Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fostering community energy and equal opportunities between communities

This paper aims to shed new light on a much neglected area of equity issues embedded in the use of environmental goods and their links with an equally under-researched issue of the practical capacity of communities. The main focus of the paper is on the equitable distribution of opportunities for using renewable, low-carbon resources to become sustainable energy producers, especially, among communities which are aware of the benefits of sustainable energy generation. Drawing on a document review of governmental support programmes and findings from a survey of community energy projects in the UK, this study: (a) identifies necessary practical capacities and (b) examines the ways in which practical capacities are assessed in the distribution of opportunities. The study suggests that there is general lack of policy attention to equity issues in facilitating community energy. The paper discusses three potential reasons for such lack of attention: (a) an assumption about the ubiquitous existence of certain practical capacities; (b) a priority given to established communities/organisations as a policy delivery agency; and (c) an emphasis placed on technology diffusion. It identifies future challenges in improving the equitable distribution of opportunities for wider communities to engage in sustainable energy generation.
Cardiovascular safety in depressed patients: focus on venlafaxine.

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular side effects from antidepressant drugs, including clinically significant blood pressure changes, conduction disturbances, and arrhythmias may complicate long-term therapy. Cardiovascular effects are most common with tricyclic antidepressants, but occur rarely with most antidepressants. Venlafaxine is a unique antidepressant with a broad spectrum of antidepressant activity and a safety profile that resembles serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors. METHOD A MEDLINE search of the literature in the English language for the past 15 years was conducted, and the venlafaxine new drug application data base was reviewed. RESULTS Clinically significant conduction abnormalities or arrhythmias have not been reported with venlafaxine; however, this drug has not been studied in patients with underlying cardiovascular disease. A dose-related increase in mean blood pressure has been observed. In placebo-controlled studies with venlafaxine, clinically significant increases in blood pressure (increase in diastolic blood pressure of > or = 15 mm Hg and to > or = 105 mm Hg from baseline) were observed in 5.5% of patients at doses above 200 mg daily. The mean increase in diastolic blood pressure was 7 mm Hg after 6 weeks of treatment with doses of 300 to 375 mg daily. In comparative trials, the overall incidence of clinically significant blood pressure increases with venlafaxine was similar to that of tricyclic antidepressants. CONCLUSION Overall, venlafaxine has a low incidence of clinically significant increases in blood pressure at doses below 200 mg daily. As with other antidepressants that may affect blood pressure, the clinician should periodically monitor blood pressure in patients treated with venlafaxine.
SnapMind: A framework to support consistency and validation of model-based requirements in agile development

Two fundamental principles and values of agile methods are customer satisfaction by rapid delivery of useful software and the improvement of the communication process by continuous stakeholders' involvement. But, how to deal with customers' satisfaction and find a better visualization model at the requirements level (which stakeholders can understand and be involved) in an agile development context? Also, how this visualization model enhancement can guarantee consistency between agile requirements artefacts (e.g., user stories and domain models)? Thus, to answer these questions, this paper presents the SnapMind framework. This framework aims to make the requirements modelling process more user-centered, through the definition of a visual requirements language, based on mind maps, model-driven and domain specific language techniques. Moreover, through these techniques, the SnapMind framework focuses on support for consistency between user stories and the domain models using a model animation technique called snapshots. The framework was applied to an industrial case study to investigate its feasibility.
Chemokine receptor CXCR3 and its ligands CXCL9 and CXCL10 are required for the development of murine cerebral malaria

