Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased calcium influx in the presence of ethanol in mouse pancreatic acinar cells

The effects of alcohol on Ca2+ signalling remains poorly understood. Here we have investigated the effects of acute ethanol exposure on Ca2+ influx in mouse pancreatic acinar cells. Cells were loaded with fura‐2 and the changes in fluorescence were monitored by spectrofluorimetry and imaging analysis. Stimulation of cells with 20 pM cholecystokinin evoked an oscillatory pattern in [Ca2+]c, both in the presence and in the absence of extracellular Ca2+. Stimulation of cells with cholecystokinin in the presence of 50 mM ethanol led to a transformation of physiological oscillations into a single transient increase in [Ca2+]c. This effect was observed when Ca2+ was present in the extracellular medium, and did not appear in its absence. Addition of 1 mM CaCl2 to the extracellular medium, following release of Ca2+ from intracellular stores by stimulation of cells with 1 nM cholecystokinin or 1 μM thapsigargin in the absence of extracellular Ca2+, was followed by an increase in [Ca2+]c. Ca2+ influx was increased in the presence of 50 mM ethanol. The anti‐oxidant cinnamtannin B‐1 (10 μM) or inhibition of alcohol dehydrogenase by 4‐MP (1 mM), significantly reduced Ca2+ influx evoked by cholecystokinin in the presence of ethanol. In summary, intoxicating concentrations of ethanol may lead to over stimulation of pancreatic acinar cells by cholecystokinin. This might be partially explained by the generation of reactive oxygen species and an increased Ca2+ entry in the presence of ethanol. Potentially ethanol might lead to Ca2+ overload, which is a common pathological precursor that is implicated in pancreatitis.
Adenosine receptors: promising targets for the development of novel therapeutics and diagnostics for asthma

Interest in the role of adenosine in asthma has escalated considerably since the early observation of its powerful bronchoconstrictor effects in asthmatic but not normal airways. A growing body of evidence has emerged in support of a proinflammatory and immunomodulatory role for the purine nucleoside adenosine in the pathogenic mechanisms of chronic inflammatory disorders of the airways such as asthma. The fact that adenosine enhances mast cell allergen‐dependent activation, that elevated levels of adenosine are present in chronically inflamed airways, and that adenosine given by inhalation cause dose‐dependent bronchoconstriction in subjects with asthma emphasizes the importance of adenosine in the initiation, persistence and progression of these common inflammatory disorders of the airways. These distinctive features of adenosine have been recently exploited in the clinical and research setting to identify innovative diagnostic applications for asthma. In addition, because adenosine exerts its multiple biological activities by interacting with four adenosine receptor subtypes, selective activation or blockade of these receptors may lead to the development of novel therapies for asthma.
Differential Elimination of Circadian and Ultradian Rhythmicity by Hypothalamic Lesions in the Common Vole, Microtus arvalis

Effects of hypothalamic lesions on the ultradian and circadian organization of wheel running and feeding were studied in the common vole, Microtus arvalis. Circadian organization broke down within 30 days in continuous darkness in 24% of intact voles (n = 135). Ultradian rhythmicity of feeding (period 2-3 hr) persisted in constant conditions in all intact voles. Following lesions of the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), circadian rhythmicity disappeared when lesions were complete (n = 8) or more extensive than 25% of the total SCN volume (n = 5). Absence of circadian rhythmicity was also found in animals with substantial lesions in the diencephalic paraventricular area (PVA) and in the retrochiasmatic area (RCA) and/or adjacent arcuate nucleus (Arc). Complete loss of ultradian and circadian organization occurred in eight voles with damage to the RCA and/or Arc. In three of these, the SCN was intact. The SCN is a likely candidate for a circadian pacemaker in voles (as in other rodents), while the loss of circadian rhythmicity following PVA and RCA/Arc lesions may be due to destruction of efferent pathways from the SCN. The RCA/Arc area is apparently necessary for the expression of ultradian rhythms. The intact SCN is neither necessary nor sufficient for the generation of ultradian rhythmicity.
Delegating Pricing Decisions

