Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epidemiological aspects of patients with ungual and cutaneous lesions caused by Scytalidium spp.

BACKGROUND Dermatomycoses caused by non-dermatophyte filamentous fungi are rare infections, except for onychomycosis, whose prevalence has increased over the past few years. Among these etiologic agents, we highlight Scytalidium dimidiatum and S. hyalinum, emergent fungi that cause mycoses that affect the nails and skin. OBJECTIVE To investigate the characteristics of onychomycosis and other mycoses caused by the fungi Scytalidium spp, using sex, age and site of infection as parameters. METHODS Eighty-one samples were evaluated showing positive culture for Scytalidium spp, obtained from 74 patients referred to the Laboratory of Investigation in Dermatology (ID) located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, RJ, between 1997 and 2006. The samples were submitted to diagnostic confirmation through direct exam and culture. RESULTS The prevalence of onychomycosis caused by Scytalidium spp. was of 0,87%. The most prevalent age was between 41-60 years (48.64%). Regarding the site of infection, the feet (91.36%) were most affected, with predominance of the left hallux. Hyaline hyphae were the most common structures in direct examination and the species S. dimidiatum was the most frequent in culture. CONCLUSION Onychomycosis caused by Scytalidium spp. is rare and S. dimidiatum was the most isolated species in this laboratory during the period of the study.
KRANNERT SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Firms that intentionally increase leverage through substantial debt issuances do so primarily as a response to operating needs rather than a desire to make a large equity payout. Subsequent debt reductions are neither rapid, nor the result of pro-active attempts to rebalance the firm’s capital structure towards a long-run target. Instead, the evolution of the firm’s leverage ratio depends primarily on whether or not the firm produces a financial surplus. In fact, firms that generate subsequent deficits tend to cover these deficits predominantly with more debt even though they exhibit leverage ratios that are well above estimated target levels. While many of our findings are difficult to reconcile with traditional capital structure models, they are broadly consistent with a capital structure theory in which financial flexibility, in the form of unused debt capacity, plays an important role in capital structure choices.
Acanthaster: Effect on Coral Reef Growth in Panama

Analysis of data on coral abundance and growth, and the population size (26 individuals per hectare) and feeding rate of Acanthaster indicates that Pocillopora reefs on the Pacific coast of Panama are undergoing vigorous growth in the presence of this predator. Prediction of the effects of a population increase in Acanthaster to plague proportions (2.5 times that presently observed) suggests that reefs could still maintain a positive growth. However, Acanthaster at ten times the present population density would lead to rapid destruction of reefs. It is argued that coral destruction due to Acanthaster represents only one of several factors affecting coral reef progression.
Function and Evolution of Ankylosaur Dermal Armor

Ankylosaurs have spike-, plate-, and club-shaped osteoderms probably used as defensive and/or offensive weapons. Previous studies have proposed the evolution and function of small ankylosaur osteoderms, but histological variations in their defensive weapons are little known. Here, we provide comparisons of the internal structures in defensive weapons of ankylosaurs, which shed light on understanding their evolutionary history and function. Histological features of spikes, plates, and clubs are similar to those of small osteoderms in having thin compact bone, thick cancellous bone with large vascular canals, and abundant collagen fibers. A previous study demonstrated that each of the three groups of ankylosaurs (the Polacanthidae, Nodosauridae, and Ankylosauridae) have distinct arrangements of collagen fibers in small osteoderms. This study shows that spikes and clubs of ankylosaurs maintain the same characteristic features for each group despite the differences in shapes and sizes. These histological similarities suggest that various types of osteoderms in ankylosaurs retained the thin compact bone and abundant fiber structures of the small osteoderms during their evolution. Polacanthid spikes show thin compact bone, with less collagen fibers than in spikes of nodosaurids and spikes and clubs of ankylosaurids. Also, ankylosaurid plates with hollow bases are very thin in morphology and show thin compact bone. These results imply that the bone strengths of polacanthid spikes and ankylosaurid plates are lower than spikes and clubs of other ankylosaurs, indicating that they may be used more probably as display and/or thermoregulation rather than as weapons. It is thus probable that ankylosaur armor in general played more than just a defensive role.
An analytical model for the rapid intensification of tropical cyclones

The nonlinearity and complexity of the primitive equations have been key obstacles to our understanding of tropical cyclones (TCs), particularly in relation to the dynamical processes leading to their rapid intensification. In this study, an axisymmetric model, in which all nonlinear terms in the horizontal momentum equations are retained, is used to examine analytically the effects of organized deep convection on TC rapid intensification. By prescribing a vertical profile of the vertical motion with exponential growth in the core region, a class of exact time‐dependent solutions for the primary circulations of TCs are obtained. The analytical solutions are shown to capture well many observed dynamical structures in both the core and outer regions and the rapid growth of TCs in terms of maximum winds and central pressure drops.
Drivers of SMS advertising acceptance: a mixed-methods approach

