Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The economic determinants of compensation committee quality

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the economic determinants of compensation committee quality. Design/methodology/approach - Sample firms were selected from the IRRC Directors' database. Compensation committee quality is measured as the factor score from a principal component analysis of six compensation committee characteristics. Regression analyses are conducted to test the hypotheses. Findings - It was found that firms with lower CEO influence, less institutional shareholders, fewer growth opportunities, and that are smaller in size are more likely to have high quality compensation committees. Practical implications - The results imply that even in the presence of a requirement to have only independent directors on the compensation committee, the quality of compensation committees can vary cross-sectionally depending on the firm's economic circumstances. Thus, a one-size fits all solution for compensation committee quality might not be optimal as different firms have different incentives in composing their compensation committees. Originality/value - This paper adds to the limited literature on compensation committees by using a new measure of compensation committee quality to examine the economic factors that affect the governance quality of independent compensation committees. This paper also complements the board and audit committee research by examining whether the same factors that affect board and audit committee quality might also affect compensation committee quality.
On the Interaction of UV Screens with the Lignocellulosic Matrix

Abstract In this report, we describe our attempt to understand the photochemical interactions that occur between dihydroxybenzophenone (DHB)-based UV screens and lignin when high-yield pulps are treated with such materials. Milled wood lignin (MWL) and filter paper were used as models, and various irradiation protocols were carried out in the presence and absence of UV screens. After irradiation, the lignin and the UV screen were extracted and the products analyzed. These experiments showed that upon irradiation, fragments of MWL-containing chromophores were linked to cellulose via an acid-labile linkage. In the presence of UV screens, these reactions were minimized. Molecular weight measurements of the extracted lignin showed that the MWL is degraded upon solid-state irradiation. The samples that contained UV screens showed a reduced tendency to degrade. Using quantitative 31P NMR, it was possible to probe further the detailed structural changes that occurred in MWL during irradiation. In general, DHB-based UV screens and derivatives were found to interact actively with MWL when irradiated.
Effects of severity of illness on resource use by survivors and nonsurvivors of severe sepsis at intensive care unit admission*

Objective To determine the relationship between severity of illness and length of stay for survivors and nonsurvivors of severe sepsis at intensive care unit admission. Design Observational study. Setting Fifty intensive care units participating in Project IMPACT submitted data during 1998–99. Trained personnel followed comprehensive operations to manually perform data collection. Patients We identified 2,434 patients with severe sepsis at intensive care unit admission by using clinical variables that followed the American College of Chest Physicians/Society of Critical Care Medicine Consensus Panel and evaluated them by using a general intensive care unit severity model customized for sepsis. The analyses included major diagnosis at intensive care unit admission (respiratory, infectious disease, and shock) and comparison to 19,046 patients without severe sepsis at intensive care unit admission. Interventions None. Measurements and Main Results Sepsis patients were older, were more severely ill, had a higher mortality rate, and had more intensive care unit readmissions than did nonsepsis patients. Mean length of stay in the intensive care unit and hospital was longer for sepsis patients than for nonsepsis patients. Among sepsis patients, nonsurvivors had slightly longer mean intensive care unit length of stay than survivors (9.06 vs. 8.15 days, p = .03). For sepsis patients in the lower two quartiles of severity, mean intensive care unit length of stay was significantly higher for nonsurvivors than for survivors. Unlike intensive care unit length of stay, mean hospital length of stay was greater for survivors than for nonsurvivors (18.48 vs. 12.22 days, p < .001). In the upper two quartiles of severity, survivors had longer mean hospital stays (p < .001). For nonsurvivors, the sicker patients had shorter stays. Conclusions Differences in length of stay between sepsis survivors and nonsurvivors were related to severity of illness. Thus, the potential economic effect of a new therapy for sepsis would depend, in part, on which particular patients, in terms of severity of illness, were enrolled. New therapies targeted to decrease mortality rate in patients with severe sepsis can potentially lead to the overall cost of care being neutral or increased depending on the severity levels of patients included in clinical trials.
[Talar neck fracture: 9-year follow-up of 40 cases].

