Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthesis, Characterization and Cell Compatibility of Novel Poly(ester urethane)s Based on Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) and Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) Prepared by Melting Polymerization

Novel tailor-made poly(ester urethane)s (PUs) based on microbial polyesters poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB4HB) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBHHx) were synthesized by melting polymerization (MP) using 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) as a coupling agent. A comprehensive characterization using 1H-NMR, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), gel-permeation chromatography (GPC), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), mechanical properties, static water contact angles, cell proliferation using smooth muscle cells from rabbit aorta (RaSMCs) and immortalized human keratinocytes (HaCat), and blood coagulation behavior were conducted on the synthesized PUs films. DSC showed that PU samples had a low degree of crystallinity at room temperature and became fully amorphous after a melt-quenched process. The series of tailor-made PUs based on different mass ratios of P3HB4HB and PHBHHx revealed a ductile and flexile mechanical property especially for PHBHHx-rich PU, or a hydrophobic property for 4HB-rich PU. A 4 days incubation experiment showed that all PU films had a better cell proliferation than poly(lactic acid) (PLA), polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), P3HB4HB and PHBHHx. RaSMCs cultured on PU films had a quiescent contractile phenotype, indicating that they were fully functional. HaCat incubated on tailor-made PU films showed a proliferation approximately equal to tissue-culture plates (TCPs). Blood coagulation behavior tests revealed a strong platelet adhesion and a short coagulation time on PU films. This study demonstrated potential medical applications for P3HB4HB and PHBHHx based polyurethane as a hydrophobic wound-healing and hemostatic materials.
Extent-like Performance from a UNIX File System

In an effort to meet the increasing throughput demands on the SunOS ﬁle system made both by applications and higher performance hardware, several optimization paths were examined. The principal constraints were that the on − disk ﬁle system format remain the same and that whatever changes were necessary not be user − visible. The solution arrived at was to approximate the behavior of extent based ﬁle systems by grouping I/O operations into clusters instead of dealing in individual blocks. A single clustered I/O may take the place of 15 − 30 block I/Os, resulting in a factor of two increased sequential performance increase. The changes described were restricted to a small portion of the ﬁle system code; no user − visible changes were necessary and the on-disk format was not altered.
The Magic in Value Added: Merits of Derived Accounting Indicator Numbers

The American Accounting Association (AAA) Committee on Accounting and Auditing Measurement (1991) had recommended that value added be considered for mandatory disclosure in the US in addition to the income and cash flow statements. This study examines empirically the relative merits of derived performance indicator numbers from value added reporting, accrual accounting and cash flow accounting. The results show that the derived performance indicator numbers based on net value added had lower variability and higher persistency than corresponding numbers based on either earnings or cash flows of 673 US firms for the 1981–1990 period. These results and other related considerations argue strongly in favor of the recommendation of the AAA Committee.
Ca2+ SIGNALLING AND EARLY EMBRYONIC PATTERNING DURING ZEBRAFISH DEVELOPMENT

1 It has been proposed that Ca2+ signalling, in the form of pulses, waves and steady gradients, may play a crucial role in key pattern‐forming events during early vertebrate development. 2 With reference to the embryo of the zebrafish (Danio rerio), herein we review the Ca2+ transients reported from the cleavage to segmentation periods. This time‐window includes most of the major pattern‐forming events of early development, which transform a single‐cell zygote into a complex multicellular embryo with established primary germ layers and body axes. 3 Data are presented to support our proposal that intracellular Ca2+ waves are an essential feature of embryonic cytokinesis and that propagating intercellular Ca2+ waves (both long and short range) may play a crucial role in: (i) the establishment of the embryonic periderm and the coordination of cell movements during epiboly, convergence and extension; (ii) the establishment of the basic embryonic axes and germ layers; and (iii) definition of the morphological boundaries of specific tissue domains and embryonic structures, including future organ anlagen. 4 The potential downstream targets of these Ca2+ transients are also discussed, as well as how they may integrate with other pattern‐forming signalling pathways known to modulate early developmental events.
Perinatal risk factors and mode of delivery associated with mortality in very low birth weight infants