Purpose The study aims to identify and explore the antecedents to short message service (SMS) advertising acceptance as an effect to the entire process of communicating the SMS ad. Design/methodology/approach The study follows a sequential mixed-methods approach, starting with qualitative interviews, to build the research model following the grounded theory approach and then a quantitative survey study to apply the model to two types of ads (discount and notification ads). Findings Perceived value, ad trust and channel acceptance are crucial to the attitude towards SMS ads. Relevance, content, brand equity and perceived usefulness are significant triggers to perceived value and trust, with an emphasis on importance of brand equity in trusting discount ads. Practical/implications Accurate targeting and personalisation are crucial to ensure that SMS ads are useful and relevant to recipients. SMS advertising is more effective when the recipients are already connected with the brand. Including the brand name as the sender increases both value and trust. Transparency and adequate information are important for gaining trust especially for discount ads. Originality/value The study proposes an integrative model for SMS advertising acceptance after a rigorous consideration of all elements in the process of communicating the SMS ad following the GTA. The study also highlights the differences between the acceptance models for discount and notification ads.
Hybrid-Type Full-Bridge DC/DC Converter With High Efficiency

This paper presents a hybrid-type full-bridge dc/dc converter with high efficiency. Using a hybrid control scheme with a simple circuit structure, the proposed dc/dc converter has a hybrid operation mode. Under a normal input range, the proposed converter operates as a phase-shift full-bridge series-resonant converter that provides high efficiency by applying soft switching on all switches and rectifier diodes and reducing conduction losses. When the input is lower than the normal input range, the converter operates as an active-clamp step-up converter that enhances an operation range. Due to the hybrid operation, the proposed converter operates with larger phase-shift value than the conventional converters under the normal input range. Thus, the proposed converter is capable of being designed to give high power conversion efficiency and its operation range is extended. A 1-kW prototype is implemented to confirm the theoretical analysis and validity of the proposed converter.
G2A1B3AA receptor antibodies and their clinical associations

The discovery of antibodies to the extracellular domains of different members of the ligand-gated ion channel superfamily (acetylcholine receptor, NMDA receptor, AMPA receptor, glycine receptor) and ion channel–related proteins (LGI1, CASPR2, DPPX) in CNS diseases has defined a group of largely immunotherapy-responsive conditions.1,2 It has enabled the association of autoantibodies with clinical features, some of which were not traditionally considered immunotherapy-responsive. Examples include faciobrachial dystonic seizures associated with LGI1 antibodies3 and a variety of encephalopathies now designated autoimmune.1,2
Transcription and replication initiate at separate sites on the vesicular stomatitis virus genome

The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of the nonsegmented negative-strand RNA viruses carries out two distinct RNA synthetic processes: transcription of monocistronic, capped, and polyadenylated subgenomic messenger RNAs, and replication by means of the synthesis of a full-length positive-sense copy of the genome. The template for both processes is the negative-sense genomic RNA tightly encapsidated by the viral nucleocapsid protein. By applying UV transcriptional mapping to engineered variants of vesicular stomatitis virus, we discovered that, in infected cells, transcription and replication are controlled by initiation at different positions on the viral genome.
Are credit ratings valuable information?

Credit ratings are commonly used by lenders to assess the default risk, because every credit is connected with a possible loss. If the probability of a default is above a certain threshold, a credit will not be provided. The purpose of this study is to test whether credit ratings contribute valuable information on the creditworthiness of firms. Employing a large sample of Western German manufacturing firms, we investigate loan defaults. First, we estimate Probit models with publicly available information. Subsequently, we additionally use a credit rating and show that it contributes significantly to the regression fit. However, the publicly available information has an independent effect aside of the ratings. Simple calculations demonstrate that the interest rate has to increase significantly to compensate for a possible loss in case of default, if a firm has a weak rating.
Considering the talent in talent management: consequences of strategic talent management for the employee psychological contract and individual outcomes.