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY Complication rate is high after talar neck fractures. Avascular osteonecrosis and post-traumatic joint degeneration could be avoided by proper management. We analyzed long-term outcome in a series of 40 talar neck fractures treated in our unit from 1979 to 1995. MATERIAL AND METHODS Mean follow-up was 9 years. Orthopedic and surgical management by Hawkins classification group was, respectively, type I=10 (7 and 3), type II=17 (3 and 14), type III=11 (1 and 10) and type IV=2 (both surgery). Two patients had bilateral fractures and 7 fractures were open. Among the 29 fractures treated surgically, the anteromedial approach was used for open reduction and fixation for 18. A dual approach was needed for 1 patient with a type III fracture. Fixation was achieved with cancelous screws for 17/29 fractures including 3 fluted screw fixations, cortical screws for 9, K-wires for 2 and staples for 1. RESULTS According to the AOFAS classification, mean function score at last follow-up was 94.4/100 for type I, 78.5 for type II, 69.5 for type III, and 57.5 for type IV. Signs of osteoarthritis were observed in 68% of the cases with clinical expression in 9 out of 10 cases. DISCUSSION The results show that conservative treatment is indicated for type I fractures while open reduction and fixation should be used for types II, III, and IV. Subsequent joint degeneration was correlated with the type of fracture and clearly influenced functional outcome. In our long-term follow-up, we only had two cases of osteonecrosis which finally necessitated arthrodesis. This low rate would be related to the fact that most of the patients were able to avoid weight bearing for several months.
The response of mechanical and chemical pulps to refining

This paper reports on theoretical equations describing the flow of pulp in refiners were used to analyze the experimental results obtained in a series of pilot plant trials. Western red cedar and loblolly pine wood chips were refined in 1-3 stages at rotational speeds of 1200 and 1800 rpm to produce thermomechanical pulps (TMP). Also, sulfate semibleached and low-yield sulfite pulps were refined at low (5%), medium (12%), and high (25%) consistency. The results indicate that the number of refining stages did not affect mechanical pulp quality. At a given specific energy, increasing the rotational speed increased the specific energy per impact and decreased the total number of impacts, resulting in a faster rate of fines generation for mechanical pulps. For chemical pulps higher pulp consistency produced gentler refining and yielded a higher rate of freeness decrease.
Confounding Adjustment in Comparative Effectiveness Research Conducted Within Distributed Research Networks

Background: A distributed research network (DRN) of electronic health care databases, in which data reside behind the firewall of each data partner, can support a wide range of comparative effectiveness research (CER) activities. An essential component of a fully functional DRN is the capability to perform robust statistical analyses to produce valid, actionable evidence without compromising patient privacy, data security, or proprietary interests. Objectives and Methods: We describe the strengths and limitations of different confounding adjustment approaches that can be considered in observational CER studies conducted within DRNs, and the theoretical and practical issues to consider when selecting among them in various study settings. Results: Several methods can be used to adjust for multiple confounders simultaneously, either as individual covariates or as confounder summary scores (eg, propensity scores and disease risk scores), including: (1) centralized analysis of patient-level data, (2) case-centered logistic regression of risk set data, (3) stratified or matched analysis of aggregated data, (4) distributed regression analysis, and (5) meta-analysis of site-specific effect estimates. These methods require different granularities of information be shared across sites and afford investigators different levels of analytic flexibility. Conclusions: DRNs are growing in use and sharing of highly detailed patient-level information is not always feasible in DRNs. Methods that incorporate confounder summary scores allow investigators to adjust for a large number of confounding factors without the need to transfer potentially identifiable information in DRNs. They have the potential to let investigators perform many analyses traditionally conducted through a centralized dataset with detailed patient-level information.
Disaggregation of In Vitro Preformed Platelet-Rich Clots by Abciximab Increases Fibrin Exposure and Promotes Fibrinolysis

