Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Roman Business Associations

There were no large firms with publicly traded shares in Ancient Rome. The high level of instability is one of the key explanations: it was difficult under Roman law to commit capital for the long term and finance capital-intensive enterprises. The societas was inevitably liquidated following numerous dissolution events. The peculium came to an end when the commonly held slave died. While the societas publicanorum developed into a more stable institution, during the same period, its business almost disappeared. How can a modern reader make sense of this? How can we explain the picture that emerges from the sources? The present chapter suggests that reservations in the social and political setting, rather than economic factors or oddities of Roman legal doctrine, caused business associations to remain small. This is an important lesson from history, both for the theory of the firm and for the role that law plays in it.
Addiction in Pregnancy

ABSTRACT Substance abuse in pregnancy has increased over the past three decades in the United States, resulting in approximately 225,000 infants yearly with prenatal exposure to illicit substances. Routine screening and the education of women of child bearing age remain the most important ways to reduce addiction in pregnancy. Legal and illegal substances and their effect on pregnancy discussed in this review include opiates, cocaine, alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and amphetamines. Most literature regarding opiate abuse is derived from clinical experience with heroin and methadone. Poor obstetric outcomes can be up to six times higher in patients abusing opiates. Neonatal care must be specialized to treat symptoms of withdrawal. Cocaine use in pregnancy can lead to spontaneous abortion, preterm births, placental abruption, and congenital anomalies. Neonatal issues include poor feeding, lethargy, and seizures. Mothers using cocaine require specialized prenatal care and the neonate may require extra supportive care. More than 50% of women in their reproductive years use alcohol. Alcohol is a teratogen and its effects can include spontaneous abortion, growth restriction, birth defects, and mental retardation. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder can have long-term sequelae for the infant. Tobacco use is high among pregnant women, but this can be a time of great motivation to begin cessation efforts. Long-term effects of prenatal tobacco exposure include spontaneous abortion, ectopic pregnancy, placental insufficiency, low birth weight, fetal growth restriction, preterm delivery, childhood respiratory disease, and behavioral issues. Marijuana use can lead to fetal growth restriction, as well as withdrawal symptoms in the neonate. Lastly, amphetamines can lead to congenital anomalies and other poor obstetric outcomes. Once recognized, a multidisciplinary approach can lead to improved maternal and neonatal outcomes.
Differential Effects of the Factor Structure of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised on the Cortical Thickness and Complexity of Patients Aged Over 75 Years in a Memory Clinic Setting

The Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) is one of the internationally well-known batteries for memory assessment in a general memory clinic setting. Several factor structures of the WMS-R for patients aged under 74 have been proposed. However, little is known about the factor structure of the WMS-R for patients aged over 75 years and its neurological significance. Thus, we conducted exploratory factor analysis to determine the factor structure of the WMS-R for patients aged over 75 years in a memory clinic setting. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was calculated from single-photon emission computed tomography data. Cortical thickness and cortical fractal dimension, as the marker of cortical complexity, were calculated from high resolution magnetic resonance imaging data. We found that the four factors appeared to be the most appropriate solution to the model, including recognition memory, paired associate memory, visual-and-working memory, and attention as factors. Patients with mild cognitive impairments showed significantly higher factor scores for paired associate memory, visual-and-working memory, and attention than patients with Alzheimer's disease. Regarding the neuroimaging data, the factor scores for paired associate memory positively correlated with rCBF in the left pericallosal and hippocampal regions. Moreover, the factor score for paired associate memory showed most robust correlations with the cortical thickness in the limbic system, whereas the factor score for attention correlated with the cortical thickness in the bilateral precuneus. Furthermore, each factor score correlated with the cortical fractal dimension in the bilateral frontotemporal regions. Interestingly, the factor scores for the visual-and-working memory and attention selectively correlated with the cortical fractal dimension in the right posterior cingulate cortex and right precuneus cortex, respectively. These findings demonstrate that recognition memory, paired associate memory, visual-and-working memory, and attention can be crucial factors for interpreting the WMS-R results of elderly patients aged over 75 years in a memory clinic setting. Considering these findings, the results of WMS-R in elderly patients aged over 75 years in a memory clinic setting should be cautiously interpreted.
Comparing the role of standard references on the prevalence of Iranian children and adolescents’ overweight and obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Obesity is a major risk factor for chronic diseases and has a role on high blood pressure, diabetes type II, etc., This review assesses the prevalence of Iranian children obesity and overweight for different age categories and compares the three standard definitions of obesity. Materials and Methods: To retrieve desirable studies concerning childhood anthropometric data from different area of Iran, the MEDLINE, Scopus, and different local databases such as Scientific Information database were used. The studies reported the prevalence of obesity or overweight of children < 6, 6–12, and 12–20 years old, despite differences between definitions of childhood obesity, were included in the study. We combined the reported prevalence of the overweight and obesity with regard to age and gender, and also by the different standard references which are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) definition, and the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) references. The analysis was carried out using STATA software. Results: Our review covered 75 articles reported the prevalence of overweight or obesity among children and adolescents for different age groups in Iran. Our meta-regression analysis showed that the prevalence of obesity and overweight did not vary significantly in gender and age categories, but different definitions provide different prevalence of overweight and obesity. Conclusion: The effective factors on obesity and overweight included administration policy and organizational, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and social factors. CDC and WHO references intended in monitoring children's growth and the IOTF cutoffs would rather provide a common set of definitions that researchers and policymakers could use for descriptive and comparative purposes.
The Speed of Orthographic Processing during Lexical Decision: Electrophysiological Evidence for Independent Coding of Letter Identity and Letter Position in Visual Word Recognition

