Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Power, Violence, Citizenship and Agency

Peace‐building, state‐building and democratisation efforts often focus strongly on the state, and follow the Weberian logic of states holding the monopoly of the legitimate use of violence. In doing so, they may be neglecting more recent and nuanced understandings of the nature of governance arrangements in fragile and conflict settings, and of the range and scope of citizen agency both in general and in such settings. This article presents a research programme on Power, Violence, Citizenship and Agency, which sets out to counter the state‐heavy or at best ‘CSO‐heavy’ approach of many aid agencies and peace‐building change agents. Through a fresh look at relevant literature and theory and case studies in five settings marked by violent conflict, the programme seeks to construct the conceptual clarity and synergies that are needed to underpin shifts towards more citizen‐centred perspectives among aid and change agents working in situations of chronic violence and fragility.
The Novel Triazolonaphthalimide Derivative LSS-11 Synergizes the Anti-Proliferative Effect of Paclitaxel via STAT3-Dependent MDR1 and MRP1 Downregulation in Chemoresistant Lung Cancer Cells

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major cause of the inefficacy and poor response to paclitaxel-based chemotherapy. The combination of conventional cytotoxic drugs has been a plausible strategy for overcoming paclitaxel resistance. Herein, we investigated the cytotoxic effects and underlying mechanism of LSS-11, a novel naphthalimide derivative-based topoisomerase inhibitor, in paclitaxel-resistant A549 (A549/T) lung cancer cells. LSS-11 enhanced cell death in A549/T cells by inducing apoptosis through increasing the DR5 protein level and PARP1 cleavage. Importantly, LSS-11 dose-dependently reduced STAT3 phosphorylation and downregulated its target genes MDR1 and MRP1, without affecting P-gp transport function. Chromatin coimmunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay further revealed that LSS-11 hindered the binding of STAT3 to the MDR1 and MRP1 promoters. Additionally, pharmacological inhibition of p-STAT3 by sulforaphane downregulated MDR1 and MRP1, resulting in A549/T cell death by triggering apoptosis. Collectively, our data show that LSS-11 is a potent naphthalimide-based chemosensitizer that could enhance cell death in paclitaxel-resistant lung cancer cells through the DR5/PARP1 pathway and STAT3/MDR1/MRP1 STAT3 inhibition.
SELENIDE TREATMENT OF CANCER

A CRITICAL REVIEW In a recent paper' Dr. A. T. Todd gives an account of the modifications introduced into the method of colloid treatment of cancer, begun in Bristol eight years ago, with colloidal lead selenide. The changes are, briefly, the elimination of lead entirely, except for the local application to ulcerated growths of lead amalgam ointment, and the substitution ol two new colloids-a sulphi.r selenium colloid " SSe," and a radio-active selenium colloid " R.A. S. " In the latter, selenium is combined with feebly radio-active radium residues, radium G and higher disintegration products. The treatment begins with intravenous injection of SSe, followed two days later by 1j Holzknecht units of deep x rays. The reaction which follows each of these 'procedures-mild exacerbations of symptoms-is carefully noted, and the repetition of both at weekly intervals aims at maintaining this degree of reaction, the dose of colloid and of x rays being adjusted accordingly. This first course lasts eight weeks--that is, till 12 H of x rays have been applied. Alternation then begins, and for three weeks a weekly dose of R.A. S. is administered, again aiming at a moderate but definite reaction. SSe and R.A. S. are then given on alternate weeks for a period of six months. In a case progressing satisfactorily injections then cease for eight to ten weeks, after which a further course of alternating SSe and R.A. S. is maintained for three months more. When progress has continued for Inine months treatment is stopped, and the patient attends for observation -only for a further period of six months. He is then discharged, being warned to return if any suspicious symptoms occur.
Foreign Exchange Exposure Perception and Management of Turkish SMEs

