Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Corporate governance regimes : convergence and diversity

Corporate Governance Regimes addresses corporate law's leading question: whether one or another corporate law regime possesses relative competitive advantage. To this end, the editors have brought together an international team of scholars in economics and law to critically assess the new theories of ownership and control which seek to explain the important efficiency advantages of dispersed ownership and the inevitable limitations of control-oriented systems of governance. Contributors describe and analyse the relative strength of the forces that shape the evolution of corporate law rules and practice. They also raise the issue of whether nations undertaking reforms should develop corporate governance policies that borrow from other systems' best practices, or pursue a course of internally designed corporate governance reforms. And, building on new theories of law and finance, they examine the incentives for introducing meaningful corporate governance reforms that disrupt or destabilize Europe's blockholding regimes. The collection is divided into seven parts. Part One provides not only a means for assessing the key features of market- and control-based systems of governance but a standpoint for determining whether national governance systems are likely to converge on a single, optimal system of governance. Part Two introduces the reader to the building blocks of European corporate governance and the securities law harmonization program. Part Three examines the complex ownership and control structures that are found in Western Europe, investigating the consequences of large shareholdings for minority investors. Part Four offers law and finance analyses of the relationship between legal and financial systems and corporate performance. Part Five looks at the economic perspective on the operation of the market for corporate control and the key legal rules and institutions of the bankruptcy and insolvency regimes in the USA and Britain. Part Six is devoted to exploring the economic effect of institutional shareholder participation in corporate governance in the USA, Britain, and continental Europe. The final section, Part Seven, evaluates empirically the executive compensation arrangements in the USA, Britain, and continental Europe. The contributions supply a pool of current research on the motivational effect of performance-related remuneration and the substantial increase in top executive remuneration in the USA. Contributors to this volume - J. McCahery and L. Renneboog W. Bratton and J. McCahery H. Hansmann and R. Kraakman J. Coffee M. Roe B. Cheffins K. Hopt T. Raaijmakers E. Wymeersch M. Goergen and L. Renneboog E. Boehmer P. Moerland I. Dherment and L. Renneboog W. Carlin and C. Mayer D. Lombardo and M. Pagano E. Perrotti and E. L. von Thadden M. Maher and T. Andersson C. Robinson, J. Rumsey, and A. White J. Franks, C. Mayer, and L. Renneboog J. Franks and W. Torous U. Hege and P. Mella-Barral L. Bebchuk R. Romano G. Stapledon and J. Bates M. Faccio and M. Lasfer M. Conyon and K. Murphy R. Crespi, C. Gispert, and L. Renneboog P. Duffhues, R. Kabir, G. Mertens, and P. Roosenboom
Frozen vs Fresh Fecal Microbiota Transplantation and Clinical Resolution of Diarrhea in Patients With Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

IMPORTANCE Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a major burden in health care and community settings. CDI recurrence is of particular concern because of limited treatment options and associated clinical and infection control issues. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a promising, but not readily available, intervention. OBJECTIVE To determine whether frozen-and-thawed (frozen, experimental) FMT is noninferior to fresh (standard) FMT in terms of clinical efficacy among patients with recurrent or refractory CDI and to assess the safety of both types of FMT. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Randomized, double-blind, noninferiority trial enrolling 232 adults with recurrent or refractory CDI, conducted between July 2012 and September 2014 at 6 academic medical centers in Canada. INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomly allocated to receive frozen (n = 114) or fresh (n = 118) FMT via enema. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome measures were clinical resolution of diarrhea without relapse at 13 weeks and adverse events. Noninferiority margin was set at 15%. RESULTS A total of 219 patients (n = 108 in the frozen FMT group and n = 111 in the fresh FMT group) were included in the modified intention-to-treat (mITT) population and 178 (frozen FMT: n = 91, fresh FMT: n = 87) in the per-protocol population. In the per-protocol population, the proportion of patients with clinical resolution was 83.5% for the frozen FMT group and 85.1% for the fresh FMT group (difference, -1.6% [95% CI, -10.5% to ∞]; P = .01 for noninferiority). In the mITT population the clinical resolution was 75.0% for the frozen FMT group and 70.3% for the fresh FMT group (difference, 4.7% [95% CI, -5.2% to ∞]; P < .001 for noninferiority). There were no differences in the proportion of adverse or serious adverse events between the treatment groups. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Among adults with recurrent or refractory CDI, the use of frozen compared with fresh FMT did not result in worse proportion of clinical resolution of diarrhea. Given the potential advantages of providing frozen FMT, its use is a reasonable option in this setting. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier:NCT01398969.
1.55 µm GaInNAsSb/GaAs Ridge Waveguide Lasers and Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers for Photonic Integrated Circuits