Adults can decide rapidly if a string of letters is a word or not. However, the exact time course of this discrimination is still an open question. Here we sought to track the time course of this discrimination and to determine how orthographic informationletter position and letter identityis computed during reading. We used a go/no-go lexical decision task while recording event-related potentials (ERPs). Subjects were presented with single words (go trials) and pseudowords (no-go trials), which varied in orthographic conformation, presenting either a double consonant frequently doubled (i.e., ss) or never doubled (i.e., zz) (identity factor); and a position of the double consonant was which either legal or illegal (position factor), in a 2 2 factorial design. Words and pseudowords clearly differed as early as 230 msec. At this latency, ERP waveforms were modulated both by the identity and by the position of letters: The fronto-central no-go N2 was the smallest in amplitude and peaked the earliest to pseudowords presenting both an illegal double-letter position and an identity never encountered. At this stage, the two factors showed additive effects, suggesting an independent coding. The factors of identity and position of double letters interacted much later in the process, at the P3 level, around 300400 msec on frontal and central sites, in line with the lexical decision data obtained in the behavioral study. Overall, these results show that the speed of lexical decision may depend on orthographic information coded independently by the identity and position of letters in a word.
Maternity satisfaction studies and their limitations: "What is, must still be best".

BACKGROUND Health policymakers throughout the developed world are paying close attention to factors in maternity care that may influence women's satisfaction. This paper examines some of these factors in the light of observations from previous studies of satisfaction with health services. METHODS The Scottish Birth Study, a cross-sectional questionnaire survey, sought the views of all women in Scotland delivering during a 10-day period in 1998. A total of 1,137 women completed and returned questionnaires (response rate = 69%). RESULTS Women were overwhelmingly satisfied with their prenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal care. As is common in this type of study, reports of dissatisfaction were relatively low. However, differences occurred in satisfaction levels between subgroups; for example, the fewer the number of caregivers the woman had during childbirth, the more likely she was to be satisfied with the care received. A range of factors appeared to influence reported satisfaction levels, such as characteristics of the care provided and the woman's psychosocial circumstances. CONCLUSIONS In addition to the inherent limitations of satisfaction studies found in the literature, problems may arise if such surveys are used uncritically to shape the future provision of maternity services, because service users tend to value the status quo over innovations of which they have no experience. Therefore, although satisfaction surveys have a role to play, we argue that they should only be used with caution, and preferably as part of an array of tools.
Galectins as immunoregulators during infectious processes: from microbial invasion to the resolution of the disease

Recent evidence has implicated galectins, a family of evolutionarily conserved carbohydrate‐binding proteins, as regulators of immune cell homeostasis and host–pathogen interactions. Galectins operate at different levels of innate and adaptive immune responses, by modulating cell survival and cell activation or by influencing the Th1/Th2 cytokine balance. Furthermore, galectins may contribute to host–pathogen recognition and may serve as receptors for specific interactions of pathogens with their insect vectors. Here we will explore the influence of galectins in immunological processes relevant to microbial infection and will summarize exciting recent work related to the specific interactions between galectins and their glycoconjugate ligands as critical determinants of pathogen recognition. Understanding the role of galectin–sugar interactions during the course of microbial infections might contribute to defining novel targets for disease prevention and immune intervention.
How Effective is the Invisible Hand? Agricultural and Food Markets in Central and Eastern Europe