Cerebral malaria is a significant cause of global mortality, causing an estimated two million deaths per year, mainly in children. The pathogenesis of this disease remains incompletely understood. Chemokines have been implicated in the development of cerebral malaria, and the IFN-inducible CXCR3 chemokine ligand IP-10 (CXCL10) was recently found to be the only serum biomarker that predicted cerebral malaria mortality in Ghanaian children. We show that the CXCR3 chemokine ligands IP-10 and Mig (CXCL9) were highly induced in the brains of mice with murine cerebral malaria caused by Plasmodium berghei ANKA. Mice deficient in CXCR3 were markedly protected against cerebral malaria and had far fewer T cells in the brain compared with wild-type mice. In competitive transfer experiments, CXCR3-deficient CD8+ T cells were 7-fold less efficient at migrating into the infected brains than wild-type CD8+ T cells. Adoptive transfer of wild-type CD8+ effector T cells restored susceptibility of CXCR3-deficient mice to cerebral malaria and also restored brain proinflammatory cytokine and chemokine production and recruitment of T cells, independent of CXCR3. Mice deficient in IP-10 or Mig were both partially protected against cerebral malaria mortality when infected with P. berghei ANKA. Brain immunohistochemistry revealed Mig staining of endothelial cells, whereas IP-10 staining was mainly found in neurons. These data demonstrate that CXCR3 on CD8+ T cells is required for T cell recruitment into the brain and the development of murine cerebral malaria and suggest that the CXCR3 ligands Mig and IP-10 play distinct, nonredundant roles in the pathogenesis of this disease.
Modelling technology in agriculture and manufacturing using cross-country panel data

Since the seminal contribution of Gregory Mankiw, David Romer and David Weil (1992), the growth empirics literature has used increasingly sophisticated methods to select relevant growth determinants in estimating cross-section growth regressions. The vast majority of empirical approaches however limit cross-country heterogeneity in production technology to the specification of Total Factor Productivity, the ‘measure of our ignorance’ (Abramowitz, 1956). The central theme of this thesis is an investigation of this choice of specification against the background of pertinent data properties when the units of observations are countries or regions and the time-series dimension of the data becomes substantial. In this first introductory chapter we present two general empirical frameworks for cross-country productivity analysis and demonstrate that they encompass the approaches in the growth empirics literature of the past two decades. We then develop our central argument, that cross-country heterogeneity in the impact of observables and unobservables on output is important for reliable empirical analysis. This idea is developed against the background of the pertinent time-series and crosssection properties of macro panel data.
Photoreceptor cells in the Xenopus retina

This review summarizes our present state of knowledge about spectrally different photoreceptor cell types in the Xenopus retina. The classification of the photoreceptors was based on morphology, combined with immunolabelling with various anti‐visual pigment antibodies and other molecular probes on semithin sections and retinal wholemounts. The majority of photoreceptors is represented by rods. Altogether 97–98% of the total rod population consists of the principal (“red”) rods that are selectively labeled by N‐terminal specific anti‐bovine rhodopsin monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and are maximally sensitive to green light. The other, rare, blue‐sensitive rod type (“green rod”) is thinner, not stained by these antibodies but binds C‐terminal specific anti‐rhodopsin mAbs. The major representatives of the cones are red‐sensitive and consist of a morphologically heterogeneous group comprising both (principal and accessory) members of double cones, as well as large single cones. Outer segments in this group are selectively labeled by mAb COS‐1, specific to the L/M group of cone visual pigments. Another, relatively rare cone type is similar in size, but slightly smaller than the large single cone and is not labeled by mAb COS‐1. This cone type is assumed to have a blue‐sensitive cone visual pigment. The third, least abundant, and immunocytochemically distinct cone type is a small single (miniature) cone, which binds mAb OS‐2 relatively strongly, and anti‐rhodopsin mAbs 4B4 and 1D4 weakly. By exclusion, this small single cone may be identical with the UV‐sensitive cone. Further studies are needed, however, to identify the color sensitivity of the latter two cone types. Microsc. Res. Tech. 50:327–337, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Comparison of Modality-Specific Somatosensory Changes During Menstruation in Dysmenorrheic and Nondysmenorrheic Women

