Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New technological developments and technology assessment: a plea for an integrated approach

In reaction to earlier attempts to influence the development of technology through technology assessment concepts, ‘Constructive Technology Assessment’ has recently been evolving. We criticize this CTA on fundamental and practical grounds, illustrated by a study on the possibility of a method of assessing the environmental effects of new engineering materials early in their life cycle. The fundamental criticisms are related to the popularity of social constructivist and network approaches in science studies. Our studies suggest that too little is known of both the structural aspects of networks, and on the way knowledge about a technology is structured in relation to its application.
High-frequency transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation reduces pain and cardio-respiratory parameters in an animal model of acute pain: Participation of peripheral serotonin

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of high-frequency transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (HF-TENS) in antihyperalgesia, assessed through changes of sciatic nerve activity and its effects on cardiorespiratory parameters, using formalin-induced nociception in anesthetized rats. The animals were divided into formalin (FORM) and HF-TENS groups. All rats received injections of 5% formalin (50 μl, right hind-paw). The sciatic nerve activity and cardiopulmonary parameters (mean arterial pressure, heart rate, and respiratory frequency) were measured, and then the serum levels of serotonin (5-HT) were determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. The formalin injection was able to increase the sciatic nerve activity, heart rate, and respiratory frequency. The treatment with HF-TENS significantly reduced the sciatic nerve activity and respiratory frequency 20 minutes after formalin injection and was able to increase serum 5-HT. Furthermore, when comparing the groups, reductions in the mean arterial pressure, heart rate, respiratory frequency, and sciatic nerve activity were shown at different times. Thus, we concluded that HF-TENS was capable of inducing analgesia, which was most likely related to increased serotonin release. Moreover, we demonstrated that TENS was able to block the adverse cardiovascular and respiratory changes induced by pain. Further neurophysiological studies are necessary to clarify the intrinsic mechanisms underlying HF-TENS-induced analgesia.
Evolution of computer game developer organizations

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to identify the peculiarity of computer game organizations and their human resources. It presents a stage model including four phases covering the growth from demo group to full business. This study extends the research on how computer game organizations are formed and what it takes them to grow to financially self-sufficient. The study also broadens the understanding of the beginning phase of an organization. Design/methodology/approach - – The paper utilizes the grounded theory research method with 34 interview sessions among 11 computer game organizations. The interviewed persons include chief executive officers, designers and developers. Findings - – This paper presents empirical findings on what a computer game organization go through when they evolve from demo group phase, which is not discussed in existing literature, to full business. The authors observed that the core team is formed over a game designer and one or more developers. The team fortifies as the organization moves onwards to next phases. At the same time its reliance on partners and outsourcing changes to need based. Research limitations/implications - – As this is a qualitative study the observations are directly applicable only in the context of observed organizations. In the other context they are merely suggestions. Practical implications - – The study presents concrete growth model that can be utilized when building a computer game organization. Originality/value - – This paper illustrates the specialty of computer game organizations and their growth process. It also presents discussion of the beginning phase of organizations.
National Intellectual Capital Index

The intellectual capital of a nation (or a region of nations) requires the articulation of a system of variables that helps to uncover and manage the invisible wealth of a country. Most importantly, an emphasis on human capital allows for a better understanding of the hidden values, individuals, enterprises, institutions, and communities that are both current and potential future sources of intellectual wealth. This paper endeavours to address the five research questions. The main outcomes of this paper are the development of a national intellectual capital measurement methodology and index. The NICI is also used within a structural equation model to test several hypotheses related to national intellectual capital development.
Minimum Quantity Lubrication and Carbon Footprint: A Step towards Sustainability

In today’s world, there is an increasing awareness among consumers for demanding sustainable products. Several countries have already started working to create strategies for implementing sustainable manufacturing. Other countries are making efforts to access international markets and face intense market competitions in terms of sustainable status of products, which build a huge pressure on manufacturers to avail the concept of sustainable manufacturing. This paper proposes a manufacturing model to minimize total cost of manufacturing and carbon emissions with the effect of variable production quantity to provide sustainable manufacturing. Total cost of manufacturing includes fixed costs and variable costs with the addition of cost of minimum quantity lubrication and imperfect quality items. Minimum quantity lubrication system is an eco-friendly and sustainable, which reduces negative impact on environment and improves workers' safety. This study considers the real situation of imperfect products and proportion of it can be reworked at certain known rate. Numerical example and sensitivity analysis are given by using multiobjective genetic algorithm and goal attainment techniques to illustrate the practical applications of the proposed model.
Effects of Fentanyl on Natural Killer Cell Activity and on Resistance to Tumor Metastasis in Rats

