2 overexpression may be responsible for acquired TNF‐α resistance. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Endothelial Ca2+‐activated K+ channels in normal and impaired EDHF–dilator responses – relevance to cardiovascular pathologies and drug discovery

The arterial endothelium critically contributes to blood pressure control by releasing vasodilating autacoids such as nitric oxide, prostacyclin and a third factor or pathway termed ‘endothelium‐derived hyperpolarizing factor’ (EDHF). The nature of EDHF and EDHF‐signalling pathways is not fully understood yet. However, endothelial hyperpolarization mediated by the Ca2+‐activated K+ channels (KCa) has been suggested to play a critical role in initializing EDHF–dilator responses in conduit and resistance‐sized arteries of many species including humans. Endothelial KCa currents are mediated by the two KCa subtypes, intermediate‐conductance KCa (KCa3.1) (also known as, a.k.a. IKCa) and small‐conductance KCa type 3 (KCa2.3) (a.k.a. SKCa). In this review, we summarize current knowledge about endothelial KCa3.1 and KCa2.3 channels, their molecular and pharmacological properties and their specific roles in endothelial function and, particularly, in the EDHF–dilator response. In addition we focus on recent experimental evidences derived from KCa3.1‐ and/or KCa2.3‐deficient mice that exhibit severe defects in EDHF signalling and elevated blood pressures, thus highlighting the importance of the KCa3.1/KCa2.3‐EDHF–dilator system for blood pressure control. Moreover, we outline differential and overlapping roles of KCa3.1 and KCa2.3 for EDHF signalling as well as for nitric oxide synthesis and discuss recent evidence for a heterogeneous (sub) cellular distribution of KCa3.1 (at endothelial projections towards the smooth muscle) and KCa2.3 (at inter‐endothelial borders and caveolae), which may explain their distinct roles for endothelial function. Finally, we summarize the interrelations of altered KCa3.1/KCa2.3 and EDHF system impairments with cardiovascular disease states such as hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia and atherosclerosis and discuss the therapeutic potential of KCa3.1/KCa2.3 openers as novel types of blood pressure‐lowering drugs.
The Autonomy of Chinese NGOs: A New Perspective

Citing a large number of empirical case studies, this article challenges two mainstream views in Chinese NGO studies: firstly, Chinese NGOs generally lack autonomy; secondly, within the NGO sector, popularly organised (or "bottom-up") NGOs are relatively more autonomous than officially-organised (or "top-down") NGOs. This article argues that the mainstream views are wrong because they fail to appreciate the complexity of NGO-state interactions in contemporary China. It suggests that to fully capture such complexity, scholars need to develop more sophisticated frameworks for analysing state-society relations in China than have hitherto been applied.
Virtual Support Communities and Psychological Well-Being: The Role of Optimistic and Pessimistic Social Comparison Strategies

Do the beneficial or detrimental effects of CMC activity depend on the specific social comparison strategy individuals use? The present study aimed to answer this question by examining social comparison strategies, different measures of online activity within the community, and psychological well-being of users of online breast cancer support communities. Results showed that the relationship between online activity i.e., length of visits and frequency of posts and psychological well-being i.e., breast cancer related concerns and depression was determined by users' pessimistic social comparison strategy; downward identification influenced especially highly active users. Findings suggest that active CMC users should be careful not to become entrapped by negative social comparison processes.
Recommendations on managing lenvatinib and everolimus in patients with advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma

ABSTRACT Introduction: There are several second-line treatment options for patients with renal cell carcinoma after first-line failure of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, especially with the recent approvals of cabozantinib, nivolumab, and the lenvatinib plus everolimus combination. A lack of reliable biomarkers and an overall lack of prospective head-to-head comparisons make it a challenge to choose a second-line treatment in the clinic. Areas covered: In this review/meta-opinion, we describe the safety profile of the lenvatinib plus everolimus combination in renal cell carcinoma. The combination of lenvatinib plus everolimus has achieved the highest rates of objective responses and the longest progression free and overall survival in cross-comparison trials. At the same time, the safety profile of this combination, including the rate of total and severe adverse events, the percentage of dose reductions required, and the rate of treatment discontinuation, was less favorable compared with available monotherapy options, suggesting that better management could help to maximize the activity of this combination while protecting patients from undue harm. Expert opinion: Herein, we aim to postulate multidisciplinary recommendations on the advice to offer to patients and caregivers before starting treatment and how to manage the combination from the perspective of daily clinical practice.
New Evidence on the Monday Seasonal in Stock Returns