ObjectiveThe objective was to evaluate somatosensory thresholds to a multimodality stimulation regimen applied both within and outside areas of referred menstrual pain in dysmenorrheic women, over four phases of confirmed ovulatory cycles, and to compare them with thresholds in nondysmenorrheic women during menstruation. DesignTwenty dysmenorrheic women with menstrual pain scoring 5.45 ± 0.39 cm (mean ± standard error of mean) on a visual analog scale (10 cm) participated. Fifteen nondysmenorrheic women with a menstrual pain score of 0.4 ± 0.2 cm participated as controls. Ovulation was confirmed by an enzyme-multiplied immunoassay technique. Menstrual pain was described with the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Areas within menstrual pain referral were two abdominal sites and the midline of the low back, and the arm and thigh were the control areas. The pressure pain threshold (PPT) and pinch pain threshold were determined by a hand-held electronic pressure algometer, the heat pain threshold (HPT) by a contact thermode, and the tactile threshold with von Frey hairs. ResultsIn dysmenorrheic women the McGill Pain Questionnaire showed a larger sensory and affective component of pain than the evaluative and miscellaneous groups. The HPT and PPT were lower in the menstrual phase than in the ovulatory, luteal, and premenstrual phases, both within and outside areas of referred menstrual pain (p <0.01), with a more pronounced decrease at the referral pain areas. The pinch pain threshold was lower in the menstrual phase than in the ovulatory phase (p <0.02), and the tactile threshold did not differ significantly across the menstrual phases or within any site. Dysmenorrheic women had a lower HPT at the control sites and a lower PPT at the abdomen, back, and control sites, than in those of nondysmenorrheic women in the menstrual phase. ConclusionsThe results show reduced somatosensory pain thresholds during menstruation to heat and pressure stimulation, both within and outside areas of referred menstrual pain in dysmenorrheic women. Dysmenorrheic women showed a lower HPT at the control sites and a lower PPT at all the sites than those for nondysmenorrheic women in the menstrual phase. The altered somatosensory thresholds may be dependent on a spinal mechanism of central hyperexcitability, induced by recurrent moderate to severe menstrual pain.
Simulation of Nanoscale Multifunctional Interferometric Logic Gates Based on Coupled Metal Gap Waveguides

A novel design of ultrasmall multifunctional Boolean logic gates is proposed in this letter. This interferometric logic device is based on the coupled metal waveguides. This structure is a theoretical analysis, and logic performances are proved by using the finite-difference time-domain method. The single device can perform individually four different kinds of basic functions: and, or, xor, and not operations. The device with an extremely small feature size is an attractive candidate for high density nano-photonic integrated circuits.
Temporal and Regional Evolution of Aquaporin-4 Expression and Magnetic Resonance Imaging in a Rat Pup Model of Neonatal Stroke

Edema formation can be observed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with stroke. Recent studies have shown that aquaporin-4 (AQP4), a water channel, is induced early after stroke and potentially participates in the development of brain edema. We studied whether induction of AQP4 correlated with edema formation in a rat pup filament stroke model using high field (11.7-Tesla) MRI followed by immunohistochemical investigation of AQP4 protein expression. At 24 h, we observed increased T2 values and decreased apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) within injured cortical and striatal regions that reflected the edema formation. Coincident with these MR changes were significant increases in AQP4 expression on astrocytic end-feet in the border regions of injured tissues. Striatal imaging findings were still present at 72 h with a slow normalization of AQP4 expression in the border regions. At 28 d, AQP4 expression normalized in the border while in this region ADC values increased. We show that induction of AQP4 is increased during the period of active edema formation in the border region without regional correlation with edema. Finally, induction of AQP4 on astrocyte end-feet could participate in tissue preservation after ischemia in the immature rat brain.
Were Fed’s active monetary policy actions necessary?

