Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Community Entrepreneurship and Institutional Completeness in the Rising of the Chinese Regional Enclave in Lombardy

In this paper the linkage between ethnic entrepreneurship and community building is explored. This is done in the specific setting of Chinese enclave in Lombardy. The research provides two major contributions. First, entrepreneurship is highlighted as essential glue in the development of an ethnic community. Migrant entrepreneurs leverage on communitarian relations to get access to essential resources and assets for their businesses. However, in so doing, they further contribute to community’s expansion. Second, the close tight between Chinese community-ship and entrepreneurship supports the rising of a regional Chinese enclave specializing on the manufacturing and distribution of fashion goods.
Estimating the pen trajectories of static signatures using hidden Markov models

Static signatures originate as handwritten images on documents and by definition do not contain any dynamic information. This lack of information makes static signature verification systems significantly less reliable than their dynamic counterparts. This study involves extracting dynamic information from static images, specifically the pen trajectory while the signature was created. We assume that a dynamic version of the static image is available (typically obtained during an earlier registration process). We then derive a hidden Markov model from the static image and match it to the dynamic version of the image. This match results in the estimated pen trajectory of the static image.
Market Closure, Portfolio Selection, and Liquidity Premia

Constantinides (1986) finds that transaction cost has only a second order effect on liquidity premia. In this paper, we show that simply incorporating the well-established time-varying return dynamics across trading and nontrading periods generates a first order effect that is much greater than that found by the existing literature and comparable to empirical evidence. Surprisingly, the higher liquidity premium is Not from higher trading frequency, but mainly from the substantially suboptimal trading strategy chosen to control transaction costs. In addition, we show that adopting strategies prescribed by standard models that assume a continuously open market and constant return dynamics can result in significant utility loss. Furthermore, our model predicts that trading volume is greater at market close and market open than the rest of trading times. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D11, D91, G11, C61.
Liquidity, Money Creation and Destruction, and the Returns to Banking

We build on our earlier model of money in which bank liabilities circulate as a medium of exchange. We investigate optimal bank behavior and the resulting provision of liquidity under a range of central bank regulations. In our model, banks issue inside money under fractional reserves, facing the possibility of excess redemptions. Banks consider the float resulting from money creation and make reserve-management decisions that affect aggregate liquidity conditions. Numerical examples demonstrate positive bank failure rates when returns to banking are low. Central bank interventions may improve banks' returns and welfare through a reduction in bank failure.
Family‐friendly policies in The Netherlands: The tripartite involvement

The article reports on research among Dutch employers concerning the arrangements they provide for employees to help them with the reconciliation of work and family life. The research not only answers the question of to what extent different employers offer arrangements like childcare facilities, flexible working hours or leave schemes, but it also tries to explain employers’ policies. The explanatory analysis includes organisational characteristics and employers’ opinions with respect to costs and benefits of different arrangements. The empirical analysis is based on a survey among 871 organisations in the profit sector and the non‐profit sector. One major conclusion is that family‐friendly arrangements have become rather common among organisations; employers are aware of the fact that the reconciliation of work and care has become an issue for an increasing number of workers.
Nonstandard work : the nature and challenges of changing employment arrangements

In recent years, much attention has focused on the growth of nonstandard and contingent employment (including part-time work) which involves up to 30 percent of the total U.S. labor force. There is little agreement on either the causes or the effects of this trend. Some researchers emphasize the advantages: employees may explore the job market and obtain work that does not necessarily involve rigid schedules, while employers enjoy greater flexibility and lower costs. Others point to the disadvantages for employees, such as lack of job security, fewer benefits and chances for promotion, and often lower wages. Drawbacks for employers include a workforce that has little chance to develop firm-specific knowledge or loyalty.Chapters in Nonstandard Work: The Nature and Challenges of Emerging Employment Arrangements carefully analyze the extent and nature of various nonstandard work arrangements; their advantages and disadvantages for employees and employers; the demographic, industrial, and occupational distribution of such positions; and the question of whether standard employment itself is changing. Some contributors consider how innovative labor market intermediaries and unions might expand opportunities for workers while also helping firms to raise their productivity.
Folding behavior of a T-shaped, ribosome-binding translation enhancer implicated in a wide-spread conformational switch

