Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The hippocampus and appetitive Pavlovian conditioning: Effects of excitotoxic hippocampal lesions on conditioned locomotor activity and autoshaping

The hippocampus (HPC) is known to be critically involved in the formation of associations between contextual/spatial stimuli and behaviorally significant events, playing a pivotal role in learning and memory. However, increasing evidence indicates that the HPC is also essential for more basic motivational processes. The amygdala, by contrast, is important for learning about the motivational significance of discrete cues. This study investigated the effects of excitotoxic lesions of the rat HPC and the basolateral amygdala (BLA) on the acquisition of a number of appetitive behaviors known to be dependent on the formation of Pavlovian associations between a reward (food) and discrete stimuli or contexts: (1) conditioned/anticipatory locomotor activity to food delivered in a specific context and (2) autoshaping, where rats learn to show conditioned discriminated approach to a discrete visual CS+. While BLA lesions had minimal effects on conditioned locomotor activity, hippocampal lesions facilitated the development of both conditioned activity to food and autoshaping behavior, suggesting that hippocampal lesions may have increased the incentive motivational properties of food and associated conditioned stimuli, consistent with the hypothesis that the HPC is involved in inhibitory processes in appetitive conditioning. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Participatory Development and Beneficiary Implementer Syndromes: A Study on National Poverty Alleviation Programme in Sri Lanka

There are many and varied explanations for public policy failures conducted both in the tradition of Top-Down and Bottom-up implementation studies. Governments have co-opted the participatory development strategy on account of domestic and international pressures. In this context, the implementation strategy has become that of creating partnership between public sector and beneficiary organizations. The role of grass root level implementers has become very important as they have to embrace the new role of change agent. However, the studies that highlight the cultural dimensions of public policy process have revealed the political construction of beneficiaries as well as grass-root implementers. Since they are both politically constructed, they share important syndromes and they remain largely un-explored. The present study is an attempt to explore them in relation to national programme for poverty alleviation in Sri Lanka.
Global production and local jobs: can global enterprise networks be used as levers for local development?

This article is developed out of a research project on ‘Global Production and Local Jobs’ launched by the International Institute for Labour Studies of the International Labour Organization (ILO). It identifies salient features of global production networks in the automobile, electronics and apparel industries, and discusses their implications for local industrial upgrading, jobs and development policy. The approach combines in novel forms complementary analytical frameworks such as the global value chain and industrial district perspectives, in order to highlight interactions between global and local forces in the operation of transnational production networks. Central issues revealed by this approach include: the rise of entry barriers into the most profitable, service-intensive activities of global value chains, that reduce small firms' prospects for industrial upgrading; the uneven benefits derived from participation in global production networks at the local level; and the need for local institutions to devise policy responses through a flexible, network-oriented approach involving a broad local constituency.
Societal Safety: Concept, Borders and Dilemmas

In most industrialized countries, the end of the Cold War marked a change in focus from preparedness for war to an increasing focus on civil society's own vulnerability and safety. To meet new threats and changing risks, there is also a need for new analytical concepts. Societal safety is a concept developed in Norway during the last decade. It could be defined as: "The society's ability to maintain critical social functions, to protect the life and health of the citizens and to meet the citizens' basic requirements in a variety of stress situations. " It aims to be a systematic approach for understanding, mitigating and responding to social problems such as extraordinary stresses and losses, interferences in complex and mutual dependent systems, or lack of trust in vital social institutions. Future threats to society are not limited to specific sectors or areas, but stem from complex interactions amongst economic, technological, social and cultural factors. Thus, the main challenges to improve societal safety will be the ability to coordinate, organize and assign clear roles to different actors at the international, national and local levels. Societal safety has interfaces with other safety-related areas such as national security, sustainable development, human security and incident management (handling of isolated accidents, common illness and ordinary criminal acts). Societal safety is, however, a sensitive political issue containing dilemmas and value choices that are hardly possible to perceive or solve as pure scientific problems.
Performing Gender and Rurality in Swedish Farm Tourism

Abstract The diversification of farming towards more service-intensive businesses enables innovation and competitiveness within the farming sector. However, running a hospitality and tourism business significantly differs from farming and requires different competencies. It entails face-to-face customer relationships and creating experiences based on the identity of the place and the entrepreneurs. By inviting in guests/customers, the farm is transformed from primarily an agricultural production place to one that produces experiences and services. This paper aims to analyse and discuss how women engaged in farm tourism perform rural and gender identities by producing experiences and services, and how these performances may reproduce or challenge traditional rural and gender identities. The study is based on interviews with women in the two regions Dalarna and Uppland who run tourism businesses on working farms. The interviews show that the entrepreneurs must cope with tensions and conflicts between agricultural production and tourism at the farms in terms of not only practical work and duties, but also how gendered farming identities are performed.
In vitro and in vivo delivery of genes and proteins using the bacteriophage T4 DNA packaging machine