This paper presents state-of-the-art results concerning 1.55 μm single quantum well (QW) GaInNAsSb/GaAs ridge waveguide (RWG) laser diodes and SOAs, which are expected to outperform traditional InP-based components in temperature characteristics due to the large conduction band offset between the GaInNAsSb QW and GaAs.
Online pattern recognition in intensive care medicine

In intensive care physiological variables of the critical-ly ill are measured and recorded in short time intervals. The existing alarm systems based on fixed thresholds produce a large number of false alarms. Usually the change of a variable over time is more informative than one pathological value at a particular time point. Intelligent alarm systems which detect important changes within a physiological time series are needed for suitable bedside decision support. There are various approaches to modeling time-dependent data and also several methodologies for pattern detection in time series. We compare several methodologies de-signed for online detection of measurement artifacts, level changes, and trends for a proper classification of the patient s state by means of a comparative case-study.
Spectral Debugging with Weights and Incremental Ranking

Software faults can be diagnosed using program spectra. The program spectra considered here provide information about which statements are executed in each one of a set of test cases. This information is used to compute a value for each statement which indicates how likely it is to be buggy, and the statements are ranked according to these values. We present two improvements to this method. First, we associate varying weights with failed test cases --- test cases which execute fewer statements are given more weight and have more influence on the ranking. This generally improves diagnosis accuracy, with little additional cost. Second, the ranking is computed incrementally. After the top-ranked statement is identified, the weights are adjusted in order to compute the rest of the ranking. This further improves accuracy. The cost is more significant, but not prohibitive.
A Multidimensional Study of School-Family-Community Partnership Involvement: School, School Counselor, and Training Factors:

ultidimensional study examines both the dimensions of school counselors' involvement in school-family-community partnerships and the factors related to their involvement in partnerships. The School Counselor Involvement in Partnerships Survey was revised and its factor structure examined. Principal factor analyses revealed three dimensions of partnership involvement. A national sample of 217 school counselors was drawn from the Common Core of Data, and hierarchical regression analyses indicated that collaborative school climate, school principal expectations, school counselor self-efficacy about partnerships, role perceptions, time constraints, and hours of partnership-related training were associated with school counselor overall involvement in partnerships. Implications for school counselor practice, training, and research are discussed
Long-term effect of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor injections on intraocular pressure

Objective: There is a substantial debate in the ophthalmology community about whether anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections result in a long-term increase in intraocular pressure (IOP). Design: We performed a retrospective study to investigate how the number and timing of intravitreal injections in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME) affect IOP over time. Methods: We collected long-term IOP data on patients receiving anti-VEGF injections at our institution. Patients over the age of 40 years who received injections for AMD (n = 76) or DME (n = 55) were included. Patients were grouped according to indication as well as number of injections received (1–3, 4–6, 7–9, or 10+ injections). IOP measurements were then placed into time points (0–6, 6–12, 12–18, 18–24, or 24+ months) and compared to the preinjection average IOP. Results: For patients with DME, average preinjection IOP was 15.7 mmHg. At 24+ months after injection, the average IOP was 15.2 (P = 0.68) for patients receiving 1–3 injections, 16.8 (P = 0.23) for 4–6 injections, and 14.4 (P = 0.66) for 7–9 injections. For patients with AMD, average initial IOP was 15.6 mmHg. At 24+ months after injection, the average IOP was 12.6 (P = 0.97) for 1–3 injections, 14.9 (P = 0.96) for 4–6 injections, 14.8 (P = 0.84) for 7–9 injections, and 15.7 (P = 0.56) for 10+ injections. Conclusions: There was no increase in IOP over time for AMD or DME patients, regardless of how many injections they received. For patients receiving unilateral injections, there was no increase in IOP in the injected eye when compared to the noninjected eye.
Religious Identity and the Experience and Expression of Chronic Pain: A Review

This literature review explored the relationships between religious identity and the experience and expression chronic pain for five common faith groups, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs. Although no research explored how beliefs impacted on the experience of chronic pain or how it was expressed, 28 studies met the inclusion criteria. Most studies addressed coping with pain, and most studies focused on Christianity. Understanding how faiths influence the experience and expression of pain could enable health practitioners to communicate more effectively with people from different religions in chronic pain, improving assessment and understanding of treatment preferences.
Early warning signals of stochastic switching

The development of statistical signals for anticipating changes of state (‘regime shifts’) is an active area of research in ecology [[1][1],[2][2]], earth and atmospheric science [[3][3]], and biology [[4][4],[5][5]]. Causes of regime shifts include noise-induced transitions [[6][6]],
1D and 2D numerical simulations of Cu2ZnSnSe4 solar cells