An outstanding problem in marketing is why some firms in a competitive market delegate pricing decisions to agents and other firms do not. This paper analyzes the impact of competition on the delegation decision and, in turn, the impact of delegation on prices and incentives. The theory builds on the simplest framework of competition in two dimensions: prices and (sales agents') effort. Specifically, we are interested in answering the following questions: (1) Does competition affect the price-delegation decision and, if yes, why? (2) How do prices vary under price-delegation and no-price-delegation scenarios? (3) Do the incentives to the sales representatives vary under the delegation and no-delegation scenarios? To address these issues, we build a game-theoretic model that consists of two firms selling through their sales representatives. These representatives are company employees. Sales are a function of prices and selling efforts. The risk-neutral firms decide whether or not to delegate the pricing decision to risk-averse sales representatives. The wages to the sales representatives consist of salary plus a commission on gross margins. The commission on gross margins can be adjusted, either through communicated marginal cost of production, which we call ''virtual'' marginal cost, or directly. The firm and the sales representative are assumed to have the same information about the market, that is, there is no information asymmetry.With competition in two dimensions, the strategic nature of decision variableprice depends on the relative intensity of competition. With unobservable contracts and risk-averse sales representatives, firms delegate the pricing decision when price competition is intense. Part of the uncertainty in demand is absorbed by the firm by keeping ''virtual'' marginal cost greater than the marginal cost of production. The competing firm infers this through the risk aversion of the sales representatives. Under price delegation the sales representatives' wages are higher, and they set a price that is higher than what the firms would have set themselves. This leads to softening of price competition that is to the advantage of both firms. When the effort competition is dominant, however, the firms prefer to make the pricing decision themselves, because this reduces the intensity of effort competition among agents.A single-instrument commission structure in which the firms adjust the ''virtual'' marginal cost is compared to a two-instrument commission structure in which the firms can adjust the commission rate, as well the ''virtual'' marginal cost. Under no price delegation, the two incentive schemes are the same. However, under price delegation the risk premium with the two-instrument scheme is lower. However, the prices and efforts are higher with the single-instrument scheme. When price competition is intense, the increase in risk premium with the single instrument scheme is more than compensated for by the increase in profits. This is the benefit of softening price competition through higher prices.
Institutional maturity and challenges for integrity bodies

Integrity bodies, as monitoring and review authorities, are dualistic institutions acutely subject to the forces of integration and autonomy. They are usefully embraced by governance perspectives that suggest ascending levels of maturity through which all institutions can potentially progress. The perspectives and levels have distinctive features with inherent challenges ideally requiring the involvement of particular types of institutional leaders.
The Future of Agricultural Cooperatives

Cooperatives are of particular interest to economists because of their unique ownership structure and the incentives this structure creates. In addition to the so-called property rights problems (e.g., free-rider, horizon, and portfolio problems), the analysis of agricultural cooperatives has focused on issues of market power, agency, product quality, and increasingly producer and consumer heterogeneity. These last three elements are important features of the industrialization of the agrifood system. This article highlights the key concepts required for examination of cooperatives now and in the future and incorporates these concepts into a framework that can be used to examine the myriad situations and problem settings in which agricultural cooperatives are likely to be found. A key finding of the paper is that the procompetitive and distributional impacts of cooperatives depend critically on the sensitivity of price in the downstream retail market, the nature of the cooperative’s governance structure, and the open or closed nature of cooperative membership. The article also provides a discussion of new areas in which an understanding of cooperatives and collective action would be valuable, as well as a discussion of the applicability of the proposed framework to these areas.
'You Can Enter But You Cannot Leave...' - U.S. Securities Markets and Foreign Firms

While a number of prior papers have argued the benefits for foreign firms cross-listing their shares in the U.S., there is now a significant number of foreign firms exiting U.S. capital markets. This is occurring despite the difficulties foreign firms face in deregistering from the SEC. This paper examines the reasons underlying this trend. Overall, we find that the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and its enhanced corporate governance requirements has been a major motivation for foreign firms to exit. Moreover, we find firms with strong insider control are more likely to exit the U.S. market, as are those from countries where corporate governance tends to be relatively weak. Given the above, the paper suggests that legal bonding has not been a significant deterrent to foreign firm exit.
COLLEGA semantic middleware for collaborative assistance in mobile social networks

The Crowdsensing-based systems using mobile technology create a new kind of collective intelligence in a sensing environment mediated by ICTs. On the other hand, ICTs and social networks contribute to the emergence of virtual communities. The interaction among participants can create dynamically groups from a previously known platform where all participants perform tasks and solve problems in a specific context and situations. The COLLEGA Semantic Middleware (Co-SeMiWa) is an emergency semantic middleware for collaborative assistance. The system is context-aware extracting contextual information from social networks such as Twitter, knowing potential participants by profiles and interests, collecting data from Crowdsensing platform and providing semantic information to improve the way how people contribute to the community. Dynamic Mobile Virtual Communities (DMVCs) is this new kind of collective intelligence and the Co-SeMiWa is a system that extracts and manages a several related data providing a semantic infrastructure to enhance this scenario. The paper introduces the DMVC s concept and describes the Co-SeMiWa architecture for this application in emergency scenarios and Smart Cities environments.
Expatriate Job Performance and Adjustment: Role of Individual and Organizational Factors