Equity derivatives and the institutionalization of equity markets affect the Monday seasonal. The seasonal in the Standard and Poor's 500 (S&P) declines significantly over 1962-93. This decline is positively related to the ratio of institutional to individual trading volume. In contrast, the seasonal for small stocks does not decline and is unaffected by institutional versus individual trading. Higher trading costs sustain the seasonal in small stocks and, unlike the S&P, these costs are not lower for institutions than for individuals. Futures minus spot S&P returns exhibit a reverse seasonal. Informed traders use the less costly market to exploit the seasonal. Copyright 1997 by University of Chicago Press.
The Role of Nuclear Bodies in Gene Expression and Disease

This review summarizes the current understanding of the role of nuclear bodies in regulating gene expression. The compartmentalization of cellular processes, such as ribosome biogenesis, RNA processing, cellular response to stress, transcription, modification and assembly of spliceosomal snRNPs, histone gene synthesis and nuclear RNA retention, has significant implications for gene regulation. These functional nuclear domains include the nucleolus, nuclear speckle, nuclear stress body, transcription factory, Cajal body, Gemini of Cajal body, histone locus body and paraspeckle. We herein review the roles of nuclear bodies in regulating gene expression and their relation to human health and disease.
Bimodal treatment with nimodipine and low‐molecular‐weight dextran for focal cerebral ischemia in the rat

We compared the effects of intravenous treatment with combined low‐molecular‐weight dextran and nimodipine (n = 9), or placebo (n = 10), on local cerebral blood flow after occlusion of the left middle cerebral and common carotid artery in the rat. Treatment for a total of 4 hours with low‐molecular‐weight dextran (5 mg/kg/min) and nimodipine (0.25 μg/kg/min) produced a decrease in hematocrit from 46 ± 1 to 33 ± 1% at the end of the study and a statistically significant increase in local cerebral blood flow, when compared to the control group, in 6 regions of interest: the territories of the right middle (p = 0.01), right anterior (p = 0.007), and left anterior cerebral arteries (p = 0.001) the superior (p = 0.03) and inferior border zone (p = 0.003); and white matter in the right hemisphere (p = 0.04). The ischemic volume, defined as brain volume with a cerebral blood flow of less than the critical level of 25 ml/min/100 gm was determined as a percentage of total brain volume for the control and treatment groups. The group treated with lowmolecular‐weight dextran and nimodipine showed a 31% decrease in ischemic volume (p = 0.03). These results indicate that a bimodal approach with low‐molecular‐weight dextran and nimodipine can be safely used in a model of acute stroke and has a beneficial effect on local cerebral blood flow and ischemic volume when compared with control subjects. After 4 hours, the potential exists that this treatment is therapeutic, assuming that the ischemic volume progresses to infarction.
Comparative inactivation of poliovirus type 3 and MS2 coliphage in demand-free phosphate buffer by using ozone

MS2 coliphage (ATCC 15597-B1) has been proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a surrogate for enteric viruses to determine the engineering requirements of chemical disinfection systems on the basis of previous experience with chlorine. The objective of this study was to determine whether MS2 coliphage was a suitable indicator for the inactivation of enteric viruses when ozone disinfection systems were used. Bench-scale experiments were conducted in 2-liter-batch shrinking reactors containing ozone demand-free 0.05 M phosphate buffer (pH 6.9) at 22 degrees C. Ozone was added as a side stream from a concentrated stock solution. It was found that an ozone residual of less than 40 micrograms/liter at the end of 20 s inactivated greater than 99.99% of MS2 coliphage in the demand-free buffer. When MS2 was compared directly with poliovirus type 3 in paired experiments, 1.6 log units more inactivation was observed with MS2 coliphage than with poliovirus type 3. It was concluded that the use of MS2 coliphage as a surrogate organism for studies of enteric virus with ozone disinfection systems overestimated the inactivation of enteric viruses. It is recommended that the regulatory agencies evaluate their recommendations for using MS2 coliphage as an indicator of enteric viruses.
A New Paradigm for Freight Demand Modeling: The Physical Distribution Channel Choice Approach

The objective of this study is to open up a new paradigm for freight demand analysis. This study proposes to use physical distribution channel choice models which can replace so called freight mode and route models. The basic notion of this approach is that shippers choose the distribution channels which minimize the overall logistics costs including inventory cost, transportation cost, etc., which are not incorporated well in the traditional four-step based approach. As a case study, this research developed physical distribution channel choice models reflecting decision making of the firms and analyzed how choice decision factors influence the selection of distribution channels. The distribution channel survey data in Korea was used to do an empirical study. In creating a choice set, Korean distribution channels were classified into two main choice channels which are direct and indirect channels. It was found that the logit model was suitable for the modeling distribution channel choice and the proposed new paradigm for freight demand analysis could be a viable alternate approach for the traditional four-step method.