1D and 2D numerical simulations can be employed to perform optimizations of thin film solar cells and analysis of the physical mechanisms affecting the performances. In this work we discuss optical optimizations of a CZTSe solar cell predicted by a 1D model and a 2D model implementing grain boundaries as p-type phases with low band gap. The results of the simulations point out the significant impact that these GBs can have on the Voc loss and possible correlations with other experimental results obtained by K-AFM and C-AFM.
TGF-&bgr;-induced differentiation into myofibroblasts involves specific regulation of two MKL1 isoforms

ABSTRACT Cellular transformation into myofibroblasts is a central physiological process enabling tissue repair. Its deregulation promotes fibrosis and carcinogenesis. TGF-&bgr; is the main inducer of the contractile gene program that drives myofibroblast differentiation from various precursor cell types. Crucial regulators of this transcriptional program are serum response factor (SRF) and its cofactor MKL1 (also known as MRTF-A). However, the exact mechanism of the crosstalk between TGF-&bgr; signaling and MKL1 remains unclear. Here, we report the discovery of a novel MKL1 variant/isoform, MKL1_S, transcribed from an alternative promoter and uncover a novel translation start for the published human isoform, MKL1_L. Using a human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cell differentiation model, we show that TGF-&bgr; specifically upregulates MKL1_S during the initial phase of myofibroblast differentiation. We identified a functional N-terminal motif in MKL1_S that allows specific induction of a group of genes including the extracellular matrix (ECM) modifiers MMP16 and SPOCK3/testican-3. We propose that TGF-&bgr;-mediated induction of MKL1_S initiates progression to later stages of differentiation towards a stationary myofibroblast.
Insulin resistance is a sufficient basis for hyperandrogenism in lipodystrophic women with polycystic ovarian syndrome.

CONTEXT The lipodystrophies (LD) are characterized by metabolic abnormalities (insulin resistance, hypertriglyceridemia, and diabetes) and a polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) phenotype. Therapeutic administration of leptin improves insulin sensitivity and the metabolic features. OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to investigate whether the PCOS features are corrected by increasing insulin sensitivity as a function of leptin treatment. DESIGN This was a prospective, open-label trial using leptin replacement in various forms of lipodystrophy. SETTING The study was performed at the Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS Twenty-three female patients with LD were enrolled in a leptin replacement trial from 2000 to the present. Different parameters were assessed at baseline and after 1 yr of therapy. INTERVENTION(S) Patients were treated with leptin for at least 1 yr. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) We evaluated free testosterone, SHBG, and IGF-I at baseline and after 1 yr of leptin. RESULTS Testosterone levels decreased from 3.05 ±0.6 ng/ml at baseline to 1.7 ±0.3 ng/ml (P = 0.02). SHBG increased from 14.5 ±2 to 25 ±3.5 nmol/liter after 1 yr of leptin therapy. There were no significant changes in the levels of gonadotropins and ovarian size as a result of leptin replacement therapy. IGF-I increased significantly after leptin therapy from 150 ±14 to 195 ±17. There was a significant decrease in triglycerides and glycosylated hemoglobin in the context of reduced insulin requirements. CONCLUSIONS In the present study, we show that LD may be a model for the common forms of PCOS and that the endocrine features are corrected by leptin therapy, which reduces insulin resistance.
Benchmarking European software management practices

In addition to software’s ubiquity, the amount of code in most consumer products and systems is doubling every two to three years [6]. Consequently, software developers are scrambling to cope with the pressures of systems that are not only a couple of orders of magnitude larger and more complex than those developed a few years ago but also have to meet ever-increasing demands for quality and performance. The management of software development leaves much to be desired. This view was summed up by W. Wayt Gibbs in [6], “Studies have shown that for every six new large-scale software systems that are put into operation, two others are cancelled. The average software development project overshoots its schedule by half; larger projects generally do worse. ” In view of the recurrent problems in software development, a significant effort has been invested over the last decade in developing models and identifying practices that can lead to more effective software management. For example, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in Bilbao, Spain, has pioneered research in the assessment and improvement of software processes in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense and major U.S. business organizations [7]. The principle motivation for SEI’s work is that “the quality of a software product is largely determined by the qualEUROPEAN SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
The Reality of Directed Forgetting in the Item-Method Paradigm: Suppression, not Selective Search or Decay.

