Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From the Cover: The growth of business firms: Theoretical framework and empirical evidence

Gibrat (1, 2), building on the work of the astronomers Kapteyn and Uven (3), assumed the expected value of the growth rate of a business firm's size to be proportional to the current size of the firm, which is called the law of proportionate effect (4, 5). Several models of proportional growth have been subsequently introduced in economics to explain the growth of business firms (6–8). Simon and co-workers (9–12) extended Gibrat's model by introducing an entry process according to which the number of firms rise over time. In the framework of Simon and co-workers, the market consists of a sequence of many independent “opportunities” that arise over time, each of size unity. Models in this tradition have been challenged by many researchers (13–17) who found that the firm-growth distribution is not Gaussian but displays a tent shape. Here we introduce a general framework that provides a unifying explanation for the growth of business firms based on the number and size distribution of their elementary constituent components (18–25). Specifically, we present a model of proportional growth in both the number of units and their size, and we draw some general implications on the mechanisms that sustain business-firm growth (7, 11, 21, 26–28). According to the model, the probability density function (PDF) of growth rates is Laplace in the center (13) with power-law tails (29, 30) decaying as Pg(g) ∼ g–ζ, where ζ = 3. Also, because of data limitations, previous studies in this field focus on the Laplace shape of the body of the distribution, which, however, is an unconditional object (31). Using a database on the size and growth of firms and products, we characterize the shape of the whole growth-rate distribution. We test our model by analyzing different levels of aggregation of economic systems, from the “micro” level of products to the “macro” level of industrial sectors and national economies. We find that the model accurately predicts the shape of the PDF of growth rate at all levels of aggregation studied.
E-Syts, a family of membranous Ca2+-sensor proteins with multiple C2 domains

C2 domains are autonomously folded protein modules that generally act as Ca2+- and phospholipid-binding domains and/or as protein–protein interaction domains. We now report the primary structures and biochemical properties of a family of evolutionarily conserved mammalian proteins, referred to as E-Syts, for extended synaptotagmin-like proteins. E-Syts contain an N-terminal transmembrane region, a central juxtamembranous domain that is conserved from yeast to human, and five (E-Syt1) or three (E-Syt2 and E-Syt3) C-terminal C2 domains. Only the first E-Syt C2 domain, the C2A domain, includes the complete sequence motif that is required for Ca2+ binding in C2 domains. Recombinant protein fragments of E-Syt2 that include the first C2 domain are capable of Ca2+-dependent phospholipid binding at micromolar concentrations of free Ca2+, suggesting that E-Syts bind Ca2+ through their first C2 domain in a phospholipid complex. E-Syts are ubiquitously expressed, but enriched in brain. Expression of myc-tagged E-Syt proteins in transfected cells demonstrated localization to intracellular membranes for E-Syt1 and to plasma membranes for E-Syt2 and E-Syt3. Structure/function studies showed that the plasma-membrane localization of E-Syt2 and E-Syt3 was directed by their C-terminal C2C domains. This result reveals an unexpected mechanism by which the C2C domains of E-Syt2 and E-Syt3 functions as a targeting motif that localizes these proteins into the plasma membrane independent of their transmembrane region. Viewed together, our findings suggest that E-Syts function as Ca2+-regulated intrinsic membrane proteins with multiple C2 domains, expanding the repertoire of such proteins to a fourth class beyond synaptotagmins, ferlins, and MCTPs (multiple C2 domain and transmembrane region proteins).
Equivalence and Differences Between Structural Equation Modeling and State-Space Modeling Techniques

State-space modeling techniques have been compared to structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques in various contexts but their unique strengths have often been overshadowed by their similarities to SEM. In this article, we provide a comprehensive discussion of these 2 approaches' similarities and differences through analytic comparisons and numerical simulations, with a focus on their use in representing intraindividual dynamics and interindividual differences. To demonstrate the respective strengths and weaknesses of the 2 approaches in representing these 2 aspects, we simulated data under (a) a cross-sectional common factor model, (b) a latent difference score model with random effects in intercept and slope, and (c) a bivariate dynamic factor analysis model with auto- and cross-regression parameters. Possible ways in which SEM and state-space modeling can be utilized as complementary tools in representing human developmental and other related processes are discussed.
Rapid, Modified Kirby-Bauer Susceptibility Test with Single, High-Concentration Antimicrobial Disks