Abstract Objective: To investigate the association of perinatal risk factors including delivery mode with mortality in very low birthweight (VLBW) in a tertiary hospital setting. Methods: Medical records of 241 live-born VLBW infants (≤1500 g) were retrospectively reviewed. Details of maternal, obstetrical, perinatal risk factors and their associations with infant mortality were evaluated. Results: The overall infant mortality rate was 23.2%. Mortality was significantly higher for infants born at ≤27 gestational weeks and with a birthweight of ≤750 g (p = 0.000 and p = 0.000, respectively), showing a steep decrease thereafter. On ROC analysis, a cut off of 26.5 weeks was determined for mortality with a sensitivity of 57.1% and a specificity of 90.3% (area under the curve = 0.792, 95% CI: 0.719–0.866). On multivariate regression analysis, gestational week at birth, birthweight, antenatal steroid treatment and pathologic Doppler ultrasound findings were found as independent risk factors for mortality. Conclusions: Gestational week at birth, birthweight and antenatal steroid treatment remain the most important perinatal risk factors for infant mortality in VLBW infants. Mode of delivery does not seem to be associated with mortality when adjusted for other perinatal risk factors.
Inequalities on the labour market in Estonia during the Great Recession

Defended on April 9, 2013 at the University of Tartu.The thesis is available digitally http://dspace.utUb. ee/dspace/handle/10062/29346Supervisors: Kaia Philips (Ph.D, Associate Professor), University of Tartu, EstoniaJaan Masso (Ph.D, Senior Research Fellow), University of Tartu, EstoniaThe recent crisis which has also been named the Great Recession, was the most severe recession Estonia has experienced sincae regaining independence. As a small open economy with a small domestic market, Estonia is vulnerable to external shocks. The global financial crisis and the slump in private capital flows affected the country heavily. The crisis had a severe effect on the Estonian labour market, the most severe in EU comparison after Latvia.In this thesis a system of inequalities in the labour market is developed and the development of these inequalities during the financial crisis in Estonia is analysed. The aim of the thesis is to ascertain what changes have occurred in inequalities on the labour market and which labour market groups have been most vulnerable since the onset of the recession in Estonia. Analysis covers what adjustment mechanisms were used in the Estonian labour market to cope with the crisis, what was the role of institutions and what were differences between industries based on gender, age, nationality and educational level.The results of the analysis indicate that the Estonian labour market was highly flexible during the Great Recession. All three adjustment mechanisms - reductions in employment, wages, and working hours - were used. At the beginning of the crisis the increase in employment was one of the highest (in EU comparison) in Estonia. In Estonia wage decreases were much more widespread than in other EU countries. Adjustment via working hours occurred mostly at the beginning of the recession. In EU comparison Estonia clearly stands out, since employment, hours, and wage adjustments occurred in the very early phase of the recession and the negative consequences for the labour market were particularly severe. In international comparison Estonia is highlighted as a best practice example where a country was enabled to overcome the crisis due to successful implementation of rather severe measures despite its small size and the severe effects of the crisis on the economy.In the Estonian public sector, austerity was mainly achieved via internal devaluation, mostly via pay cuts during the recession. Decreases in employment and hours were used less. Wages were reduced in many Estonian public sector organisations as early as 2008-2009 which was exceptional in Europe. In the private sector the adjustment mechanisms were remarkably different across sectors. In those sectors which suffered the most during the recession, all three adjustment measures were used.Wage inequality measured as a P90/P10 ratio remained largely unchanged during the recession, indicating that those at the upper and lower ends of wage distribution experienced wage cuts to a similar extent. …
Family Firm Mergers and Acquisitions in Different Legal Environments

This study analyses family versus nonfamily firm returns under different legal environments when a merger and acquisition (M&A) is announced. The database includes 124 M&As of European-listed firms (15 countries), with acquired firms being worldwide public or private firms (23 countries), over the 2002 to 2004 period. The findings show that family ownership has a positive and significant influence on acquiring shareholder M&A valuation. However, a major shareholder ownership of 32% has a negative effect. The authors also observe that a weaker legal and institutional environment in the target country has a positive influence on acquiring shareholder valuation.
A Model of Total Factor Productivity Built on Hayek’s View of Knowledge: What Really Went Wrong with Socialist Planned Economies?