Abstract—The glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor inhibitor abciximab has been shown to facilitate the rate and the extent of pharmacological thrombolysis with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) in patients with acute myocardial infarction. However, the underlying mechanisms remain not fully determined. We sought to demonstrate that this facilitating effect of abciximab could be related to its potential to modify the clot architecture and the clot physical properties. Compared with fibrin-rich clots, platelets dramatically modified the in vitro properties of the fibrin network, leading to a significant increase of the permeability (Ks) and the viscoelasticity (G′) indexes but also leading to the appearance of platelet aggregates (surface area [S.ag]). These modifications resulted in a 2.6-fold decrease of the fibrinolysis rate when rtPA (1 nmol/L) was added before the initiation of clotting. Adding aspirin (100 &mgr;g/mL) or abciximab (0.068 &mgr;mol/L) before the clotting of platelet-rich clots (PRCs) lowered Ks by 50% and 70%, respectively (P <0.01), G′ by 41% and 66%, respectively (P <0.01), and S.ag by 32% and 61%, respectively (P <0.01). As a consequence, the lysis speed was increased by 21% with aspirin (P <0.01) and 45% with abciximab (P <0.01). However, unlike aspirin, permeation of preformed PRCs with abciximab (0.068 &mgr;mol/L) decreased G′ (37%, P <0.01), Ks (35%, P <0.001) and S.ag (25%, P =NS) and resulted in a 27% (P <0.01) increase of the lysis speed when abciximab and rtPA (0.2 &mgr;mol/L) were simultaneously permeated. This effect was found to be time dependent and was observed only with early permeation, starting within the first 10 minutes of clotting. These changes in the physical properties of the PRC architecture suggest that fibrin is removed from the platelet-fibrin aggregates and reexposed into the surrounding fibrin network, increasing rtPA access to fibrin and therefore the fibrinolysis rate. The superiority of abciximab over aspirin in accelerating fibrinolysis of forming and preformed PRCs is related to its ability to modulate the interactions of fibrinogen and fibrin with platelets. These findings provide new mechanistic information on reperfusion therapy.
FreeLing 3.0: Towards Wider Multilinguality

FreeLing is an open-source multilingual language processing library providing a wide range of analyzers for several languages. It offers text processing and language annotation facilities to NLP application developers, lowering the cost of building those applications. FreeLing is customizable, extensible, and has a strong orientation to real-world applications in terms of speed and robustness. Developers can use the default linguistic resources (dictionaries, lexicons, grammars, etc.), extend/adapt them to specific domains, or --since the library is open source-- develop new ones for specific languages or special application needs. This paper describes the general architecture of the library, presents the major changes and improvements included in FreeLing version 3.0, and summarizes some relevant industrial projects in which it has been used.
Inhibition of HDAC3- and HDAC6-Promoted Survivin Expression Plays an Important Role in SAHA-Induced Autophagy and Viability Reduction in Breast Cancer Cells

SAHA is a class I HDAC/HDAC6 co-inhibitor and an autophagy inducer currently undergoing clinical investigations in breast cancer patients. However, the molecular mechanism of action of SAHA in breast cancer cells remains unclear. In this study, we found that SAHA is equally effective in targeting cells of different breast cancer subtypes and tamoxifen sensitivity. Importantly, we found that down-regulation of survivin plays an important role in SAHA-induced autophagy and cell viability reduction in human breast cancer cells. SAHA decreased survivin and XIAP gene transcription, induced survivin protein acetylation and early nuclear translocation in MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. It also reduced survivin and XIAP protein stability in part through modulating the expression and activation of the 26S proteasome and heat-shock protein 90. Interestingly, targeting HDAC3 and HDAC6, but not other HDAC isoforms, by siRNA/pharmacological inhibitors mimicked the effects of SAHA in modulating the acetylation, expression, and nuclear translocation of survivin and induced autophagy in MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cancer cells. Targeting HDAC3 also mimicked the effect of SAHA in up-regulating the expression and activity of proteasome, which might lead to the reduced protein stability of survivin in breast cancer cells. In conclusion, this study provides new insights into SAHA's molecular mechanism of actions in breast cancer cells. Our findings emphasize the complexity of the regulatory roles in different HDAC isoforms and potentially assist in predicting the mechanism of novel HDAC inhibitors in targeted or combinational therapies in the future.
Myofibrillar proteolysis in response to voluntary or electrically stimulated muscle contractions in humans