﻿The expatriate literature has highlighted many individual and organizational factors which effect expatriate job performance and adjustment but the role of some individual and organizational factors is still not clear and/or has been ignored by past researchers. For example, the role of direct and indirect support has not been well conceptualized in past studies. In addition, only a few studies have explained the importance of self-efficacy, cultural sensitivity and social networking in the related expatriate literature. Furthermore, the role of previous international experience has conflicting results in past research. The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical grounding and highlight the importance of those individual and organizational factors which have been ignored by past researchers. In this regard, researchers have reviewed journals/articles from different databases, books, and magazines. This paper proposes a comprehensive framework based on the gaps in the literature and suggests propositions. The proposed conceptual framework provides a theoretical grounding for individual and organizational factors that includes individual factors (self-efficacy, previous international experience, cultural sensitivity, and social network) and organizational factors (direct and indirect support). This paper suggests that expatriate adjustment (work, general, and interaction adjustment) mediates the relationship between individual factors (self-efficacy, previous international experience, cultural sensitivity, and social network), organizational factors (direct and indirect support), and expatriate job performance (rated by peer and supervisor). The proposed framework is developed based on past theoretical and empirical studies in order to cover the gap and contribute to the body of knowledge in the field of the literature. Based on the proposed framework, this paper invites researchers to empirically test the suggested propositions in order to further strengthen and develop understanding about individual and organizational factors as predictors of expatriate adjustment and job performance.
On the Solution to State Failure Detection Problem

This paper studies the interesting problem formulated in [1], which is to design a set of observers which can detect and locate unknown system failure to any first order state component. This paper proposes a much simpler solution to this problem with less restrictions. Based on this solution, an extended study of the required number of observers and their orders, is also provided.
Party Responsiveness to the Collective Judgment of the Electorate

Studies on retrospective voting argue that voters under presidentialism tend to assign co-responsibility for the president’s performance to her party in congressional elections. However, it is not uncommon for presidential parties to distance themselves from an unpopular president or for opposition parties to cooperate with a popular president. In doing so, parties can signal to voters that they side with a popular (or against an unpopular) president. Yet little is known about whether this strategic behavior has electoral payoffs. This study proposes a popularity-response model, where parties’ electoral outcomes are a product of how they respond to public opinion on the president. I hypothesize that parties defecting from an unpopular president (or cooperating with a popular president) minimize electoral losses and obtain a further electoral boost. Analysis using an original dataset coding issue congruence between presidents and parties prior to 35 elections in 18 Latin American countries supports this claim.
Rural tourism and sustainable rural tourism

This theme issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism is devoted to the issues surrounding the development of rural tourism and of more sustainable forms of rural tourism. They are examined in the context of rural areas in the developed nations of Western Europe. Earlier versions of these papers were presented at the Second International School on Rural Development, held in Galway, Ireland in July 1993, which took rural and sustainable rural tourism as its themes. Consideration is given to developing rural tourism in ways where the supply of tourist facilities and experiences is appropriate to the needs of the host community, the environment and the local suppliers, and where it also matches the requirements of tourists on the demand side. Concern is expressed that rural tourism should not develop as the hapless outcome of inexorable, external forces, and hence prominence is given to the role of local communities and local businesses in shaping rural tourism.
Implications of Capital Punishment in the Nigerian Society

Nigeria is a pluralistic society. It is diverse in many spheres of life such as language, creed, economy and other cultural worldviews. Consequently, there are high level of criminal tendencies which have posed serious challenges in Nigerian society. The long military rule did not help the situation. Rather, armed robbery, coup d'etre, murder, treason, felony, terrorism, drug trafficking and other crimes committed with firearms seem uncontrollable in Nigeria. The expectation is high in accessing functional means of arresting the cankerworm that has eaten deep into the very fabric of the Nigerian society. Although, opinion pool seems high on ways of moving Nigeria forward, however, mute indifference and cold passivity have characterized the cherished dreams of most Nigerians. The over emphasis on material gains have compounded and increased criminal tendencies in Nigerians. A systematic look at the implications of Capital Punishment remains a functional index to the roots of the problem of death penalty in Nigeria. The thrust of this article is to explore and expose the nature of capital punishment, the various opinions for and against it and the implications of capital punishment in the Nigerian . society This exposition would not have been possible without the primary and secondary complimentary methods adopted. Opinion seems divided on capital punishment but the cumulative force here points to the numerous committees, organizations and movements so that it is evil manipulative and a show of primitive brutality. It does not speak of a humane society except for the utilitarian argument to the effect that it is necessary in order to prevent future capital offences.
Creating inclusive schools : critical considerations for school management teams.