Because Hayek’s view goes beyond the Walrasian framework, his descriptive arguments on socialist planned economies are prone to be misunderstood. This paper clarifies Hayek’s arguments by using them as a basis to construct a model of total factor productivity. The model shows that productivity depends substantially on the intelligence of ordinary workers. The model indicates that the essential reason for the reduced productivity of a socialist economy is that, even though human beings are imperfect and do not know everything about the universe, they are able to utilize their intelligence to innovate. Decentralized market economies are far more productive than socialist economies because they intrinsically can fully utilize human beings’ intelligence, but socialist planned economies cannot, in large part because of the imagined perfect central planning bureau that does not exist.
PENGARUH JUMLAH OBYEK WISATA, JUMLAH HOTEL, DAN PDRB TERHADAP RETRIBUSI PARIWISATA KABUPATEN / KOTA DI JAWA TENGAH

Abstrak ___________________________________________________________________ Sektor industri pariwisata sebagai salah satu sektor yang diandalkan bagi penerimaan daerah maka pemerintah Provinsi Jawa Tengah dituntut untuk dapat menggali dan mengelola potensi pariwisata yang dimiliki. Industri pariwisata dapat dikembangkan sebagai usaha untuk mendapatkan sumber dana melalui terobosan - terobosan baru dalam upaya membiayai pengeluaran daerah melalui retribusi yang didapatkan dari masing-masing obyek pariwisata di tiap daerah.Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah koefisien positif dari jumlah obyek wisata adalah 1043949 yang berarti jika jumlah obyek wisata mengalami peningkatan sebesar 1 obyek wisata maka retribusi naik 1.043. 949 rupiah. Koefisien positif dari jumlah hotel sebesar 53776,97 yang berarti apabila jumlah hotel mengalami peningkatan sebesar 1 unit maka retribusi naik sebesar 53.776,97 rupiah. Sedangkan koefisien positif dari PDRB sebesar 0,670079 yang berarti apabila PDRB wilayah mengalami peningkatan sebesar 1 maka retribusi naik sebesar 0,67 rupiah. Ketiga variabel tersebut secara bersama-sama berpengaruh terhadap pendapatan retribusi pariwisata. Berdasarkan temuan tersebut, saran yang dapat disampaikan untuk meningkatkan retribusi pariwisata di kabupaten/kota adalah pemerintah daerah maupun provinsi harus bersinergi dalam upaya memaksimalkan variabel jumlah obyek wisata, jumlah hotel dan PDRB dalam kondisi selalu terjadi peningkatan agar pendapatan retribusi obyek pariwisata selalu mengalami peningkatan dan akan berimbas pada kondisi perekonomian tiap daerah yang selalu meningkat. Abstract ______________________________________________________________ Tourism industry as one of the sectors that relied on the government for the reception area of Central Java is required to be able to explore and manage potential owned tourism . Tourism industry can be developed in an effort to obtain funding sources through breakthrough - a breakthrough in efforts to finance spending through local levies obtained from each tourism activity in each region . The results of this study are positive coefficients of the number of tourist attraction is 1043949 which means that if the number of attractions has increased by 1 tourist attraction then levy rose 1,043,949 rupiah. Positive coefficient of hotel amounted to 53776,97 which means that if GDP region increased by 1 unit , the levy increased by 53776,97 rupiah. Positive coefficient of GDP amounted to 0,670079 which means that if GDP region increased by 1, the levy increased by 0,670079 rupiah. These three variabels together did affect the tourism levy revenue.Based on these findings , suggestions can be submitted to increase tourism levy county / city is the provincial local government and must work together in an effort to maximize a variabel number of attractions , hotels and GDP in a number of conditions that is always an increase in revenues of tourism levy and will always increase impact on the economic conditions of each area is increasing .
Another look at the holiday effect