Abstract This article aimed at analysing the foreign exchange (FX) exposure perception and management of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Turkey. FX exposure is divided into three groups of translation exposure, transaction exposure and economic exposure. Of these groups, only transaction and economic exposures are relevant to the wealth-maximizing firm. Drawing on a survey of 412 SMEs located throughout Turkey, this study explores the perceptions of managers regarding transaction and economic exposure as well as how they manage these two exposure groups. The survey results show that the term of FX exposure is conceptually perceived as economic exposure which also covers transaction exposure. However, the SMEs focus to manage the transaction exposure rather than the economic exposure. In managing the transaction exposure, the SMEs heavily rely on internal hedging techniques while they are not even aware of the nature of external hedgingtechniques.
Effects of environmental and land use regulation in the oil and gas industry using the wyoming checkerboard as a natural experiment : Retraction

The purpose of this note is to call attention to, and to take responsibility for, errors in a previously published paper (Mitch Kunce, Shelby Gerking, and William Morgan 2002). The main finding reported in that paper is that oil and natural gas wells are significantly more costly to drill on federal property than on private property. This note explains why the paper’s results are being retracted from the literature. Findings presented in the original paper cannot be substantiated because the data furnished by IHS Energy Group cannot be used to identify differences between drilling costs on lands under different ownership. The drilling cost data are obtained from a survey of operators (for details, see American Petroleum Institute, various years). The survey elicits actual drilling costs for some wells but the survey response rate is considerably less than 100 percent (it was about 40 percent in 1996, for example). Consequently, when actual costs are unavailable, predicted drilling costs are assigned to wells based on a regression model estimated using the valid survey responses. Predicted drilling costs are reported in dollars per foot of well depth, averaged over all wells of a given type (oil, gas, dry) within a region for each of 11 depth intervals, but with no differentiation by land type (federal, private). IHS then merges these data with other descriptors for each well drilled in each region. Although IHS classifies wells by land type, wells of a given type in a given region in a given year will have the same reported cost per foot regardless of whether they were drilled on federal or private property. Thus there is no independent variation in much of the drilling cost data independent of the variables used in the regression model. While the data provided by IHS do not show a difference in drilling cost by land type conditional on the variables in the regression model, errors in our handling of the data made it appear that drilling costs are higher on federal property than on private property. For instance, in our dataset over the 1987–1998 period, drilling cost values were erroneously lowered for 77 wells on private land and drilling cost values were erroneously raised for 33 wells on federal land. These alterations in the data, together with other errors, explain why drilling costs on federal property were found to be significantly greater than drilling costs on private property. In any case, the IHS data cannot be used to determine whether there is a difference in drilling costs on private versus federal property, and our mishandling of the data is responsible for the results presented in the original paper.
[Effects of functional electrical therapy on upper extremity functional motor recovery in patients after stroke--our experience and future directions].

INTRODUCTION New neurorehabilitation together with conventional techniques provide methods and technologies for maximizing what is preserved from the sensory motor system after cerebrovascular insult. The rehabilitation technique named functional electrical therapy was investigated in more than 60 patients in acute, subacute and chronic phase after cerebrovascular insult. The functional sensory information generated by functional electrical therapy was hypothesized to result in the intensive functional brain training of the activities performed. FUNCTIONAL ELECTRICAL THERAPY Functional electrical therapy is a combination of functional exercise and electrical therapy. The functional electrical therapy protocol comprises voluntary movement of the paretic arm in synchrony with the electrically assisted hand functions in order to perform typical daily activities. The daily treatment of 30 minutes lasts three weeks. The outcome measures include several tests for the evaluation of arm/hand functionality: upper extremity function test, drawing test, modified Aschworth scale, motor activity log and passive range of movement. RESULTS OF FUNCTIONAL ELECTRICAL THERAPY STUDIES Results from our several clinical studies showed that functional electrical therapy, if applied in acute and subacute stroke patients, leads to faster and greater improvement of functioning of the hemiplegic arm/hand compared to the control group. The outcomes were significantly superior at all times after the treatment for the higher functioning group. DISCUSSION Additional well-planned clinical studies are needed to determine the adequate dose of treatment (timing, duration, intensity) with functional electrical therapy regarding the patient's status. A combination with other techniques should be further investigated.
Effects of Changes to Farm Program Payment Policies on the Distribution of Payments and Income Inequality of Farm Households