This work applies the two-stage Factor Augmented Vector Autoregression (FAVAR) developed by Bernanke, Boivin and Eliasz (2005) to investigate the appropriateness of frequent monetary policy actions that involve frequent adjustments of the policy interest rate in a prolonged manner. From time to time there are claims that the Federal Reverse Bank cut or raised the fed funds rate too frequently. This raises the concern that the Federal Reserve Bank mistakenly cut interest rate for too long and too frequently and then paused too short and raised rate again to “undo” the previous unnecessary interest rate cut or vice versa. To verify if such a claim is valid, we generate hypothetical scenarios assuming that the Federal Reserve Bank had shortened the time period of active monetary policies and lengthened the period of a pause. Then, we compare economic activities implied by impulse response functions from hypothetical scenarios with those generated from actual fed policies under the record of Alan Greenspan (1987-2006). We find that a less active monetary policy approach could control inflation with less negative impact on real economic activities, and major economic variables would be less volatile in a 48-month horizon. The investigation provides insights on the implementation of monetary policies not only for the U.S., but also for all central banks that control interest rates as their major monetary policy tool.
Working Through Environmental Conflict: The Collaborative Learning Approach

Preface Crafting Effective Policy in a Contentious and Complex World The Essence of Collaborative Learning Understanding Conflict Situations Collaboration as a Deliberative Process Learning as a Foundation for Good Decisions Systems Thinking Collaborative Learning, Communication, and Culture Techniques of Collaborative Learning The Practice of Collaborative Learning: Citizens, Scientists, and Foresters in Fire Recovery Planning The Practice of Collaborative Learning: Other Applications Persistent Challenges and Future Directions
Quantity-Constrainted Household Responses to UI Reform

This paper explores the consequences of adopting a household perspective when evaluating proposals for the reform of the Canadian unemployment insurance system. A model of joint behavior that allows demand-side constraints to limit labor-supply choices is estimated. Quantity constraints faced by one spouse are, thus, important determinants of the other's behavior. Predicted household responses to unemployment insurance reform proposals are negligible and differ from those that would be obtained using a model of unconstrained individual behavior. Copyright 1990 by Royal Economic Society.
Resource Mismanagement Versus Sustainable Livelihoods: The Collapse of the Newfoundland Cod Fishery

The term "sustainable development" is only half of the gestalt of sustainability, the other being "sustainable livelihoods. " The collapse of the Northwest Atlantic cod fishery off the province of Newfoundland, Canada, provides a case study of the interacting biophysical and socioeconomic elements that can decimate a once abundant natural resource. This collapse has resulted in the devastation of livelihoods, and the long - term impact on the Northwest Atlantic ecosystem remains unknown. This article analyzes the collapse as the first step in suggesting a rational fisheries management based on effective stewardship of the resource. This evaluation provides the knowledge base vital for guiding and improving fisheries policy. Several strategies are suggested to bolster a policy goal of sound conservation and management of fisheries for the benefit of the livelihoods dependent on healthy stocks. The strategies are predicated on the concept that living marine resources belong to complex adaptive systems, and a.
Antimetabolite sensitivity and magnesium uptake by thermally stressed Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Metabolic inhibitors were added to a culture medium inoculated with theramlly stressed Vibrio parahaemolyticus to obtain information pertaining to biosynthetic processes required for recovery from heat damage. Ribonucleic acid and protein syntheses, in addition to membrane repair, were required during recovery of injured cells. Neither nucleic acid nor Mg2+ leakage was noted to occur during the time cells were subjected to heat stress. Studies revealed that Mg2+ was apparently taken up by cells of V. parahaemolyticus during the first 30 min after thermal treatment, indicating a possible increased requirement for Mg2+ for membrane and/or ribosome stability and repair.
Consumer preference for production‐derived quality: analyzing perceptions of premium chicken production methods