The bacteriophage T4 DNA packaging machine consists of a molecular motor assembled at the portal vertex of an icosahedral head. The ATP-powered motor packages the 56-µm-long, 170-kb viral genome into 120 nm × 86 nm head to near crystalline density. We engineered this machine to deliver genes and proteins into mammalian cells. DNA molecules were translocated into emptied phage head and its outer surface was decorated with proteins fused to outer capsid proteins, highly antigenic outer capsid protein (Hoc) and small outer capsid protein (Soc). T4 nanoparticles carrying reporter genes, vaccine candidates, functional enzymes, and targeting ligands were efficiently delivered into cells or targeted to antigen-presenting dendritic cells, and the delivered genes were abundantly expressed in vitro and in vivo. Mice delivered with a single dose of F1-V plague vaccine containing both gene and protein in the T4 head elicited robust antibody and cellular immune responses. This “progene delivery” approach might lead to new types of vaccines and genetic therapies.
The energy value of cereal grains, particularly wheat and sorghum, for poultry

Summary Results from the Premium Grains for Livestock Program were analysed to identify variation in the energy value for laying hens and broiler chickens of cereal grains including wheat, barley, oats, triticale, sorghum and rice. There was wide variation in apparent metabolisable energy (AME) within and between grain species for both layers and broilers. While the range in AME values was similar for most grains in layers and broilers, there were varying responses to specific samples. AME values tended to be higher in layers than broilers for barley, frosted triticale and naked oat samples. More AME was obtained from rice by broilers. There was little relationship between AME content of grains and the amount eaten by layers or broilers. When wheat and sorghum, the most common grains used by the Australian poultry industry, were compared, AME was considerably higher for sorghum in both layers and broilers. The intake of sorghum based diets was also higher for layers, but not for broilers. Layers offered sorghum based diets consumed 13% more AME daily than those offered wheat based diets. However, for broilers, daily intake of AME was similar for sorghum and wheat based diets. Despite a similar daily intake of AME, broilers offered wheat based diets grew 20% faster and used 13% less feed than those offered sorghum based diets. The poor utilisation of energy from sorghum based diets was attributed to a low availability of amino acids, with arginine as possible first limiting amino acid, due to the low content and digestibility of sorghum proteins. In addition, asynchrony in the timing of absorption of amino acids from casein, the main protein source in the experimental diets, and glucose from the delayed digestion of starch granules surrounded by a relatively indigestible protein matrix is thought to have contributed to the lower utilisation of energy from sorghum than from wheat based diets.
Managing Financial Integration and Capital Mobility — Policy Lessons from the Past Two Decades

The accumulated experience of emerging markets over the last two decades has laid bare thetenuous links between external financial integration and faster growth on the one hand and theproclivity of such integration to fuel costly crises on the other. These crises have not gonewithout learning. During the 1990s and 2000s, emerging markets converged to the middleground of the policy space defined by the macroeconomic trilemma, with growing financialintegration, controlled exchange rate flexibility and proactive monetary policy. The OECDcountries moved much faster towards financial integration, embracing financial liberalization,opting for a common currency in Europe, and for flexible exchange rates in other OECDcountries. Following their crises of 1997-2001, emerging markets added financial stability as agoal, self-insured by building up international reserves and adopted a public finance approach tofinancial integration. The global crisis of 2008-09, which originated in the financial sector ofadvanced economies, meant that the OECD “overshot” the optimal degree of financialderegulation while the remarkable resilience of the emerging markets validated their publicfinance approach to financial integration. The story is not over: with capital flowing in droves toemerging markets once again, history could repeat itself without dynamic measures to managecapital mobility as part of a comprehensive prudential regulation effort.
Development of moral values in young people for the strengthening of indigenous peoples.

Bioethics education of young people within multiculturalism and globalization requires the application of moral competencies that let them strengthening values from the differences of indigenous peoples to identify the identity and historical component as part of auto-recognizing. The spirituality, philosophy and environmental protection the ethnic peoples have contributed to the sustainability and preservation of cultural roots. The purpose was the recognize the elements that build relationships in young people, from the differences framed in theories of human needs described by Doyal and Gough, providing universalisable objectives, the political theory of Hannah Arendt introducing from private space to public space young people and the theory of Maslow's social needs which leads to recognize two important points for moral development, self-realization as the source of the right to difference and acceptance social as ethnic awareness, empathy and tolerance for the differences. It was concluded that through the recognition of social needs and socialization of formal and informal bioethics education, built within the differences, provide valuable elements in the construction of the moral experience of the young with values that strengthen to the indigenous peoples.
Role of Respiratory Drive in Hyperoxia-Induced Hypercapnia in Ready-to-Wean Subjects With COPD