Strategic talent management aims to contribute to organisational competitive advantage through the differentiated management of employees identified as “talent”. However the nascent talent management (TM) literature is under-theorised and little is yet known about the mechanisms through which the path to talent-advantage may occur. While recent research has begun to consider the employee in talent management, a notable lack of conceptual and empirical investigation of the employee perspective persists. Considering the talent in talent management, the focus of this thesis is to examine the employee response to exclusive talent management and individual-level outcomes, bringing the employee perspective into central focus in the literature, a shift from the organisational perspective and organisational-level focus dominant in the literature. This thesis draws on psychological contract, social exchange and human resources attribution theories to investigate the mechanisms through which exclusive TM effectuates outcomes. An exploratory convergent empirical strategy and mixed-methods are used to consider these research questions: How do employees experience talent management? What are the consequences of talent management for the psychological contract and individual outcomes? Two empirical studies are presented. First, a qualitative inductive study. Through interview of a purposeful cross-organisation sample of employees identified as elite talent by their organisations, to capture the “voice of talent”, evidence highlights the consequences of talent status, the complexities of the talent-organisation relationship, and the central, dynamic involvement of the psychological contract. Second, through integration of HR attribution theory into the TM literature, the influence of employee talent management attributions on individual outcomes is examined, finding that psychological contract fulfilment is a central mechanism through which the influence of employee attributions of talent management on outcomes is mediated. A large-scale quantitative study (n=1561) was conducted. Examining the perspectives of both talent-identified employees and the wider workforce, this dissertation contributes a deep empirical investigation of the employee experience of talent management to the rapidly developing literature.
Simultaneous Extraction of Recoverable and Permanent Components Contributing to Bias-Temperature Instability

Measuring the degradation of modern devices subjected to bias temperature stress has turned out to be a formidable challenge. Interestingly, measurement techniques such as fast- Vth, on-the-fly ID,lin, and charge-pumping give quite different results. This has often been explained by the inherent recovery in non-on-the-fly techniques. Still, all these techniques deliver important information on the degradation and recovery behavior and a rigorous understanding linking these results is still missing. Based on our detailed studies of the recovery, we propose a new measurement technique which allows the simultaneous extraction of two distinctly different components, a fast universally recovering component and a slow, nearly permanent component.
Albert Einstein and Empirical Software Engineering

The author believes that scientists apply scientific investigative techniques to gain more understanding of what makes software "good" and how to make software well. Often, they adapt investigative techniques from other disciplines to define measures that make sense in the business, technical, and social contexts people use for decision making. However, the author believes that sometimes failure can educate as well as success. Examples from nineteenth-century physics show how a change in perspective can lead to explanations for previously misunderstood phenomena. The author claims that scientists must also consider whether their measurements constrict their view of what is really happening in the development process, and they must change or expand the approach if they are. Science clearly illustrates the limitations of an overly literal approach to building and maintaining software. Too often, the author believes, scientists tend to view software development the same way nineteenth-century physicists viewed the universe. Taking a cue from Einstein, scientists should shape their theories and models to fit a more probabilistic reality.
Characterization of a gene encoding cellulase from uncultured soil bacteria.

To detect cellulases encoded by uncultured microorganisms, we constructed metagenomic libraries from Korean soil DNAs. Screenings of the libraries revealed a clone pCM2 that uses carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as a sole carbon source. Further analysis of the insert showed two consecutive ORFs (celM2 and xynM2) encoding proteins of 226 and 662 amino acids, respectively. A multiple sequence analysis with the deduced amino acid sequences of celM2 showed 36% sequence identity with cellulase from the Synechococcus sp. , while xynM2 had 59% identity to endo-1,4-beta-xylanase A from Cellulomonas pachnodae. The highest enzymatic CMC hydrolysis was observable at pH 4.0 and 45 degrees C with recombinant CelM2 protein. Although the enzyme CelM2 additionally hydrolyzed avicel and xylan, no substrate hydrolysis was observed on oligosaccharides such as cellobiose, pNP-beta-cellobioside, pNP-beta-glucoside, and pNP-beta-xyloside. These results showed that CelM2 is a novel endo-type cellulase.
Surgical therapy for adult moyamoya disease. Can surgical revascularization prevent the recurrence of intracerebral hemorrhage?

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE It is well recognized that revascularization surgery using direct and/or indirect bypass provides effective surgical management for pediatric moyamoya disease. However, surgical treatment of the adult hemorrhagic type remains controversial. In this study, the effect of surgery for adult moyamoya disease was investigated. METHODS We analyzed 35 patients with adult moyamoya disease (patient age, over 20 years), 24 patients with initial onset of intracerebral hemorrhage, and 11 patients with initial onset of cerebral ischemia who underwent both direct bypass surgery of the superficial temporal artery to the middle cerebral artery anastomosis and indirect revascularization of encephalo-duro-arteriomyo-synangiosis. RESULTS Of 24 patients with hemorrhagic-type disease, 3 showed rebleeding: of 11 patients with the ischemic type, 2 showed intracerebral hemorrhage after surgery. Overall, 5 of 35 patients (14.3%) had hemorrhage after revascularization surgery (mean follow-up period, 6.4 years). Postoperative angiography revealed that direct anastomosis is effective whereas indirect revascularization is not always effective for adult moyamoya disease. Moyamoya vessels, which are supposed to be responsible for hemorrhage, decreased in 25% of patients. CONCLUSIONS Revascularization surgery cannot always prevent rebleeding. However, a decrease in moyamoya vessels was induced by surgery, which may reduce the risk of hemorrhage more effectively than conservative treatment. In cases of adult moyamoya disease, direct bypass is particularly important, since the indirect revascularization is not as useful in adult cases as in pediatric cases.
Human papillomavirus DNA in malignant and hyperplastic prostate tissue of black and white males