It has been suggested that directed forgetting (DF) in the item-method paradigm results from selective rehearsal of R items and passive decay of F items. However, recent evidence suggested that the passive decay explanation is insufficient. The current experiments examined two theories of DF that assume an active forgetting process: (1) attentional inhibition and (2) tagging and selective search (TSS). Across three experiments, the central tenets of these theories were evaluated. Experiment 1 included encoding manipulations in an attempt to distinguish between these competing theories, but the results were inconclusive. Experiments 2 and 3 examined the theories separately. The results from Experiment 2 supported a representation suppression account of attentional inhibition, while the evidence from Experiment 3 suggested that TSS was not a viable mechanism for DF. Overall, the results provide additional evidence that forgetting is due to an active process, and suggest this process may act to suppress the representations of F items.
Information Sources for Noun Learning

Why are some words easier to learn than others? And what enables the eventual learning of the more difficult words? These questions were addressed for nouns using a paradigm in which adults were exposed to naturalistic maternal input that was manipulated to simulate access to several different information sources, both alone and in combination: observation of the extralinguistic contexts in which the target word was used, the words that co-occurred with the target word, and the target word's syntactic context. Words that were not accurately identified from observation alone were both abstract (e.g., music) and concrete (e.g., tail). Whether a noun could be learned from observation depended on whether it labeled a basic-level object category (BLOC). However, the difference between BLOC labels and non-BLOC labels was eliminated when observation was supplemented with linguistic context. Thus, although BLOC labels can be learned from observation alone, non-BLOC labels require richer linguistic context. These findings support a model of vocabulary growth in which an important role is played by changes in the information to which learners have access.
The Factors that Affect Internet Addiction of Students in a Web Based Learning Environment

Internetin asiri kullaniminin bir sonucu olan internet bagimliligi, arastirmaya konu edilmistir. Arastirmada, ―Bilgisayara Giris‖ dersini internet uzerinden alan ogrencilerin internet bagimlilik duzeylerinin; cinsiyet, ogrenim gordukleri bolum, internete bagli kalma saati ve sosyo ekonomik duzeylerine (SED) gore degisip degismedigi incelenmistir. Cinsiyet yonunden erkek ogrencilerin kiz ogrencilere gore; internet kullanim suresi yonunden haftada sekiz saatten fazla internete bagli kalan ogrencilerin, haftada sekiz saatten az internete bagli kalan ogrencilere gore; ogrenim gordukleri bolumler acisindan ele alindiginda ogrencilerin internet bagimliligi duzeylerinin anlamli derecede farkli oldugu bulunmasina ragmen, ogrencilerin SED’lerinin ise internet bagimliligi duzeylerine etkisinin anlamli olmadigi bulunmustur.
Evaluating OD Evaluations: A Status Report

Fifteen recent studies that attempted to evaluate the effectiveness of OD programs were analyzed to determine the quality of their research designs. According to a standard set of validity criteria, there was improvement in methodological rigor in comparison to an earlier group of similar studies. It was concluded that there is a noticeable trend among OD evaluation studies to increasingly follow recommendations for better controls and thus obtain more reliable, valid, and meaningful results.
Older literature review of increased risk of adjacent segment degeneration with instrumented lumbar fusions

Background: Adjacent segment degeneration (ASD) following lumbar spine surgery occurs in up to 30% of cases, and descriptions of such changes are not new. Here, we review some of the older literature concerning the rate of ASD, typically more severe cephalad than caudad, and highly correlated with instrumented fusions. Therefore, for degenerative lumbar disease without frank instability, ASD would be markedly reduced by avoiding instrumented fusions. Methods: In a prior review, the newer literature regarding the frequency of ASD following lumbar instrumented fusions (e.g., transforaminal or posterior lumbar interbody fusions [TLIF/PLIF] fusions or occasionally, posterolateral fusions [PLFs]) was presented. Some studies cited an up to an 18.5% incidence of ASD following instrumented versus noninstrumented fusions/decompressions alone (5.6%). A review of the older literature similarly documents a higher rate of ASD following instrumented fusions performed for degenerative lumbar disease alone. Results: More frequent and more severe ASD follows instrumented lumbar fusions performed for degenerative lumbar disease without instability. Alternatively, this entity should be treated with decompressions alone or with noninstrumented fusions, without the addition of instrumentation. Conclusions: Too many studies assume that TLIF, PLIF, and even PLF instrumented fusions are the “gold standard of care” for dealing with degenerative disease of the lumbar spine without documented instability. It is time to correct that assumption, and reassess the older literature along with the new to confirm that decompression alone and noninstrumented fusion avoid significant morbidity and even potentially mortality attributed to unnecessary instrumentation.
Coping with unemployment among journalists and managers

This study explores the relationship between occupational background and coping with unemployment in two occupational groups. Longitudinal qualitative data are analysed in a life-story context by classifying types of themes found in the narratives. The study is theoretically rooted in the latent deprivation hypothesis, the agency restriction hypothesis and the theory of social exclusion. Occupational background and identity constituted the key foundations in which the journalists and managers anchored their strategies for coping with the labour market in general and with long-term unemployment in particular. Being able to cope was experienced as supportive and even minor success in the labour market enhanced active behaviour. However, repeated failure was related to deterioration in mental well-being. Institutional support was the most beneficial when it provided the unemployed with tools that enabled them to understand the situation they were facing and the need to consider occupational change.