A rapid (6–7 hr), modified Kirby-Bauer disk-susceptibility method, by which derivatives of tetrazolium dyes are used to enhance delineation between areas of growth and zones of inhibition, has been developed. Inoculated petri plates, prepared by the Kirby-Bauer method, were sprayed, after 6 to 7 hr of incubation (37 C), with aqueous solutions of MTT-tetrazolium or INT-tetrazolium resulting in readily detectable zones of inhibition. Excellent correlation was obtained between the modified test and the standard Kirby-Bauer test when challenged with a variety of gram-negative bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus strains. Additionally, the modified test has demonstrated reproducibility comparable to the standard Kirby-Bauer test. It is demonstrated that the modified test is applicable to susceptibility determinations with representative, commercially available antimicrobial disks. This applicability indicates that the modified method could provide rapid in vitro guidelines for in vivo therapy.
Learning Factorial Codes by Predictability Minimization

I propose a novel general principle for unsupervised learning of distributed nonredundant internal representations of input patterns. The principle is based on two opposing forces. For each representational unit there is an adaptive predictor, which tries to predict the unit from the remaining units. In turn, each unit tries to react to the environment such that it minimizes its predictability. This encourages each unit to filter "abstract concepts" out of the environmental input such that these concepts are statistically independent of those on which the other units focus. I discuss various simple yet potentially powerful implementations of the principle that aim at finding binary factorial codes (Barlow et al. 1989), i.e., codes where the probability of the occurrence of a particular input is simply the product of the probabilities of the corresponding code symbols. Such codes are potentially relevant for (1) segmentation tasks, (2) speeding up supervised learning, and (3) novelty detection. Methods for finding factorial codes automatically implement Occam's razor for finding codes using a minimal number of units. Unlike previous methods the novel principle has a potential for removing not only linear but also nonlinear output redundancy. Illustrative experiments show that algorithms based on the principle of predictability minimization are practically feasible. The final part of this paper describes an entirely local algorithm that has a potential for learning unique representations of extended input sequences.
Depression among patients with diabetes mellitus in North India evaluated using patient health questionnaire-9

Background: Depression is common among diabetes, and is associated with poor outcomes. However, the data on this important relationship are limited from India. Objective: The aim was to estimate the prevalence of depression in patients with diabetes and to determine the association of depression with age, sex, and other related parameters. Materials and Methods: The study was cross-sectional carried out in endocrinology clinic of tertiary care hospital in North India. Cases were patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) above 30 years of age. Depression was assessed using the patient health questionairre-9 (PHQ-9). The relationship with sociodemographic profile, duration of diabetes, hypertension and microvascular complications was also analyzed. Results: Seventy-three subjects (57.5% females) with mean age 50.8 ± 9.2 years were evaluated. The prevalence of depression was 41%. Severe depression (PHQ score ≥15) was present in 3 (4%) subjects, moderate depression (PHQ score ≥10) in 7 (10%) subjects, and mild depression was present in 20 (27%) of subjects. Depression was significantly more prevalent in rural subjects (57%) when compared to urban ones (31%, P = 0.049). Depression increased with presence of microvascular complications, fasting plasma glucose, hypertension, but the differences were not statistically significant. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates higher prevalence of depression in patients with type 2 diabetes. Apart from being belonging to the rural area, no other factor was significantly associated with depression. Therefore, depression should be assessed in each and every patient, irrespective of other factors.
Simplicity of singular spectrum in Anderson-type Hamiltonians

We study self adjoint operators of the form Hω = H0 + ∑ ω(n)(δn| · )δn, where the δn’s are a family of orthonormal vectors and the ω(n)’s are independent random variables with absolutely continuous probability distributions. We prove a general structural theorem which provides in this setting a natural decomposition of the Hilbert space as a direct sum of mutually orthogonal closed subspaces that are almost surely invariant under Hω and which is helpful for the spectral analysis of such operators. We then use this decomposition to prove that the singular spectrum of Hω is almost surely simple.
Analogy of Electronic Pacemaker and Ventricular Parasystole with Observations on Refractory Period, Supernormal Phase, and Synchronization