Turnip crinkle virus contains a T-shaped, ribosome-binding, translation enhancer (TSS) in its 3’UTR that serves as a hub for interactions throughout the region. The viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) causes the TSS/surrounding region to undergo a conformational shift postulated to inhibit translation. Using optical tweezers (OT) and steered molecular dynamic simulations (SMD), we found that the unusual stability of pseudoknotted element H4a/Ψ3 required five upstream adenylates, and H4a/Ψ3 was necessary for cooperative association of two other hairpins (H5/H4b) in Mg2+. SMD recapitulated the TSS unfolding order in the absence of Mg2+, showed dependence of the resistance to pulling on the 3D orientation and gave structural insights into the measured contour lengths of the TSS structure elements. Adenylate mutations eliminated one-site RdRp binding to the 3’UTR, suggesting that RdRp binding to the adenylates disrupts H4a/Ψ3, leading to loss of H5/H4b interaction and promoting a conformational switch interrupting translation and promoting replication. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.22883. 001
Presidential rhetoric in times of crisis: A textual analysis of speeches by franklin roosevelt and ronald reagan

Presidential Rhetoric in Times of Crisis: A Textual Analysis of Speeches by Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan Samantha D. Cart While many scholars have examined the rhetoric of presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan individually, there is a gap in literature concerning crisis rhetoric specifically and little has been done in the way of comparing these two men. This study is a textual analysis of six speeches given by Roosevelt and Reagan during times of crises. Because both presidents were important in defining an era and considered great communicators, this study compares the similarities and differences of their use of presidential crisis rhetoric. Previous research shows clear patterns in presidential rhetoric, including the common use of civil religious words and symbols, collective focus and imagery. This study analyzes Roosevelt’s and Reagan’s speeches for the use of predefined and common rhetorical devices in times of crisis. In the six speeches studied, the analysis indicated that each president regularly used the uplifting of democracy and civil religion when addressing the nation in times of crisis. Also, the research suggests that the presidents’ differing political affiliations influenced the way they spoke about the use of the Constitution and their executive power in order to address crises. Thus, Roosevelt and Reagan’s use of the pre-defined rhetorical terms listed in this study and the use of political party-specific rhetoric concerning the power of the executive branch may have influenced the effectiveness of their overall crisis rhetoric in regard to United States’ citizens and may offer a broader understanding and interpretation of the contemporary political world.
Taking gambles at face value: Effects of emotional expressions on risky decisions

Emotional facial expressions are ubiquitous and potent social stimuli that can signal favorable and unfavorable conditions. Previous research demonstrates that emotional expressions influence preference judgments, basic approach-avoidance behaviors, and reward learning. We examined whether emotional expressions can influence decisions such as choices between gambles. Based on theories of affective cue processing, we predicted greater risk taking after positive than negative expressions. This hypothesis was tested in four experiments across tasks that varied in implementation of risks, payoffs, probabilities, and temporal decision requirements. Facial expressions were presented unobtrusively and were uninformative about the choice. In all experiments, the likelihood of a risky choice was greater after exposure to positive versus neutral or negative expressions. Similar effects on risky choice occurred after presentation of different negative expressions (e.g., anger, fear, sadness, and disgust), suggesting involvement of general positive and negative affect systems. These results suggest that incidental emotional cues exert a valence-specific influence of on decisions, which could shape risk-taking behavior in social situations.
Global analysis of Navier–Stokes and Boussinesq stochastic flows using dynamical orthogonality

Abstract We provide a new framework for the study of fluid flows presenting complex uncertain behaviour. Our approach is based on the stochastic reduction and analysis of the governing equations using the dynamically orthogonal field equations. By numerically solving these equations, we evolve in a fully coupled way the mean flow and the statistical and spatial characteristics of the stochastic fluctuations. This set of equations is formulated for the general case of stochastic boundary conditions and allows for the application of projection methods that considerably reduce the computational cost. We analyse the transformation of energy from stochastic modes to mean dynamics, and vice versa, by deriving exact expressions that quantify the interaction among different components of the flow. The developed framework is illustrated through specific flows in unstable regimes. In particular, we consider the flow behind a disk and the Rayleigh–Bénard convection, for which we construct bifurcation diagrams that describe the variation of the response as well as the energy transfers for different parameters associated with the considered flows. We reveal the low dimensionality of the underlying stochastic attractor.
Increases in levels of schistosome-specific immunoglobulin E and CD23(+) B cells in a cohort of Kenyan children undergoing repeated treatment and reinfection with Schistosoma mansoni.