A qualitative case study of critical consideration for the SMT in developing inclusive schools is reported in this study. The study was conducted in one rural district in the south coast area in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The aim of the study was to determine the SMT’s understanding of inclusive education and to establish what they consider as important in ensuring that their schools are inclusive. Lastly, it sought to identify the challenges that they faced in making their school inclusive. This was a single case study. The study targeted 5 SMT members who were involved in a focus group interview. Data analysis in the study influenced by systems theory. The two concepts defined are inclusive education and school management teams. Both the theoretical framework and the theory were used as lenses to understand the critical considerations for the SMTs in developing inclusive schools. The findings gathered from the study indicate that the SMT had very limited and often distorted understanding of the policy of inclusive education. It was also clear that they are not sure of what they consider critical for them as the SMT in the process of developing inclusive schools. At the same time they were able to indicate many challenges that they are faced with in their school. The findings suggest that this might be lack or inappropriate training on inclusive education as well as misunderstandings on inclusive strategies. The study concludes that the introduction of policy processes that requires implementation should ensure that all stakeholders involved are brought on board. It is important to get buy in from other educators to embrace diversity and understand the purpose. The process of paradigm shift is difficult to individuals especially when there are so many changes in the system, people tend to resist change.
Photoionization Thresholds of Melanins Obtained from Free Electron Laser–Photoelectron Emission Microscopy, Femtosecond Transient Absorption Spectroscopy and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Measurements of Oxygen Photoconsumption

Abstract Free electron laser–photoelectron emission microscopy (FEL-PEEM), femtosecond absorption spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements of oxygen photoconsumption were used to probe the threshold potential for ionization of eumelanosomes and pheomelanosomes isolated from human hair. FEL-PEEM data show that both pigments are characterized by an ionization threshold at 282 nm. However, pheomelanosomes exhibit a second ionization threshold at 326 nm, which is interpreted to be reflective of the benzothiazine structural motif present in pheomelanin and absent in eumelanin. The lower ionization threshold for pheomelanin is supported by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. Unlike photolysis at 350 nm, following excitation of solubalized synthetic pheomelanin at 303 nm, the transient spectrum observed between 500 and 700 nm matches that for the solvated electron, indicating the photoionization threshold for the solubalized pigment is between 350 and 303 nm. For the same synthetic pheomelanin, EPR oximetry experiments reveal an increased rate of oxygen uptake between 338 nm and 323 nm, narrowing the threshold for photoionization to sit between these two wavelengths. These results on the solubalized synthetic pigment are consistent with the FEL-PEEM results on the human melanosomes. The lower ionization potential observed for pheomelanin could be an important part of the explanation for the greater incidence rate of UV-induced skin cancers in red-haired individuals.
Effect of futures trading on spot price volatility: evidence for NSE Nifty using GARCH

This study aims to study the impact of the introduction of Nifty index futures on the volatility of the Indian spot markets using data from April 1997 to April 2007. The study considered six measures of volatility, dynamic linear regression models and the GARCH models to investigate volatility in NSE Nifty prices, both before and after the onset of futures trading. The study confirmed no structural change after the introduction of futures trading on Nifty and found that, whilst the pre-futures sample was integrated, the post-futures sample was stationary. Spot returns volatility is found to be less important in explaining spot returns after the advent of futures trading in NSE Nifty.
Ajustement des entreprises et distribution du crédit pendant la transition : une comparaison de quatre pays d'Europe centrale et orientale.

Résumé À partir d'une série d'indicateurs bancaires et monétaires, cet article met en valeur la très grande diversité ex-post des politiques de crédit suivies depuis 1990 dans quatre économies en transition. On montre que cette divergence est liée à des profils divergents d'ajustement de la relation de crédit entre banques et entre­prises, sous l'impact lui-même variable de trois catégories de facteurs: les contraintes macro-économiques (déficit public et dette extérieure en particulier), les interventions publiques dans le secteur bancaire (notamment les recapitalisa­tions), enfin les conditions dans lesquelles les stocks de dettes constitués avant la transition ont été ou non préservés pendant les premiers mois de la transition.