Objectives: Opiates, which serve an integral role in anesthesia, suppress immune function, particularly natural killer cell cytotoxicity (NKCC). NK cells play an important role in tumor and metastasis surveillance. We reported that large-dose fentanyl anesthesia induced prolonged suppression of NKCC in patients undergoing abdominal surgery. The immune modulatory effects of opiates may depend on the interaction between dose and time of administration. The present study examined the effects of different doses of fentanyl, administered at different time points relative to tumor inoculation, on NKCC and on experimental tumor metastasis in rats. Methods: Fischer 344 rats were injected with low or high doses of fentanyl, 6 or 2 h before, simultaneously with or 1 h after being inoculated intravenously with MADB106 tumor cells. Lung tumor retention (LTR) was assessed 4 h after, and lung tumor metastases were counted 3 weeks after tumor inoculation. NKCC was assessed 1 h after the fentanyl injection. Results: At all time points, except 6 h before tumor inoculation, fentanyl (0.1–0.3 mg/kg) induced a dose-dependent increase in MADB106 LTR (2.3- to 74-fold). An intermediate dose of fentanyl (0.15 mg/kg) doubled the number of lung metastasis, and, within animal, suppressed NKCC and increased MADB106 LTR in a correlated manner. Conclusion: These findings indicate that fentanyl suppresses NKCC and increases the risk of tumor metastasis. Suppression of NK cells at a time when surgery may induce tumor dissemination can prove to be critical to the spread of metastases. It is suggested that the acute administration of a moderate dose of opiates during surgery should be applied cautiously, particularly in cancer patients.
ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT PER CAPITA AND POPULATION EMPLOYED IN HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS IN ROMANIA

At present, the tourism industry is not one of the strategic domestic industries of the Romanian economy. Accounting for 3-3,5% of GDP, tourism doesn’t have a significant impact on the country’s economic and social welfare or on the environment. However, we can argue that tourism accounts for a larger share of GDP, since figures do not take into account business or special interest tourism, or other additional industries. We believe that tourism can be sustainable only if it conveys positive effects on the development of an area, region or country, while the defining objectives that can be drawn from here are that: tourism helps strengthen and diversify the economy, provides local inhabitants with substantial benefits, focuses on long term prosperity instead of short term benefits and can avert the collateral effects that are harmful for the domestic, regional or local economy. One of the priority objectives of the national strategy in the field of tourism is increasing the employment rate in the tourism industry, as this proves to be an important factor that contributes to an increased quality of live and particularly augments the role of the tourism industry in the development of GDP.
Arming American scientists: NSF and the provision of scientific computing facilities for universities, 1950-1973

This article discusses the role of the US National Science Foundation in the provision of scientific computing facilities for colleges and universities in the period 1950 to 1973. In this period, the NSF played a major role in establishing computing facilities on American campuses for the purposes of scientific research and science education. By the end of this period, most of these programs at NSF had been disbanded, and the foundation was concentrating its support for computing not on the service of other scientific disciplines, but instead on the establishment of a theoretically oriented discipline of computer science. The primary focus here is on NSF institutional history with only a few examples of the impact of NSF programs. But if is an important part of a larger story of the role of the federal government in establishing American hegemony in computing in this era. <<ETX>>
Three‐dimensional orientation of the acetabulum

This study was designed specifically to determine the normal acetabular orientation and femoral head covering, and whether these are affected by age or sex. Computed tomographic images of normal Japanese hip joints were used (males 60, females 60; mean age 48.3 years, range 15–79 years). Male and female age profiles were matched. The reconstructed 3‐D pelvic images were aligned in the anatomical pelvic coordinate system. The acetabular orientation angles and femoral covering angles were measured in the sagittal, coronal, and horizontal planes. In the sagittal plane, the acetabular orientation angle was operative anteversion (O‐av), and the femoral covering angles were the anterior and posterior center‐edge angles (ACE and PCE). In the coronal plane, they were the Sharp angle (SA) and the lateral center‐edge angle (LCE). In the horizontal plane, they were anatomical anteversion (A‐av) and the anterior and posterior sector angles (ASA and PSA). The O‐av, SA, and A‐av were smaller in the male than the female acetabulum (P < 0.01). SA in both males and females was inversely correlated with age (P < 0.01). Both male PCE and PSA were significantly smaller than those of females, while male ASA was larger than female ASA (P < 0.05). The male acetabulum is directed further outward and downward than the female one. However, this does not indicate that the male acetabulum covers the femoral head more, because there is no significant sex difference in the LCE. Femoral coverage is more posteriorly biased in females than in males owing to pelvic inclination. Clin. Anat. 30:753–760, 2017. © 2017Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Explanatory Variables for Low Western Investment Interest in Bulgaria