In recent years, increasing attention has focused on the distribution of government payments, especially the share of payments that go to large farms and high-income farm households. Farm commodity program payment limits were first introduced in the Agricultural Act of 1970. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 for the first time supplemented program payment limits with a cap on the income farmers could earn and still receive farm program payments. The 2008 Farm Act tightened payment limitations on some producers and replaced the total adjusted gross income (AGI) limit with separate lower caps for the farm and nonfarm components of AGI. This research uses data from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), a survey of farm operator households conducted annually by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, to examine the impact of government payments and changes in payments as a result of changes to farm program policies on income inequality among farm households.
Karyotype in myelodysplastic syndromes: Relations to morphology, clinical evolution, and survival

One hundred eighty‐eight unselected consecutive patients with “de novo” myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) were studied cytogenetically. They were subclassified as 4 refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts (RARS), 67 refractory anemia (RA), 58 refractory anemia with excess of blasts (RAEB), 40 RAEB in transformation (RAEB‐t), and 19 chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). The overall incidence of chromosome abnormalities was 69%. The RAEB and RAEB‐t patients showed karyotypic changes, more often than RA and CMML (76% and 100% vs. 56% and 42%, respectively). The most frequent single anomaly was del(5)(q13‐q22q33) (22 cases), followed by monosomy 7 or del 7q (11 cases), del(11) (q14q23) (8 cases), trisomy 8 (4 cases). Complex karyotypes (defined by the presence of three or more structural or numerical abnormalities) were detected in 33 patients. With regard to the FAB classification, del (5)(q13q33) was associated with RA, and complex rearrangements with RAEB and RAEB‐t. Leukemic transformation occurred in 66 patients (46%), none with a normal karyotype or del(11)(q14q23) as single abnormality. In patients carrying 5q‐ alone, acute evolution correlated with proximal breakpoint localization, being found in no case with del(5)(q13q33) but in three out of four cases with del(5)(q22q33). Acute leukemia (AL) progression happened in all cases with complex rearrangements and monosomy 7 or del(7q). Two of the four trisomy eight patients evolved in AL. By using the Cox proportional hazard regression analysis it was demonstrated that the karyotype abnormality was a significant predictor of leukemic transformation (P < 0.001). Patients with abnormal karyotypes without complex abnormalities had a survival (median survival 12 months) shorter than that of cases with only normal metaphases (median 83 months) (P < 0.001); patients with a mixture of normal/abnormal metaphases had a median survival of 31 months. The median survival for complex karyotypes was 7 months. Among cases with single defects, del(5)(q13q33) showed the best survival (64 months), mono‐ somy 7 and del (7q) the worst (7 months) (P < 0.001). © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Part-Time Work in Chile

This article discusses the evolution and determinants of part-time work in Chile. It tests some hypotheses found in the international literature, to determine whether part-time work is precarious, whether hourly payment is smaller, and whether it constitutes a step toward full-time employment. Evidence is found that part-time work is mostly feminine, and can be precarious in that it can be less stable and more informal. However, hourly wage is slightly higher than in full-time jobs. This gap is examined through a decomposition of Oaxaca, which reveals that wage differences cannot be explained by observable factors. It concludes with a Markov chain analysis using the Casen surveys to determine whether part-time jobs are a transition to full-time jobs, and also steady-state part-time participation is projected, as are long-term participation and employment rates. The results show that, given the current dynamics, the relative share of part-time work over total employment will remain stable, and labor participation will attain the level of developed economies in no less than 25 years.
The Portfolio Implications of Adding Social Security Private Account Options to Ongoing Investments