BACKGROUND Age prevalence curves for areas in which schistosomiasis is endemic suggest that humans develop partial immunity to reinfection beginning in early adolescence. We conducted a 2-year longitudinal study to determine whether children infected with Schistosoma mansoni develop protection-related immune responses after treatment with praziquantel and whether the development of these immune responses is accelerated by frequent treatment after reinfection. METHODS Children (8-10 years old) were tested for S. mansoni every 4 months and treated with praziquantel when positive (arm A; n=68) or were tested and treated at the end of the 2-year follow-up period (arm B; n=49). RESULTS Children in arm A who remained free of infection during follow-up had significantly higher baseline levels of schistosome-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) than did children with > or =2 repeat diagnoses of S. mansoni infection. Children with > or =2 repeat diagnoses of S. mansoni infection had significantly increased levels of anti-schistosome IgE and CD23(+) B cells after receiving > or =3 praziquantel treatments over the course of follow-up. No increase in either parameter was seen in children who received only the baseline praziquantel treatment. CONCLUSIONS B cell activation and anti-schistosome IgE are associated with resistance to S. mansoni in children, and these immunological parameters can be increased by multiple rounds of infections and praziquantel-induced cures.
Immigration in UK newspapers during general election campaigns, 1918-2010

Issues concerning immigration and asylum have attracted considerable news media coverage in countries of the Global North such as the United Kingdom during recent decades. The UK national press famous for its longevity, mass appeal and partisanship has been uniquely placed to report on and provide commentary about issues of social change such as these, especially as they have become more prominent in UK party politics. This thesis therefore analyses the press coverage of immigration issues in seven national newspapers during the final week of general election campaigns between 1918 and 2010 in order to provide a historical context to these recent developments. Using content analysis and critical discourse analysis methods, the study assesses several aspects of the representational pattern of immigration coverage and offers a perspective which emphasises continuities and contrasts across time and across the press. Over two empirical chapters, the content analysis provides a thorough profile of the coverage in terms of its volume, the news presence and access of social actors, the balance of supportive and critical voices in coverage, the lexicon used to describe immigrants and immigration processes and the themes of debate. The findings suggest that immigration has become a low-threshold political issue within recent campaigns, for which there is a core element of detailed discussion but an unprecedented expansion in superficial reference to such issues. The prominence, politicisation and problematisation of immigration have combined to frequently provide critical voices with a prominent platform. Meanwhile, supportive voices and those of immigrants were mostly marginalised. There was relatively little variation in the thematic dimension of coverage over time and to some extent across the press. A third empirical chapter offers a critical discourse analysis of the headlines in three main areas of coverage: precarious routes comprising forced and irregular migration, numbers and immigrants as voters and candidates. These aspects of the debate are examined in terms of our and their rights and responsibilities to reveal how the press has constructed the ethics and politics of immigration qualitatively.
A New Record of Penicillium antarcticum from Marine Environments in Korea

Abstract During a survey of marine fungi from the waters surrounding Jeju Island, Korea, several Penicillium strains were isolated from seawater and marine sponges. Based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses of the internal transcribed spacer and RNA polymerase subunit II, four strains were identified as Penicillium antarcticum, a fungus that, to the best of our knowledge, had not been previously reported in Korea. Here, we provide detailed descriptions of the morphological characteristics and extracellular enzyme activities of the four strains.
Three Dimensional Context-Aware Tailoring of Information

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of context in ubiquitous computing. Personal Information Managers exploit the ubiquitous paradigm in mobile computing to integrate services and programs for business and leisure. Recognising that every situation is constituted by information and events, context will vary depending on the situation in which users find themselves. The paper aims to show the viability of tailoring contextual information to provide users with timely and relevant information.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted after testing on a group of real world users. The test group used the application for approximately half a day each and performed a number of tasksFindings – The results from the survey show the viability of tailoring contextual information to provide users with timely and relevant information. Among the questions in the questionnaire the users were asked to state whether or not they would like to use this application in their daily life. Stati.
Default and the Term Structure in Sovereign Bonds