The understanding of a country's past is important in the process of analyzing a country's present. Through the study of Bulgarian history, the researcher developed a relatively good understanding of the country's image at the beginning of the period in question (1989-2002). The evidence supports the unexpected finding that historical links do not affect a company's decision to invest in another country. Furthermore, there is support for the conclusion that political unwillingness to make significant reforms together with the inefficiency of the post-communist Bulgarian government rather than Bulgarian political instability led to delays in structural reform and delayed progress in privatization, limited foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, and thus to a delay in the overall Bulgarian transition process. Moreover, the cultural closeness and/or distance of multinational enterprises' (MNEs') countries of origin vis-à-vis the host country remain questionable, and they have been used either as incentives or as obstacles to MNEs' investment decisions depending on the specific industries and on the specific products. On the other hand, the geographical distance of Bulgaria from advanced Western countries is an important barrier that partially explains low Western investment interest in Bulgaria.
Cellular responses to Loa loa experimental infection in mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) vaccinated with irradiated infective larvae

In order to shed light on the mechanisms of antifilarial protective immunity, we investigated the course of experimental loaiosis after vaccination in a nonhuman primate host, Mandrillus sphinx. Six vaccinated (V) mandrills received 50 irradiated L3 while six nonvaccinated (NV) received saline solution on days −60, −30 and −15. All animals were challenged with 100 intact L3 (day 0). Parasitological and immunological status were followed for 9 months. Vaccination delayed the appearance and mean peak of microfilaraemia. Five mandrills (Mf–) were never microfilaraemic (one V mandrill) or microfilaraemic on only one occasion (2 V and 2 NV), the other seven having stable microfilaraemia (Mf+). The cytokine response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells to L3 (L3 Ag) was Th2 dominated, while microfilariae (Mf Ag) elicited a Th0‐like response. During vaccination, Th2 cytokine production significantly increased in V mandrills against L3 Ag, as well as Mf Ag, whereas Th1 cytokines decreased. On day 60 postinoculation, cellular proliferation was higher in V mandrills in response to L3 and Mf Ags and PHA‐L mitogen. At the end of prepatency (on day 130), mandrills with delayed appearance of microfilaraemia exhibited a high, transient IL‐2 and IL‐4 secretion in response to L3 Ag. Finally, high anti‐Mf Th2 cytokine levels characterized Mf–mandrills not only during prepatency, but also (for IL‐5) before immunization. However, the presence of a balanced Th1 anti‐L3 response during prepatency in the amicrofilaraemic mandrill suggests its importance in protective immunity. Taken together, our data suggest that Th2 cells and also Th1 components of the antifilarial response, especially to larval antigen, may contribute to parasite elimination.
Common and local asymmetry and day-of-the-week effects among EU equity markets

In line with the integration of financial markets it is expected that anomalies and other characteristics of equity markets become more similar. This paper specifically examines how much of the asymmetry and the day-of-the-week effect is common to the European markets and how much is country specific. The day-of-the-week effects are measured for both unconditional and conditional expected returns and volatilities. Robustness of the results is analysed using two sub-periods. The conditional model accounts for asymmetry in first-order autocorrelation of both the common European market index and the country-specific indexes. The time period spans from January 2000 through December 2006. The results indicate that the asymmetry, especially in volatility, is a common characteristic carried by the European market index, whereas the conditional day-of-the-week effects are local, robust and country specific.
Business Cycles Creation: Some Historical and Theoretical Perspectives

Historically, generalization about economic fluctuations in an economic system over extended periods of time has proved to be difficult. Yet, it has been even more difficult to generalize across economic systems. In a historical setting, there are many theories offered to explain the creation of business cycles. In this study it is argued that the business cycle is not caused by a single factor but by a multiplicity of factors, therefore, such competing theories constitute special cases of the business cycle. This study maintains that there are families of business cycles, with each family representing a related set of economic systems. Given a family approach to economic systems, then it is conceivable that a general theory can be developed for each family of economic systems by grouping factors identifiable with particular sets of economic systems. Data from the United Nations for 137 countries were used to establish a classification scheme for families of economic systems. US time series data were examined to assess the plausibility of the general theory for one family of economic systems as advanced in this study.
Progressive hypertension in a patient with "incidental" renal artery stenosis.