The artificial pacemaker has been compared to a physiologic ventricular parasystolic focus. In hearts being driven by a pacemaker, in the absence of atrioventricular (AV) block, capture (interference) phenomena are constantly seen. While variations in QRS complexes have been observed when the external pacemaker stimulus occurs early in the T-wave period of a sinus conducted beat, no sequence of aberrant beats has been observed. One patient showed occasional sinus beats interpolated between ventricular beats arising from the artificial pacemaker, and these occurred at a very narrow time band suggesting that AV conduction was permitted by phenomenon of a supernormal phase. At a later date this patient showed also retrograde conduction believed related to a supernormal phase during recovery of junctional tissue penetrated by an impulse entering from above, though the impulse itself was blocked.Records of two patients are used to illustrate grossly aberrant QRS complexes produced by the stimulus of the electric pacemaker when this fell in the semirefractory period. Noteworthy was the presence of a latent period before potentials of the propagated impulse were recorded, there being evident stimulus-to-QRS delays. The situation wherein the rhythm is most chaotic is that where AV block is absent, the sinus rate is fast, and the electric pacemaker rate is relatively slow. In two patients, retrograde activation of the atria occurred as a stable mechanism. In one patient, nodal rhythm of the RP type occurred, and sequences of the records suggested that the AV node might have become synchronized with the extrinsic pacemaker cycle. In this last instance three independent centers of effective impulse formation coexisted, the sinus node, AV node, and stimulating electrodes of the electronic pacemaker.A marked increase in the refractory period of the ventricle, as measured by its response to the set stimulus of the electric pacemaker delivered at varying instants with respect to the sinus mechanism, occurred in one case within a few days. The possibility that reserpine therapy contributed to this change is possible but has not been established, for the effective refractory period, as measured, later remained constant over a period of many weeks.
Leather waste valorisation through material innovation: some properties of leather wood fibreboard.

Due to the ever-increasing scarcity of resources and raw materials in the wood panels industry, it is imperative to look for suitable alternatives to the established resources. Therefore a combination of the traditionally used and newly explored sources may reveal highly innovative ways. The objective of this study is to provide an insight into the behavior of the material and possible new applications of those fiber/particle wood and waste leather composites. For this reason exclusively fibers of spruce were used for the trials. Wet white (WW) leather particles and wet blue (WB) leather particles were mixed with the wooden materials for the production of high density fibreboards. Besides the mechanical properties such as the internal bond (IB) the bending strength (MOR) and modulus of elasticity (MOE) was analyzed. Further physical property as thickness swelling after 24h watering was investigated. To analyze how the density influences the behavior under thermal conditions, fiberboards with the densities 500, 700 and 900 kg/m3 were tested. The results of the material properties were influenced by the leather content of the panels. The results for the UF-bonded HDF boards show enhancement of the transverse IB with increasing wet blue leather content, whereas the other mechanical properties decline meanwhile. The thickness swelling showed higher values compared to the wood fibreboard. The results of this study underline the usefulness of integrating leather shavings to HDF and give an overview of their influence in wood fiber materials. The combination of the natural resource wood fiber and the leather waste products (Wet Blue and Wet White) gives a very interesting new material, its mechanical properties allow a variety of possible application in future applications.
A comparative efficacy trial between cefuroxime and cloxacillin as intramammary treatments for clinical mastitis in lactating cows on commercial dairy farms

Abstract AIMS: To assess the efficacy of a commercial intramammary preparation containing cefuroxime as a treatment for clinical mastitis in lactating dairy cows. METHODS: Clinical mastitis cases (n=440) were identified during early to mid lactation on 36 seasonally-calving commercial dairy herds in south-western Victoria, Australia, that ranged in size from 140 to 550 cows. A milk sample for bacterial culture was collected from each affected quarter prior to treatment. Cases were treated using a commercial intramammary antibiotic product containing either 250 mg cefuroxime or 200 mg cloxacillin, according to the manufacturer's recommendations, and the recommended milk with-holding period was observed. The assessment of clinical cure of each case was made by the farm owner/manager at the end of the milk with-holding period. Post-treatment milk samples were taken from clinically cured quarters at each of three consecutive milkings, commencing 7 days after the end of the milk with-holding period and submitted for bacterial culture. RESULTS: Pathogenic bacteria were isolated from 252/416 (60.6%) pre-treatment milk samples submitted from eligible cases. Streptococcus uberis was the most frequent isolate, being cultured from 31.7% of cases. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from 18.3% of pre-treatment samples, and Esherichia coli from 7.0%. The clinical cure rate for all eligible cases was 81.7%. There was no significant difference in clinical cure rates between cases treated with cefuroxime (186/225=82.7%) and cases treated with cloxacillin (154/191=80.6%). The trial had 80% power to detect a significant difference if the actual cure rates differed by at least 12.6%. There was a superior clinical response rate (p=0.04) for mastitis cases from which E. coli was isolated that were treated with cefuroxime (18/19=95%) compared with cloxacillin 6/10=60%), but case numbers were low (n=29). The overall bacteriological cure rate for the trial was 70% (69/98 cases assessed). There was no significant difference (p=0.27) in bacteriological cure rate between cases treated with cefuroxime (42/56=75%) and cases treated with cloxacillin (27/42=64%). CONCLUSIONS: This trial demonstrated that cefuroxime was an effective intramammary treatment for clinical mastitis and had similar clinical and bacteriological cure rates to cloxacillin, an accepted industry-standard product. Activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria was demonstrated for cefuroxime which, along with the economic benefits of less discarded milk compared with other antibiotic preparations, indicated that cefuroxime is likely to be an appropriate intramammary antibiotic for the treatment of clinical mastitis in commercial dairy herds during early to mid lactation in Victoria, Australia.
Differentiation of human melanoma cells induced by cyanidin‐3‐O‐β‐glucopyranoside