This study hypothesized that human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is associated with increased prostate cancer risk, and that the 40% higher incidence rate in blacks is attributable to a greater prevalence of oncogenic viral DNA in prostatic tissues. Viral L1 and E6 gene sequences were polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified in archival tissues from 56 prostate cancer cases and 42 hyperplastic controls. L1 amplimers were hybridized by dot blot to HPV L1 generic probes, as were E6 amplimers to E6 probes specific for HPV 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, and 45. 12.5% of cases and 9.5% of controls were HPV positive by L1 hybridization (age/race adjusted odds ratio = 1.66, 95% confidence interval = 0.33, 8.37). Four of 52 (7.7%) blacks were HPV positive compared to 7 of 46 (15.2%) whites. However, none of the L1‐positive samples hybridized to the E6 type‐specific probes, and positive results were not replicable using a broader spectrum of PCR primers and probes. These data suggest that HPV infection is not a significant risk factor for prostate cancer and does not explain the excess cancer risk in blacks. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Evidence is in: How Should Youth Employment Programs in Low-Income Countries Be Designed?

Youth in many low-income countries are entering the labor force in unprecedented numbers, yet many struggle to secure rewarding livelihoods. This paper outlines the economic development challenges that constrain youth's transition into employment, and it parses the evidence on which programs and policies appear to speed that transition. It concludes that it may be time for a fundamental reassessment of approaches for addressing youth employment and the youth transition in low-income countries. Employment opportunities in low-income countries reflect the pace of economic and structural transformation. In designing strategies, policies, and programs to meet the entry-into-employment challenge for youth, the starting point is to diagnose the economy and current/future employment opportunities. Combined with the analysis of youth employment problems from a structural transformation perspective, evidence from rigorous evaluations of youth employment interventions provides new insight into which kinds of interventions are more likely to help youth succeed in certain contexts. The evidence reviewed here casts serious doubt on the efficacy and value of training interventions to help youth enter formal wage employment. The case is stronger for interventions that speed the transition to self-employment in farming or non-farm household enterprises. Support for development of transferable character skills and social integration among youth through positive youth development programs should be tested further for employment and earnings impacts, perhaps along with cash transfers to youth or access to finance. In reviewing the evidence on the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of youth employment impacts, the paper also notes the need for better measures of displacement and general equilibrium effects.
Rejoining of Isochromatid Breaks Induced by Heavy Ions in G2-Phase Normal Human Fibroblasts

Abstract Kawata, T. , Durante, M. , Furusawa, Y. , George, K. , Ito, H. , Wu, H. and Cucinotta, F. A. Rejoining of Isochromatid Breaks Induced by Heavy Ions in G2-Phase Normal Human Fibroblasts. Radiat. Res. 156, 598–602 (2001). We reported previously that exposure of normal human fibroblasts in G2 phase of the cell cycle to high-LET radiation produces a much higher frequency of isochromatid breaks than exposure to γ rays. We concluded that an increase in the production of isochromatid breaks is a signature of initial high-LET radiation-induced G2-phase damage. In this paper, we report the repair kinetics of isochromatid breaks induced by high-LET radiation in normal G2-phase human fibroblasts. Exponentially growing human fibroblasts (AG1522) were irradiated with γ rays or energetic carbon (290 MeV/nucleon), silicon (490 MeV/nucleon), or iron (200 MeV/nucleon) ions. Prematurely condensed chromosomes were induced by calyculin A after different postirradiation incubation times ranging from 0 to 600 min. Chromosomes were stained with Giemsa, and aberrations were scored in cells at G2 phase. G2-phase fragments, the result of the induction of isochromatid breaks, decreased quickly with incubation time. The curve for the kinetics of the rejoining of chromatid-type breaks showed a slight upward curvature with time after exposure to 440 keV/μm iron particles, probably due to isochromatid–isochromatid break rejoining. The formation of chromatid exchanges after exposure to high-LET radiation therefore appears to be underestimated, because isochromatid–isochromatid exchanges cannot be detected. Increased induction of isochromatid breaks and rejoining of isochromatid breaks affect the overall kinetics of chromatid-type break rejoining after exposure to high-LET radiation.