Knowledge about the effects of exercise on myofibrillar protein breakdown in human subjects is limited. Our purpose was to measure the changes in the degradation of myofibrillar proteins in response to different ways of eliciting muscle contractions using the local interstitial 3‐methyl‐histidine (3‐MH) concentration as a marker for myofibrillar protein breakdown. Untrained males (n=8, 22–27 years, range) performed 210 maximal isokinetic eccentric contractions with each leg on an isokinetic dynamometer. One leg performed voluntary (VOL) and the other leg performed electrically induced contractions (ES). Microdialysis probes were placed in m. vastus lateralis in both the legs immediately after, and 1 and 3 days post‐exercise. Interstitial 3‐MH was higher in ES vs VOL immediately after exercise (P<0.05). One and 3 days post‐exercise no difference between the two exercise types was observed. Only after ES did the histochemical stainings show significant disruption of cytoskeletal proteins. Furthermore, intracellular disruption and destroyed Z‐lines were markedly more pronounced in ES vs VOL. In conclusion, the local level of interstitial 3‐MH in the skeletal muscle was significantly enhanced after ES compared with VOL immediately after exercise, while the level of 3‐MH did not change in the post‐exercise period after VOL. These results indicate that the local myofibrillar breakdown is accelerated after ES associated with severe myofiber damage.
Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the Sarmatian (Middle Miocene) Central Paratethys based on palaeontological and geochemical analyses of foraminifera, ostracods, gastropods and rodents

Abstract Palaeoenvironmental changes in the upper Middle Miocene Central Paratethys were reconstructed by using qualitative and quantitative palaeontological analyses of foraminifera and ostracods, coupled with trace elemental (Mg/Ca) and stable isotope (δ18O and δ13C) analyses of their carbonate skeletons and of gastropod shells. Mean annual air temperatures were estimated using the oxygen isotope composition of contemporaneous rodent teeth. The studied aquatic fossils come from two boreholes in the Zsámbék Basin (northern central Hungary), while the terrestrial ones are from localities in NE Hungary and E Romania. In the studied Sarmatian successions, three zones could be distinguished, based on palaeontological and geochemical results. At the Badenian/Sarmatian boundary, faunal diversity decreased markedly. In the lower zone a transgressive event culminated in a seawater incursion into the semi-open basin system of the Central Paratethys. Stable bottom-water temperature (~15 °C) and variable salinities (20–32 ‰) are estimated for the Early Sarmatian Sea. The faunal changes (notably a strong reduction in biodiversity) occurring at the boundary between the lower and the middle zone can be explained by a sea-level highstand with dysoxic conditions. A relative sea-level fall is documented at the end of this middle zone. After a short regressive event, a marine connection between the Paratethys and the Mediterranean was established at the beginning of the upper zone. This is indicated by an increased microfaunal diversity and the re-appearance of marine Badenian ostracods and foraminifera, which are completely absent from the older Sarmatian series. During the upper zone, the temperatures and salinities are estimated to have fluctuated from 15 °C to 21 °C and from 15 ‰ to 43 ‰, respectively.
Combined Operations of Renewable Energy Systems and Responsive Demand in a Smart Grid