Proposals to allow private accounts under Social Security were introduced long before George Bush was elected President, and support for privatization in some form will survive his administration and the economic downturn that followed. This paper studies the impact that private accounts would have on risk/return investment tradeoffs available to Social Security participants who save and invest on an ongoing basis outside the Social Security system. For such investor/participants, we show that the reduction in total diversifiable risk afforded by traditional Social Security accounts would be more than sufficient in many cases to compensate for the opportunity cost of opting-out of a privatization program if one were enacted. The risk of financing private accounts by diverting mandatory contributions away from guaranteed benefit accounts, on the other hand, would be proportionately higher for those with little or no private savings or investments outside the Social Security system. The paper concludes, therefore, that privatization would lead to imprudent risks being borne by those who can least afford to do so, and would offer no significant advantage to others.
Neuropsychological deficits in asymptomatic atrial fibrillation

Objective ‐ To assess the preclinical effects on cognitive functions of nonrheumatic atrial fibrillation (NRAF) in patients with negative history for cerebrovascular disease. Materials and methods ‐ The study included 37 consecutive patients with chronic (n= 16, mean age 65.3±6.6 years) or paroxysmal (n=21, mean age 58.3±9.5 years) NRAF and an equal number of control subjects in sinus rhythm, who were matched for age, education and presence of hypertension. A comprehensive neuropsychological battery including tests of attention, memory, language and visuospatial skills was administered. Results ‐ Patients with chronic NRAF showed significantly poorer performances in tasks exploring attention and verbal memory functions, while the paroxysmal group was significantly impaired in a long‐term memory task. The neuropsychological findings were confirmed excluding from both groups patients with CT evidence of cerebrovascular damage. A small subgroup of patients was also submitted to cerebral MRI. Conclusion ‐ Neurologically asymptomatic NRAF is related to a subclinical but significant impairment in attention and memory. These deficits could be produced by minor ischemic lesions due to microembolization, or by diffuse hypoxic damage due to hypoperfusion.
AtHKT1 is a salt tolerance determinant that controls Na+ entry into plant roots

Two Arabidopsis thaliana extragenic mutations that suppress NaCl hypersensitivity of the sos3–1 mutant were identified in a screen of a T-DNA insertion population in the genetic background of Col-0 gl1 sos3–1. Analysis of the genome sequence in the region flanking the T-DNA left border indicated that sos3–1 hkt1–1 and sos3–1 hkt1–2 plants have allelic mutations in AtHKT1. AtHKT1 mRNA is more abundant in roots than shoots of wild-type plants but is not detected in plants of either mutant, indicating that this gene is inactivated by the mutations. hkt1–1 and hkt1–2 mutations can suppress to an equivalent extent the Na+ sensitivity of sos3–1 seedlings and reduce the intracellular accumulation of this cytotoxic ion. Moreover, sos3–1 hkt1–1 and sos3–1 hkt1–2 seedlings are able to maintain [K+]int in medium supplemented with NaCl and exhibit a substantially higher intracellular ratio of K+/Na+ than the sos3–1 mutant. Furthermore, the hkt1 mutations abrogate the growth inhibition of the sos3–1 mutant that is caused by K+ deficiency on culture medium with low Ca2+ (0.15 mM) and <200 μM K+. Interestingly, the capacity of hkt1 mutations to suppress the Na+ hypersensitivity of the sos3–1 mutant is reduced substantially when seedlings are grown in medium with low Ca2+ (0.15 mM). These results indicate that AtHKT1 is a salt tolerance determinant that controls Na+ entry and high affinity K+ uptake. The hkt1 mutations have revealed the existence of another Na+ influx system(s) whose activity is reduced by high [Ca2+]ext.
The real meaning of value in trading relationships

Purpose – The paper aims to survey the main usages of the term “value” in the economics, marketing, strategy and operations fields.Design/methodology/approach – The way in which all four fields adopt an unbalanced approach, concentrating exclusively on the customer's perspective, is highlighted. A complete, balanced analysis including both the customer and supplier perspectives is outlined. The precise meaning of the term value is then explored in detail, revealing and exploring the difference between the potential and realised versions.Findings – These insights are applied to an analysis of the concept of the “value chain” leading to the conclusion that, given the ontology of value, much of the language used to describe value and chains is deeply misleading.Practical implications – The paper ends with a discussion of the possible effects of this ontological and linguistic sloppiness on practitioners and business practice. By bringing clarity to the real meaning of value in trade it may be possible to imp.
Transforming Macau: Planning as Institutionalized Informality and the Spatial Dynamics of Hypercompetition