The authors assess consumer interest in a food product containing production-derived attributes. They use the French Label Rouge system in the Ontario chicken market as an example of a producer-controlled quality system. Conjoint analysis reveals a significant proportion of respondents value nonprice attributes; medication and housing had the highest importance scores, followed by price and brand ownership. Cluster analysis of the part-worth utilities revealed three consumer segments: price conscious consumers; consumers focused on naturalness; and those focused on animal health. Segments do not appear to differ on the basis of socioeconomic and demographic profile of respondents. However, multiitem scales reflecting attitudes towards production systems vary significantly across segments. Price-conscious respondents show agreement with use of medication and express concern over quality. Respondents in the naturalness segment express concern over quality, locality of production and impact of production methods on own health. Animal-health-conscious respondents show agreement with the use of medications, concern over quality, locality and impact of production methods on own health, but neutrality towards byproducts and traditional production methods. lEconLit citations: D120, Q130r. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Forecasting Tourism Demand: The Role of Seasonality

Most tourism destinations are affected by seasonality. Seasonal demand causes various problems for local firms and administrations hampering the efficient use of available facilities and the development of local capabilities. This paper discusses, from an econometric point of view, another important issue stemming from strong seasonality: the effect on forecasting tourist flows. This aspect of seasonality is addressed through an analysis of tourist arrivals in the Province of Lecce, southern Italy.
Analysing Indo-Nepal Economic Linkages

Nepal is India’s next door neighbour. It is a landlocked, least developed country of South Asia. Being a neighbour as well as a well-off member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), it is India’s responsibility to maintain friendly political relations with Nepal and more importantly, to help accelerate the latter’s economic development programme through various linkages, such as trade, investment and economic assistance. The present article evaluates these different linkages, especially from the viewpoint of economic development in Nepal
[Action of delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol on the central cardiovascular regulation : mechanism and localization].

Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (30-300 mug.kg-1 i.v.) induced in cats and dogs a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate. This decrease appears to be centrally mediated. In fact, the splanchnic and cardiac discharges were reduced in intact animals as well as in debuffered cats ruling out a reflexly mediated action. The mechanism of this central decrease in the sympathetic tone appears to be different from the mechanism of the reduction induced by clonidine or by narcotic analgesics agents. In fact, piperoxan (1 mg.kg-1 i.v.), an alpha adrenoceptor blocking agent, antagonized or reversed the centrally mediated reduction in the sympathetic tone induced by clonidine or L-dopa, but did not change the effects of narcotic analgesic agents and of delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol. Naloxone (30 mug.kg-1 i.v.) prevented or reversed the cardiovascular effects of fentanyl and the reduction in splanchnic discharges induced by this agent, but no change was found after naloxone in the effects of clonidine or delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol. The pressor response to high frequency stimulation of the medulla oblongata was abolished by small doses of delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol. This agent did not reduce the pressor response to stimulation of the posterior hypothalamus induced by supramaximal stimulation and did not alter the hypertensive effect induced by stimulation of the cervical spinal cord. Medulla oblogata appears therefore to be the main site of action.
Optimal Experimentation in Signal Dependent Decision Problems

The literature on experimentation and learning typically imposes a special dynamic structure: The only connection between periods is the updating of beliefs. Hence, both the present action and present signal realization only affect the future by changing the distribution of future beliefs. In many dynamic problems, however, either the present action or the present signal realization may enter future payoffs "directly" and not just through future beliefs: This is called "signal dependence". We analyze optimal experimentation, under signal dependence, and show that experimentation may reduce information. We also provide sufficient conditions on the primitives for information-increasing experimentation. Copyright Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association
318 Risk of Adverse Health Effects from Lunar Dust Exposure

The to xicological effe cts of lunar dusts have not been stud ied in sufficient depth t o dev elop an ex posure standard for operations on the lunar surface. Lunar dusts have a high content in the respirable size range, they have a high surface area that i s chemically reactive, and elemental iron "nano-partic les" are imbedded in the dust grains. These unusual properties may cause the respirable dusts to be at least moderately toxic to the respiratory system, and larger grains to be abrasive to the skin & eye. NASA needs to set an airborne exposure standard based o n scientific evidence s o t hat v ehicle desi gns can effectiv ely control e xposure. – Human Research Program Requirements Document, HRP-47052, Rev. C, dated Jan 2009.