Great attention has been recently given to a flavonoid of the anthocyanin class, cyanidin‐3‐O‐β‐ glucopyranoside (C‐3‐G), which is widely spread throughout the plant kingdom, and is present in both fruits and vegetables of human diets. In this study, we investigated the effect of C‐3‐G on proliferation and differentiation of human melanoma cells. Both morphological and functional parameters were evaluated, using electron and confocal microscopy, cytofluorometric analysis, HPLC assay, Western blot analysis, and enzymatic assay, as appropriate. A treatment with a single dose of C‐3‐G decreased cell proliferation without affecting cell viability and without inducing apoptosis or necrosis. The mitotic index and cell percentage in S phase were significantly lower in C‐3‐G treated cells compared with untreated control. C‐3‐G treatment induced, in a dose‐ and time‐dependent manner, melanoma cell differentiation characterized by a strong increase in dendrite outgrowth accompanied with a remodeling of the microtubular network, a dramatic increase of focal adhesion and an increased expression of “brain specific” cytoskeletal components such as NF‐160 and NF‐200 neurofilament proteins. C‐3‐G treatment also induced increase of cAMP levels and up‐regulation of tyrosinase expression and activity resulting in an enhanced melanin synthesis and melanosome maturation. Up‐regulation of the melanoma differentiation antigen Melan‐A/MART‐1 in treated cells respect to the untreated control was also recorded. Data obtained provide evidence that a single treatment with C‐3‐G is able to revert the human melanoma cells from the proliferating to the differentiated state. We conclude that C‐3‐G is a very promising molecule to include in the strategies for treatment of melanoma; also because of its nutritional relevance.
Prediction of human pharmacokinetics — renal metabolic and excretion clearance

The kidneys have the capability to both excrete and metabolise drugs. An understanding of mechanisms that determine these processes is required for the prediction of pharmacokinetics, exposures, doses and interactions of candidate drugs. This is particularly important for compounds predicted to have low or negligible non‐renal clearance (CL). Clinically significant interactions in drug transport occur mostly in the kidneys. The main objective was to evaluate methods for prediction of excretion and metabolic renal CL (CLR) in humans. CLR is difficult to predict because of the involvement of bi‐directional passive and active tubular transport, differences in uptake capacity, pH and residence time on luminal and blood sides of tubular cells, and limited knowledge about regional tubular residence time, permeability (Pe) and metabolic capacity. Allometry provides poor predictions of excretion CLR because of species differences in unbound fraction, urine pH and active transport. The correlation between fraction excreted unchanged in urine (fe) in humans and animals is also poor, except for compounds with high passive Pe (extensive/complete tubular reabsorption; zero/negligible fe) and/or high non‐renal CL. Physiologically based in‐vitro/in‐vivo methods could potentially be useful for predicting CLR. Filtration could easily be predicted. Prediction of tubular secretion CL requires an in‐vitro transport model and establishment of an in‐vitro/in‐vivo relationship, and does not appear to have been attempted. The relationship between passive Pe and tubular fraction reabsorbed (freabs) for compounds with and without apparent secretion has recently been established and useful equations and limits for prediction were developed. The suggestion that reabsorption has a lipophilicity cut‐off does not seem to hold. Instead, compounds with passive Pe that is less than or equal to that of atenolol are expected to have negligible passive freabs. Compounds with passive Pe that is equal to or higher than that of carbamazepine are expected to have complete freabs. For compounds with intermediate Pe the relationship is irregular and freabs is difficult to predict. Tubular cells are comparably impermeable (for passive diffusion), and show regional differences in enzymatic and transporter activities. This limits the usefulness of microsome data and makes microsome‐based predictions of metabolic CLR questionable. Renal concentrations and activities of CYP450s are comparably low, suggesting that CYP450 substrates have negligible metabolic CLR. The metabolic CLR of high‐Pe UDP‐glucuronyltransferase substrates could contribute to the total CL.