BACKGROUND: Hyperoxia-induced hypercapnia in subjects with COPD is mainly explained by alterations in the ventilation/perfusion ratio. However, it is unclear why respiratory drive does not prevent CO2 retention. Some authors have highlighted the importance of respiratory drive in CO2 increases during hyperoxia. The aim of the study was to examine the effects of hyperoxia on respiratory drive in subjects with COPD. METHODS: Fourteen intubated, ready-to-wean subjects with COPD were studied during normoxia and hyperoxia. A CO2 response test was then performed with the rebreathing method to measure the hypercapnic drive response, defined as the ratio of change in airway-occlusion pressure 0.1 s after the start of inspiratory flow (ΔP0.1) to change in PaCO2 (ΔPaCO2), and the hypercapnic ventilatory response, defined as the ratio of change in minute volume (ΔV̇E) to ΔPaCO2. RESULTS: Hyperoxia produced a significant increase in PaCO2 (55 ± 9 vs 58 ± 10 mm Hg, P = .02) and a decrease in pH (7.41 ± 0.05 vs 7.38 ± 0.05, P = .01) compared with normoxia, with a non-significant decrease in V̇E (9.9 ± 2.9 vs 9.1 ± 2.3 L/min, P = .16) and no changes in P0.1 (2.85 ± 1.40 vs 2.82 ± 1.16 cm H2O, P = .97) The correlation between hyperoxia-induced changes in V̇E and PaCO2 was r2 = 0.38 (P = .02). Median ΔP0.1/ΔPaCO2 and ΔV̇E/ΔPaCO2 did not show significant differences between normoxia and hyperoxia: 0.22 (0.12–0.49) cm H2O/mm Hg versus 0.25 (0.14–0.34) cm H2O/mm Hg (P = .30) and 0.37 (0.12–0.54) L/min/mm Hg versus 0.35 (0.12–0.96) L/min/mm Hg (P = .20), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In ready-to-wean subjects with COPD exacerbations, hyperoxia is followed by an increase in PaCO2, but it does not significantly modify the respiratory drive or the ventilatory response to hypercapnia.
Use of an Adaptation of a Commercially Available PCR Assay Aimed at Diagnosis of Chlamydia and Gonorrhea To Detect Trichomonas vaginalis in Urogenital Specimens

ABSTRACT Trichomonas vaginalis PCR using reagents from a commercially available assay for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae was evaluated for detection of infection in women and men attending a sexually transmitted disease clinic. Evaluations included three primer sets, endocervical swabs, vaginal swabs and urine, and various storage conditions. The TVK3/TVK7 primer set was optimal in our hands with sensitivities ranging from 69.5 to 96.8%. In all comparisons, T. vaginalis PCR performed better than routine diagnostics using microscopy for women and culture for men (P > 0.05). The assay performed well for all sample types tested, and vaginal swabs were stable for up to 7 days at ambient temperature. Using samples prepared for, and reagents from, the C. trachomatis-N. gonorrhoeae PCR assay allowed incorporation of T. vaginalis PCR diagnosis into routine clinical testing.
Managing Risk of Supply Disruptions: Incentives for Capacity Restoration

A supplier facing the prospect of disruption has to decide whether or not to invest in restoration capability. With restoration capability, if disruption occurs, additional costly effort can be exerted to rebuild capacity, although its outcome is uncertain. We study how a firm (buyer) can use incentive mechanisms to motivate a supplier's investment in capacity restoration, and compare this approach with the traditional approach of diversifying part of the order to an expensive but reliable supplier. Under a Restoration Enhancement (RE) strategy, the buyer uses price and/or order quantity incentives to encourage the supplier's restoration investment decision. Two different cases are considered—when the incentive is committed to ex ante (prior to disruption) and when it is committed to ex post (after disruption). In contrast, under a Supplier Diversification (SD) strategy, the buyer splits orders between a reliable supplier and an unreliable supplier to hedge against the disruption risk. Here, the buyer does not provide any separate incentive to the unreliable supplier. Our analysis indicates that under the RE strategy, where the buyer offers incentives, both the buyer and the supplier (weakly) prefer the ex ante commitment over the ex post one. Furthermore, the RE strategy is preferred over the SD strategy when the unreliable supplier's restoration outcome is more predictable or when a high restoration outcome is more likely. However, the buyer's preference for the SD strategy increases as market demand increases.
Alignment, Structural Balance, and International Conflict in the Middle East, 1948-1978