This paper builds a dynamic model of borrowing and default to study the term structure of sovereign bonds in emerging markets. The borrower in the model can buy short and long bonds at contingent prices that reflect the timing of default events. The model generates a yield curve that is upward sloping on tranquil times as in the data. The reason is that if default events are likely in the future but not in the near term, only the long yield will be adjusted for this. However if default is a likely event in the near future the yield curve is inverted. In this case, long bonds are safer than short bonds for lenders in present value terms, because if the economy avoids the stressed period, it may repay its debt obligations in all future states. This matches the data in emerging markets bonds where in times of crises yields of shorter bonds are higher. The model also delivers that long bonds are issued primarily on tranquil times and short debt is used more heavily during crisis as in emerging markets. In the model long debt provides a good hedge against future bad shocks because the effective cost for such borrowing is lower exactly in times of high interest rates. Thus the borrower prefers in tranquil times long bonds because of the additional benefits. In addition, this effect increases borrowing incentives which in equilibrium translates into higher default probabilities. We calibrate the model to Brazil and find that the model can match various features of the data including the volatility of long and short bonds yields.
Finite Index Subgroups of Fully Residually Free Groups

Using graph-theoretic techniques for f.g. subgroups of Fℤ[t] we provide a criterion for a f.g. subgroup of a f.g. fully residually free group to be of finite index. Moreover, we show that this criterion can be checked effectively. As an application we obtain an analogue of Greenberg–Stallings Theorem for f.g. fully residually free groups, and prove that a f.g. nonabelian subgroup of a f.g. fully residually free group is of finite index in its normalizer and commensurator.
More spreaders but less influence : An analysis of indirect influence on Twitter

Social influence in social networks has been extensively researched. Most studies have focused on direct influence, while another interesting question can be raised as whether indirect influence exists between two users who’re not directly connected in the network and what affects such influence. In addition, the theory of complex contagion tells us that more spreaders will enhance the indirect influence between two users. Our observation of intensity of indirect influence, propagated by n parallel spreaders and quantified by retweeting probability in two Twitter social networks, shows that complex contagion is validated globally but is violated locally. In other words, the retweeting probability increases non-monotonically with some local drops. A quantum cognition based probabilistic model is proposed to account for these local drops.
Prevalence and Prognostic Implications of Vitamin D Deficiency in Chronic Kidney Disease

Vitamin D is an important nutrient involved in bone mineral metabolism, and vitamin D status is reflected by serum total 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) concentrations. Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and nutritional vitamin D supplementation decreases elevated parathyroid hormone concentrations in subgroups of these patients. Furthermore, vitamin D is supposed to have pleiotropic effects on various diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, malignancies, infectious diseases, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases. Indeed, there is cumulative evidence showing the associations of low vitamin D with the development and progression of CKD, cardiovascular complication, and high mortality. Recently, genetic polymorphisms in vitamin D-binding protein have received great attention because they largely affect bioavailable 25(OH)D concentrations. This finding suggests that the serum total 25(OH)D concentrations would not be comparable among different gene polymorphisms and thus may be inappropriate as an index of vitamin D status. This finding may refute the conventional definition of vitamin D status based solely on serum total 25(OH)D concentrations.
Impact of immigration on burden of Tuberculosis in Umbria: a low-incidence Italian region with high immigrants rates

Summary Introduction. In Italy, Tubercolosis (TB) has increasingly become a disease for specific population subgroups such as immigrants. The objective of this paper is to describe the trend in TB incidence from 1999 to 2008 in Umbria: a low-incidence Italian region with high immigrants rates. Methods. Data were obtained from the Regional Information System for Infectious Diseases. Using a linear regressions model we estimated trends for number of cases and incidence rates; with a logistic regression model we estimated the effect of a set of covariates on the probability of being affected by TB. Result. 590 TB cases were reported of whom 254 (43%) were foreign. In 2008 39.7 new cases per 100.000 were registered among foreign-born subjects. TB incidence among Italians was 3.8/100.000 Italians. But a linear regression analysis showed a statistically significant decreasing trend in the notification rate among foreign-born people (coef: -7.32, r2:0.57, p < 0.05). The probability to be affected by extra-pulmonary is significantly larger in foreign patients (OR = 0.72, CI = 0.48-1.07). Foreign unskilled workers report a higher probability to be affected by TB (OR = 19.05, CI = 6.01-60.4). Discussion. Increasing immigration rates may affect TB epidemiology. The analysis of incidence trends is an important tool for monitoring tuberculosis disease control and to identify specific sub-group at risk.