This article provides further evidence on the holiday effect by analysing stock market behaviour on the days a public holiday is not accompanied by a stock market break. Indeed, since 2003, when the trading calendar of Portuguese stock market was harmonized with the remaining Euronext national markets, on several occasions Portuguese national holidays were not weekdays on which the stock market was closed. Moreover, we adopted a bottom-up approach that allows us to search for size effects and industry effects. Our results show a statistically significant negative liquidity effect and an economically and statistically significant positive price effect during Portuguese-specific national holidays relative to a typical trading day. Return-related impact effects are driven by the smaller-sized stocks and robust to the recent crisis period. These results suggest the prevalence of a mood effect, by which those nondistracted traders’ positive feelings translate into a buying pressure, or reluctance to sell, that drives up prices on the onset of country-specific holidays.
Transverse Exponential Stability and Applications

We investigate how the following properties are related to each other: i) A manifold is “transversally” exponentially stable; ii) the “transverse” linearization along any solution in the manifold is exponentially stable; and iii) there exists a field of positive definite quadratic forms whose restrictions to the directions transversal to the manifold are decreasing along the flow. We illustrate their relevance with the study of exponential incremental stability. Finally, we apply these results to two control design problems, nonlinear observer design and synchronization. In particular, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the design of nonlinear observer and of nonlinear synchronizer with exponential convergence property.
Results of a Qualitative Approach to Menu Planning Using Control and Experimental Groups

ABSTRACT Traditional approaches to menu planning and menu-item selection often ignore the information, which may otherwise better reflect organizational and market needs. In addition, concentrating efforts on menu engineering-type of analysis highlights menu performance only after the menu has been planned and put to use. Equally, however, it must also be said that the majority of chain/franchise operations do not have the flexibility to design and develop menus on a short-term basis, and although such medium to long-term menus can be adjusted to the changes in market needs, still many chain/franchise operations prefer not to. This article reports on the concept and application of Menu Planning Qualitative Variables (MPQV) as an aid for menu planners. A Control Group and Experimental Group of menu planners were chosen for the study to test the utility of the MPQVs. The respondents (Control group A) were required to develop a menu using a traditional menu planning approach, whilst the Experimental group (B) used the MPQV approach. Important differences in the outcomes between the Control and Experimental groups in terms of menu planning approaches were found. The Experimental group thought that the menu planning information given to them was more useful and was more applicable to their on-the-job needs.
Osteoporotic fractures of the proximal humerus in elderly Finnish persons: Sharp increase in 1970-1998 and alarming projections for the new millennium

We determined the current trends in the number and incidence of osteoporotic fractures of the proximal humerus in Finland by collecting from the National Hospital Discharge Register all patients 60 years of age or more who were admitted to Finnish hospitals in 1970-1998 for primary treatment of such fractures. The fracture was defined osteoporotic if it was caused by a low-energy trauma only, i.e., a fall from standing height or less. The number and incidence (per 10 5 persons) of fractures increased sharply from 208 (number) and 32 (incidence) in 1970 to 1,105 and 110 in 1998. Even after the age-adjustment, the incidence of fractures showed a clear increase: in women from 50 in 1970 to 133 in 1998, and in men from 14 in 1970 to 49 in 1998. If this trend continues, there will be three times more osteoporotic fractures of the proximal humerus in Finland in the year 2030 than there were in 1998.
Towards a Transparent Labour Market for Educational Decisions

Investigating in education, Hans Heijke and Lex Borghans. Part 1 Prospects: future developments in the job level and domain of high-skilled workers, Andries de Grip, et al the return to education, Jaap de Koning labour market forecasts and choice of education, Dinand Webbink. Part 2 Flexibility: a job to match your education - does it matter? , Joop Hartog and Nicole Jonker flexibility and structure of the Dutch labour market, Lex Borghans and Hans Heijke asymmetric skill substitution, labour market flexibility, and the allocation of qualifications, Adriaan van Zon, et al. Part 3 Curriculum: curriculum characteristics and labour market perspectives, Wim Nijhof does curriculum matter? a theoretical clue to an empirical puzzle, Arie Glebbeek, et al education, skills and wages, Hans Heijke, et al. Appendix: the Dutch education system.
Linking corporate entrepreneurship and human resource management in SMEs.