System-level theories of international relations traditionally focus on the distribution of power capability as the main factor in influencing alignment behavior and the outcome of international conflict. However, the results have not been completely satisfactory. This study suggests that we improve the extant theories by considering the alignment bonds and links along the friend-enemy lines. From an analysis of the joint effect of the balancing of power capabilities and the balancing of the friend-enemy alignment relations, I conclude that in an international system with countries in conflict, an uneven distribution of power capability coupled with the balance of friend-enemy alignment relations in the system provides the best conditions for conflict management. This proposition is subsequently applied to examine the pattern of alignment relations and their impact on military conflict in the Middle East system from 1948 to 1978. The findings support this theoretical assertion.
Enabling the emergent entrepreneurial organisation to develop new products

The research literature concerning the new product development process (NPD) is reviewed and this is placed within the concepts required for effective intrapreneurial learning (IL). A model of IL for emergent entrepreneurial organisations (EO) is presented and the necessity to assess progression towards learning objectives at the individual, job and organisation level is shown. Three aspects of organisational groundwork are identified and discussed. These include developing the NPD process, implementing the NPD strategy and allocating resources for development and IL. Sets of IL objectives are identified and discussed. These are organisational analysis, barrier demolition, team working, flexible problem solving, use of advanced support tools, facilitating communication, maintaining communication, decision making, assessment of the entrepreneurial environment (EE), and NPD risk analysis. These analyses will identify the groundwork that should be undertaken by the emergent EO and the initial learning objectives for the intrapreneurs. It is proposed that EOs will be promoted when the objectives set by both an organisational needs analysis and an individual needs analyses are accomplished and the EE is formed.
Common Periodic Correlation Features and the Interaction of Stocks and Flows in Daily Airport Data

We propose the multivariate representation of univariate and bivariate (possibly nonstationary) periodic models as a benchmark for the imposition of common periodic correlation (CPC) feature restrictions to obtain parameter parsimony. CPCs are short-run common dynamic features that co-vary across the different days of the week and possibly also across weeks and that can be common across different time series. We also show how periodic models can be used to describe interesting dynamic links in the interaction between stock and flow variables. We apply the proposed modeling framework to a dataset of daily arrivals and departures in airport transit data.
Labour Market Dynamics in Resource Dependent Regions: an Examination of the Western Australian Goldfields

Labour shortages have become an increasingly significant barrier to economic development in regional Australia. Many firms and government agencies are operating below capacity as a result of their inability to fill jobs. In the mineral resources sector, this has been compounded by rapidly rising demand for commodities and the very remote locations of many mine sites. This paper explores the dynamics of labour shortages in the minerals sector of the Western Australian Goldfields. It demonstrates close linkages between commodity price, labour supply and demand, and resource output. Against the background of a state-wide ‘resources boom’, the paper also points to an increase in intra- and inter- regional competition for labour.
A 50-Picosiemens Anion Channel of the Chloroplast Envelope Is Involved in Chloroplast Protein Import*

Single channel recordings were used to investigate the changes on the pea chloroplast envelope during protein import. In the inside-out patch configuration a 50-picosiemens (pS) anion channel of the chloroplast envelope membrane was identified. The open time probability of the channel was decreased by the addition of the wild type precursor protein of ferredoxin (wt-prefd) to the pipette-filling solution in the presence of 0.5 mmATP. In the absence of ATP or in the presence of 50 μmATP, wt-prefd did not affect the open time probability of the channel. A deletion mutant of prefd, Δ6–14-prefd, which is inactive inin vitro import, was also unable to affect the open time probability of the 50-pS anion channel. In the presence of 100 μm ATP, wt-prefd decreased the open time probability of the channel to a lesser extent, as did the transit peptide alone. It is concluded that the 50-pS anion channel could be part of the protein import machinery of the inner membrane. In addition the precursor protein under import conditions induced burst-like increases of the envelope conductivity. The implication of both responses for the chloroplast protein import process are discussed.
Speckle decorrelation flow measurement with B-mode US of contrast agent flow in a phantom and in rabbit kidney.

PURPOSE To use speckle decorrelation in the presence of ultrasonographic (US) contrast agent as an alternative flow measurement technique to Doppler US. MATERIALS AND METHODS In vivo and in vitro studies were performed. A tube with flowing saline solution containing contrast agent was positioned horizontally across a US image. The amount of decorrelation between a series of images was recorded. The flow profile across the tube was generated by averaging the decorrelation values and was compared with a Doppler frequency shift image. In addition, B-mode images of six rabbit kidneys were obtained during and after intravenous injection of contrast agent. Images were analyzed to compute the correlation between successive points in time. RESULTS The velocity profiles across the tube were parabolic, with the fastest flow rates measured in the center of the tube. In the rabbit kidneys, measurements indicated the largest decorrelation rates occurred in the larger vessels. The cortical decorrelation rates were significantly slower than those for the hilar vessels (P < .05) and were relatively angle independent. CONCLUSIONS Decorrelation flow measurements can be used to estimate flow in vitro and in vivo similar to measurements obtained with Doppler US but with less angle dependence. These measurements could lead to a US perfusion technique.