This volume of proceedings, available both as hard copy and pdf , is a compilation of selected contributions to the IAMO Forum 2005, which will be held in Halle (Saale), Germany, at the Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe from June 16-18, 2005. CONTENTS: Agricultural and food markets in Central and Eastern Europe: An introduction; Stephan Brosig, Heinrich Hockmann. Agricultural markets in CEE - An overview; Jozsef Popp. Regoverning agrifood markets in CEEC - Poland's pork and apple markets; Jerzy Wilkin, Malgorzta Juchniewicz, Dominika Milczarek. Regoverning markets in the Hungarian dairy sector; Imre Ferto, Csaba Forgacs, Aniko Juhasz, Gyongyi Kurthy. Analysis of competitiveness, economic efficiency and distortions in the Estonian milk sector; Piret Hein. Building sustainable supply chains: The role of institutions; Jill E. Hobbs. How effective is the invisible hand on technological and institutional change and the reduction of transaction costs in the food sector? Ernst-August Nuppenau. How effective is the visible hand of the government in stabilising the wheat and flour price relation in Ukraine? Bernhard Brummer, Sergiy Zorya. Marketing margins and price transmission on the Hungarian pork market; Lajos Zoltan Bakucs, Imre Ferto. Slovenian retailing market structures, retail prices, and size of marketing margins for food staples; Stefan Bojnec. Scarcity and preferences (Data Envelopment Analysis of Moscow region corporate farms); Nikolay Svetlov. Buying or renting in? Selling or renting out? Exploring contract choice on the Polish land market; Annette Hurrelmann. The organisation of buyer - Supplier relations in the food chain: The case of the German fruit processing industry and Polish farmers; Kai Maack. Supply Chain Networks: Analysis based on strategic management theories and institutional economics; Jon H. Hanf. Dynamics of labour market participation: What drives Chinese farmers into and out of off-farm employment? Thomas Glauben, Thomas Herzfeld, Xiaobing Wang. Market channels and commercial orientation in Romania; Borbala Balint. Land reform and the development of agricultural land markets in Russia; Zvi Lerman, Natalya Shagaida. Public quality schemes - Helping ensure well-functioning agri-food markets in Central and East European countries? Eckhard Benner. Competition, market power and antimonopoly policy: A Hayekian perspective; Jurgen Wandel. An ex-ante analysis of a minimum price system for Ukraine; Oleg Nivyevs'ki, Arnim Kuhn
F‐actin patches associated with glutamatergic synapses control positioning of dendritic lysosomes

Organelle positioning within neurites is required for proper neuronal function. In dendrites with their complex cytoskeletal organization, transport of organelles is guided by local specializations of the microtubule and actin cytoskeleton, and by coordinated activity of different motor proteins. Here, we focus on the actin cytoskeleton in the dendritic shaft and describe dense structures consisting of longitudinal and branched actin filaments. These actin patches are devoid of microtubules and are frequently located at the base of spines, or form an actin mesh around excitatory shaft synapses. Using lysosomes as an example, we demonstrate that the presence of actin patches has a strong impact on dendritic organelle transport, as lysosomes frequently stall at these locations. We provide mechanistic insights on this pausing behavior, demonstrating that actin patches form a physical barrier for kinesin-driven cargo. In addition, we identify myosin Va as an active tether which mediates long-term stalling. This correlation between the presence of actin meshes and halting of organelles could be a generalized principle by which synapses control organelle trafficking.
Is the Consensus Forecast Just the Average? -- Re-examining an Evaluation of the ESP Forecast -- (in Japanese)

This paper examines forecast data of the ESP Forecast (hereafter ESPF), the monthly survey of forecasts for the Japanese economy, for 4 variable -- three quarterly figures of real GDP growth rates, year-on-year CPI growth rate and unemployment rate, and fiscal year real GDP growth rate -- in FY 2004 and 2005. The consensus forecast turns out to perform well, which is a robust result, regardless of changes in evaluation methods. This is because even though realized values often "betray forecasts", that is, they could be regarded as outliers from forecasters' viewpoints, the consensus forecast, by definition, does not deviate so much from realised values. Hence, each forecaster should find it easy to beat the consensus a few times, but difficult to continue. Frequent large deviations of realised values could result from relatively large uncertainty attached to the forecasts. The ESPF keeps the following two compatible: producing the consensus valuable to users; making it possible for participating forecasters to beat the consensus, thereby encouraging the forecasters to continue to participate in the ESPF. Forecast combination is shown to reduce RMSE of forecast errors the most for quarterly real GDP growth rate (s.a.a.r.), some 1.5 percentage points.
Trait aggression in young Hungarian practitioners of Japanese martial arts