This paper examines the crucial years between 2002 and 2012 when land enclosures, reclamation works, and architectural production transformed the urban landscape of Macau. Building on the literature on urban informality, I first analyze how planning as institutionalized informality unmapped the city of Macau through a complex medium of neoliberal ethos, technical rationality, and geopolitical calculations. Then, I show how the casino concessionaires remapped the city in a highly competitive milieu by tracing how they maneuvered to secure relative locational advantage. This analysis shows the importance of framing mapping and unmapping as a simultaneous dialectical process so as to render the creative–destructive dynamic of capitalist urban transformation. It also suggests how we can further the analysis of urban planning as an informalized practice and institution.
Role of leptin as an immunomodulator of blood mononuclear cells: mechanisms of action

Leptin is a an adipocyte‐secreted hormone that regulates weight centrally. However, the leptin receptor is expressed not only in the central nervous system, but also in peripheral tissues, such as haematopoietic and immune systems. Therefore, the physiological role of leptin should not be limited to the regulation of food intake and energy expenditure. Moreover, the leptin receptor bears homology to members of the class I cytokine family, and recent data have demonstrated that leptin is able to modulate the immune response. Thus, the leptin receptor is expressed in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, mediating the leptin effect on proliferation and activation. In vitro activation and HIV infection in vivo induce the expression of the long isoform of the leptin receptor in mononuclear cells. Also, leptin stimulates the production of proinflammatory cytokines from cultured monocytes and enhances the production of Th1 type cytokines from stimulated lymphocytes. Moreover, leptin has a trophic effect on monocytes, preventing apoptosis induced by serum deprivation. Leptin stimulation activates JAK–STAT, IRS‐1‐PI3K and MAPK signalling pathways. Leptin also stimulates Tyr‐phosphorylation of the RNA‐binding protein Sam68 mediating the dissociation from RNA. In this way, leptin signalling could modulate RNA metabolism. These signal transduction pathways provide possible mechanisms whereby leptin may modulate activation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Therefore, these data support the hypothesis regarding leptin as a proinflammatory cytokine with a possible role as a link between the nutritional status and the immune response. Moreover, these immunoregulatory functions of leptin could have some relevance in the pathophysiology of obesity.
REVIEW: A comparison of selected quantitative trait loci associated with alcohol use phenotypes in humans and mouse models

Evidence for genetic linkage to alcohol and other substance dependence phenotypes in areas of the human and mouse genome have now been reported with some consistency across studies. However, the question remains as to whether the genes that underlie the alcohol‐related behaviors seen in mice are the same as those that underlie the behaviors observed in human alcoholics. The aims of the current set of analyses were to identify a small set of alcohol‐related phenotypes in human and in mouse by which to compare quantitative trait locus (QTL) data between the species using syntenic mapping. These analyses identified that QTLs for alcohol consumption and acute and chronic alcohol withdrawal on distal mouse chromosome 1 are syntenic to a region on human chromosome 1q where a number of studies have identified QTLs for alcohol‐related phenotypes. Additionally, a QTL on human chromosome 15 for alcohol dependence severity/withdrawal identified in two human studies was found to be largely syntenic with a region on mouse chromosome 9, where two groups have found QTLs for alcohol preference. In both of these cases, while the QTLs were found to be syntenic, the exact phenotypes between humans and mice did not necessarily overlap. These studies demonstrate how this technique might be useful in the search for genes underlying alcohol‐related phenotypes in multiple species. However, these findings also suggest that trying to match exact phenotypes in humans and mice may not be necessary or even optimal for determining whether similar genes influence a range of alcohol‐related behaviors between the two species.