The integration of renewable energy systems (RESs) in smart grids (SGs) is a challenging task, mainly due to the intermittent and unpredictable nature of the sources, typically wind or sun. Another issue concerns the way to support the consumers' participation in the electricity market aiming at minimizing the costs of the global energy consumption. This paper proposes an energy management system (EMS) aiming at optimizing the SG's operation. The EMS behaves as a sort of aggregator of distributed energy resources allowing the SG to participate in the open market. By integrating demand side management (DSM) and active management schemes (AMS), it allows a better exploitation of renewable energy sources and a reduction of the customers' energy consumption costs with both economic and environmental benefits. It can also improve the grid resilience and flexibility through the active participation of distribution system operators (DSOs) and electricity supply/demand that, according to their preferences and costs, respond to real-time price signals using market processes. The efficiency of the proposed EMS is verified on a 23-bus 11-kV distribution network.
Chlorambucil in combination with induction and maintenance rituximab is feasible and active in indolent non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma

Summary. We investigated the toxicity and efficacy of the chimaeric anti‐CD20 antibody rituximab in combination with standard‐dose chlorambucil in newly diagnosed and relapsed/refractory indolent B‐cell lymphoma patients. A total of 29 patients (15 newly diagnosed and 14 relapsed/refractory) with low‐grade or follicular B‐cell non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) were included in this phase II study. Therapy consisted of chlorambucil 6 mg/m2/d for 6 consecutive weeks in combination with a standard 4‐weekly rituximab administration schedule in the induction phase. Patients responding to the induction therapy received four additional cycles with chlorambucil (6 mg/m2/d for 2 weeks/month) plus rituximab (once a month). Twenty‐six patients (89%) completed the treatment; only one patient discontinued treatment because of haematological toxicity. At the end of the study, the dose of chlorambucil had to be reduced in seven patients (27%) and six patients (23%) required a delay in further treatment, as a result of toxicity during consolidation therapy. Only one patient was withdrawn from the study because of progressive disease; the 27 patients evaluable for response at the end of consolidation achieved a clinical response (63% complete response and 26% partial response). A significant CD4+ and CD56+ depletion was observed after induction and during consolidation therapy; two herpes zoster virus infections and one perianal abscess represented major infectious morbidities registered during the study. Based on our preliminary data, the combination of chlorambucil with rituximab seemed to be well tolerated and active. Its definitive role in the treatment of low‐grade NHL should be further evaluated in randomized trials.
Increased Wnt5a mRNA Expression in Advanced Atherosclerotic Lesions, and Oxidized LDL Treated Human Monocyte-Derived Macrophages

Objective Wnt5a is a secreted glycoprotein highly present in atherosclerotic lesions. Uptake of oxidized-low density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) by monocytes/macrophages plays a critical role in atherosclerosis. The objective of this study was to determine if Wnt5a mRNA expression correlates with the severity of atherosclerotic lesions, and if, ox-LDL can induce Wnt5a mRNA in macrophages. Methods Wnt5a mRNA in tissue sections from carotid arteries of patients undergoing endarterectomy was quantified via RT-PCR and correlated with plaque severity. Human monocyte-derived macrophages and differentiated THP-1 cells, a human monocytic cell line, were treated with ox-LDL or native-LDL. Subsequently, Wnt5a transcripts were quantified by RT-PCR. Results Regions of the arteries with more severe plaques had detectable and significant levels of Wnt5a mRNA, while regions of the arteries containing less vulnerable plaques had low or non-detectable Wnt5a. Ox-LDL, but not native-LDL, induced Wnt5a mRNA in both human monocyte-derived macrophages and differentiated THP-1 cells. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that the expression of Wnt5a correlates with the severity of atherosclerotic lesions, and that ox-LDL induces Wnt5a mRNA expression in human macrophages. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that Wnt5a plays a critical role in atherosclerosis progression and that a source of Wnt5a is ox-LDL stimulated macrophages.