Background and Study Aim: We hypothesized: (H1) there is a significant difference between genders in the total score of trait aggression and subscales (verbal, physical aggression, hostility and anger) in both groups (budo and control group), wherein the boys exhibit significantly a higher score of trait aggression than girls; (H2) there is a significant difference in the trait aggression total score and the sub-scales scores based on school type, wherein the vocational school students would achieve the highest, whereas high school students the lowest values in both groups (budo and control group); (H3) budo martial arts practitioners are characterized significantly lower trait aggression (total scores) than their counterparts of the same age, and youngsters practicing martial arts also had a significantly lower value for all aggression subclasses than their peers in the control group; (H4) the length of sport practice, the number of workouts, and competitive variables of budo group have a significant correlation, with trait aggression (the total score and the value of the sub-scales). The aim of this study is to verify this hypothesis. Materials and Methods: This study examined students between the ages of 14 and 18 (n = 1,488). There were 149 people in the budo group who had been practicing for at least a year spending at least one and a half hours twice a week in martial arts classes. The control group consisted of 1,339 students. The Buss-Perry Questionnaire (AQ) was used. IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0. were used for statistical analysis. Results were considered as significant if p<0.05. Results: In the control group, the score for trait aggression and the score for the physical sub-scale for the boys was significantly higher than for the girls. However, in the verbal aggression category and the anger subcategory there is a significant difference in favor of girls. In the martial arts group there was only a significant difference in the physical aggression subscale score for males; but not in the total score and other sub-scales. There was a significant difference in scores based on the type of schooling in the control group. In both groups, those in vocational school had the highest trait-aggression score. Budo practitioners had a lower trait-aggression level; their trait-aggression overall score and the sub-scale scores were also significantly lower than those of the control group. However, competitors have significantly lower levels of hostility. Conclusions: Negative prejudices against martial arts athletes practitioners to the effect that they would be more aggressive than average were not proven in the investigation.
Economic Shocks and their Effects on Unemployment in the Euro Area Periphery under the EMU

In this paper we aim to investigate the effects of several types of shocks on unemployment in peripheral European countries under the EMU. We use a structural near- VAR model to account for the supranational conduct of monetary policy on the one hand, and domestic fiscal policy and financial shocks on the other hand. Our main findings are: (i) the unemployment multipliers of government spending shocks are higher than the ones associated with government revenues shocks, and they vary across countries; (ii) instability in the unemployment responses over time is marked, with evidence that a regime shift took place in some countries since 2007; (iii) fiscal and financial shocks are not among the long-term drivers of unemployment, but instead a more important role is played by Euro area-wide shocks, with a pre-eminent role for the common monetary policy shock.
Long-term economic perspectives compared: Joseph Schumpeter and Werner Sombart

The article compares Joseph Schumpeter's well-known perspectives of long term economic development with those put forward in the 1920's by the German economist Werner Sombart who followed an approach of ‘theoretical historicism’. There was general agreement between Schumpeter and Sombart that capitalism as an economic system was on the decline. Whereas according to Sombart this was attributable to a tendancy towards stagnation; in Schumpeter's view capitalism was doomed due to its success, not for its failure. The strongest parallels are to be found with respect to forces driving the transformation process, at the end of which Schumpeter expected a socialist system whereas Sombart envisioned some kind of mixed economy. The article also discusses the relevance of differences of approaches and of value judgments for the results of both authors' investigations.
Cortical Gyrification in Autistic and Asperger Disorders: A Preliminary Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

The validity of Asperger disorder as a distinct syndrome from autism is unclear partly because of the paucity of differentiating neurobiological evidence. Frontal lobe cortical folding between these disorders was compared using the gyrification index. Twenty-three boys underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging: 6 with high-functioning autism, 9 with Asperger disorder, and 8 controls. Using the first coronal slice anterior to the corpus callosum, total and outer cortical contours were traced to calculate the gyrification index. This index was also calculated for superior and inferior regions to examine dorsolateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, respectively. Analysis of variance revealed differences in the left inferior gyrification index, which was higher in the autism group compared with Asperger and control groups. There were no differences in age, intelligence quotient, and brain volume. These preliminary findings suggest that cortical folding may be abnormally high in the frontal lobe in autism but not Asperger disorder, suggesting distinct frontal lobe neuropathology.