A 63-year-old man was referred for progressive hypertension and previously identified, incidental renal artery stenosis. Three years earlier, he underwent a 4-vessel coronary artery bypass (CABG). A year later, recurrent chest symptoms led to repeat coronary angiography, which identified patent bypass grafts except for one vein-graft occlusion. No coronary interventional procedures were undertaken. During catheter withdrawal, an aortogram revealed bilateral renal artery stenosis estimated to be “greater than 70% luminal stenosis. ” Serum creatinine was 1.3 mg/dL. Blood pressure was 120/70 mm Hg. Medications consisted of daily administration of atenolol 50 mg, atorvastatin 10 mg, and aspirin 81 mg. There was no other history of atherosclerotic events, including stroke or peripheral vascular disease. No renal interventional procedures were undertaken. Three months before the present referral, this man developed exertional chest discomfort after walking 6 blocks and several brief episodes of supraventricular tachycardia. These events terminated after adenosine administration during emergency room visits. Blood pressures were between 180 and 200/90 mm Hg, for which amlodipine was added to the patient’s regimen. Thallium stress testing demonstrated a small apical area of ischemia. He was offered radio-frequency ablation therapy for nodal re-entry tachycardia. Hypertension consultation was obtained. The patient described recent awareness of head discomfort, particularly during the morning hours. Home blood pressure readings ranged between 155/90 and 170/95 mm Hg, whereas readings had been in the 125/70 mm Hg range before. He had discontinued smoking 5 years earlier. Office blood pressures now were 205/108 mm Hg. Arteriovenous nicking was present. No bruits were detected over the carotids or abdomen. A small amount of edema was present. An echocardiogram demonstrated normal resting left ventricular systolic function with evidence for ischemia in the mid-anterior septal region at peak stress. Pre-exercise arterial pressures were 152/104 mm Hg, which rose to 200/96 during exercise. Serum creatinine was …
Οίκέταί (huisbediendes) in die eerste-eeuse Grieks-Romeinse samelewing

This article attempts to do the foundational work for a construct of the probable socio-historic context of household servants mentioned in 1 Peter 2:18. The article provides a general perspective of the different social classes, especially the lower classes in the Graeco-Roman society during the first century A.D. It is proposed that not all slaves were part of the lowest level of the social structure and that not all Roman citizens were equal or functioned as part of the top level of the social pyramid. Many slaves were indeed household servants. Some ex­- slaves (freedmen and freedwomen), however, were also classified according to this category. It is possible and probable that some (poor) citizens and (poor) foreigners were household servants.
Tax Farming: A Radical Solution for Developing Country Tax Problems?

Ineffective tax administration is a chronic problem in many developing countries. A radical solution is tax farming, whereby the right to collect certain taxes is auctioned off to private sector collectors. Proponents argue that it minimizes administrative costs and results in more efficient collection. The purported gains are largely illusory, however. Because the system leads to overzealous collection, a government would have to expend considerable resources on monitoring private tax collectors. If taxpayer abuse is to be avoided, only unambiguous activities could be privatized. The scope for privatizing the core functions of tax administration thus appears limited.
What Influences Student Persistence At Two-Year Colleges?

The Higher Education Act of 1992 increased the availability of student loan funds dramatically. Using the National Student Postsecondary Aid Study, this study examines the difference in effects of background, achievement and aspiration, college experience, price variables, and accumulated debt in 1993 as compared to 1996 on student persistence decisions. In contrast with previous studies using NPSAS:87, the authors find that there is more financial aid available, albeit in the form of loans. Current year subsidies are positively associated with persistence, but the opposite is true for accumulated debt, except for higher debt levels in 1996. The authors provide context and explanation for these findings.
Source coding with distortion profile constraints

In rate-distortion theory, three main types of distortion constraints have been popular: average, pointwise, and excess probability (aka ∊-fidelity). A new setup is proposed here, which is suitable for fixed-length codes and constrains the distribution (profile) of distortions. This is accomplished by imposing multiple constraints on excess-distortion probabilities as well as an optional constraint on average distortion. We show that coding redundancy for compressing discrete memoryless sources is upper-bounded by R<inf>2</inf>/√n + log n/2n + O(log log n/n) + R<inf>4</inf> + o(1) where n is the block length, R<inf>2</inf> the second-order coding rate, and R<inf>4</inf> a constant. For the special case of coding with a single ∊-fidelity constraint, R<inf>2</inf> = √V Q<sup>−1</sup>(∊) where V is the source rate-dispersion function, and Q is the tail probability of a normal random variable. The upper bound is proved using a random coding scheme and deriving exact asymptotics for the probability of distortion balls with input type dependent radius.
Inner‐city concentrated poverty and neighborhood distress: 1970 to 1990

Abstract Tract‐level data from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 censuses of population are used to identify poverty neighborhoods, extreme poverty neighborhoods, distressed neighborhoods, and severely distressed neighborhoods within the nation's 100 largest central cities. Changes in demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of these neighborhoods are documented, including racial/ethnic composition; poverty population concentration; school dropout rates; and rates of joblessness, single‐parent households, and welfare receipt. Results show that despite some encouraging individual city turnarounds in the Northeast (especially in New York, Newark, and Philadelphia), urban poverty concentration and neighborhood distress worsened nationwide between 1980 and 1990. The greatest deterioration occurred in midwestern cities, particularly in Detroit. Southern cities, whose neighborhoods and cities typically improved during the 1970s, slipped during the 1980s; conditions in western cities also deteriorated. Blacks fared .