Purpose - This article seeks to analyse the human resource management (HRM) practices adopted in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for promoting corporate entrepreneurship (CE) in the Spanish context. The specific objectives of the inquiry revolve around two main research questions: What HRM practices are most beneficial for promoting CE in SMEs? How do HRM practices promote an appropriate working environment for CE in SMEs? Design/methodology/approach - The idea of human resource practices as a key resource is analyzed in the framework of a broader perspective of strategic management known as the resource-based view of the firm. Additionally, literatures concerning CE and HRM in small firms are integrated and reviewed. The empirical study is carried out by adopting a multiple-case study approach. Findings - Evidence shows that the creation of personal relationships and the development of an open communication between owner-managers and employees, and among employees themselves, can help to explain the dynamics of entrepreneurial behaviors within small firms. The openness in the communication is important, not only for promoting CE activities, but also for creating the most appropriate work environment to carry out other resource management practices that stimulate entrepreneurial behaviors. Originality/value - This study integrates the research on CE and HRM practices in a field of study rarely analyzed, such as Spanish SMEs. The approach shows that there is sound evidence supporting the importance of analyzing the factors leading to the emergence of CE, including intangible resources such as the human resource practices that increase the employees' entrepreneurial attitudes.
Continuity and Change in Chinese Marriage and the Family

Abstract: Based on the first and second waves of the Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2010 and 2012, this article describes five aspects of Chinese marriage and the family and discusses their continuity and change against the background of rapid social changes. We find that the rapid pace of modernization and demographic transition is creating a “transitional” family, in which new trends coexist with powerful old patterns. In addition, due to the huge developmental gaps among different areas and the expansion of social differentiation, we also find significant regional variations and class differences in terms of marriage and family behaviors. In addition, we discuss the role of government in shaping the Chinese family and the core function of families in providing social support in contemporary China.
Use of a single method in the extraction of the seed storage globulins from several legume species. Application to analyse structural comparisons within the major classes of globulins.

In this study, a single, improved methodology was used to extract, fractionate and purify the 11S (legumin-type or related to the alpha-conglutin from Lupinus albus L.), 7S (vicilin-type or related to the beta-conglutin from L. albus) and 2S (related to the gamma-conglutin from L. albus) families of proteins from eight legume species: L. albus, Glycine max (L.) Merr. , Pisum sativum L. , Vicia faba L. , Cicer arietinum L. , Phaseolus vulgaris L. , Lens culinaris Med. and Arachis hypogaea L. The sedimentation coefficients obtained varied from 1.9 to 8.1 for the gamma-conglutin-related proteins, from 5.1 to 10.5 for the beta-conglutin-related proteins and from 12.0 to 14.9 for the alpha-conglutin-related globulins. The gamma-conglutin-related proteins is the most heterogeneous group. Antibodies produced against each type of gamma-conglutin polypeptide chain recognize the other polypeptide chain as well as other polypeptides in the corresponding globulins from all species examined. The 7S globulins are typically composed of a large number of polypeptides, covering a wide range of molecular masses (10 to 70 kD). The presence of disulphide bonds is apparently absent and the occurrence of glycopolypeptides is not widespread. Finally, the 11S globulins are characteristically formed by a limited number of polypeptides that may be divided into a lighter group (20-25 kD) and a heavier group (35-50 kD). The presence of disulphide bonds is apparently widespread but the occurrence of glycopolypeptides seems to be relatively rare. Both the 7S family and the 11S globulins studied by immunoblotting exhibit a low level of structural similarity.