Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Study of the Superconducting and Thermal Properties of ex situ GlidCop-Sheathed Practical $\hbox{MgB}_{2}$ Conductors

In dc and ac practical applications of MgB2 superconducting wires, an important role is represented by the material sheath that has to provide, among other things, a suitable electrical and thermal stabilization. One way to obtain a large-enough amount of low-resistivity material into the conductor architecture is to use it as the external sheath. In this paper, we study ex situ multifilamentary MgB2 wires fabricated with oxide-dispersion-strengthened copper (GlidCop) as the external sheath in order to reach a good compromise between critical current density and thermal properties. We prepared three GlidCop samples with different contents of dispersed submicroscopic Al2O3 particles. We characterized the superconducting and thermal properties, and we showed that the good thermal conductivity, together with the good mechanical properties and a reasonable critical current density, makes the GlidCop composite wire a useful conductor for applications where high thermal conductivity is required at temperatures above 30 K, such as superconducting fault-current limiters.
Rupture of a collateral ligament of the proximal interphalangeal joint of the fingers. Analysis of eighteen cases.

Injuries to the collateral ligaments of the proximal interphalangeal joints of the fingers are common and vary from simple strain to complete rupture, a condition which, if overlooked, frequently results in unilateral pain, swelling, and sharply localized tenderness and, when the ligament is completely ruptured, passive instability of the joint. This instability can be confirmed by proper stress roentgenograms. Review of our experience with injuries of one of the collateral ligaments of the proximal interphalangeal joints treated by non-operative means revealed that partial ligamentous ruptures responded satisfactorily while completely ruptured collateral ligaments frequently resulted in prolonged disability. Fourteen of eighteen fingers with completely ruptured collateral ligaments of the proximal interphalangeal joints were operated on with satisfactory results. Three patients refused operation; one was unsuitable for surgery.
A physiologically‐based pharmacokinetic model for disposition of 2,3,7,8‐TCDD in fathead minnow and medaka

A physiologically‐based pharmacokinetic model was developed for the disposition of 2,3,7,8‐tetrachlorodibenzo‐p‐dioxin (2,3,7,8‐TCDD) in 2 fish species—fathead minnow and medaka. The model was developed based on the empirical data on disposition of dioxins in fish tissues, as well as existing knowledge on the mechanisms of uptake, distribution, storage, and elimination of dioxins in various species (other than fish). The present study examined the applicability of mechanisms known to occur in other species for fish and concluded that the same mechanisms defined for disposition of 2,3,7,8‐TCDD in (mostly) rodents can be applicable for the 2 fish species examined as well. Parameter values for the model were selected and/or calibrated using available databases. Model compartments included the gill, kidney, liver, and other richly‐perfused tissues, as well as fat and other slowly‐perfused tissues. The model was calibrated using 2 independent datasets for exposure of fathead minnow and medaka to 2,3,7,8‐TCDD in water. The initial values of the model parameters were selected from several sources, and calibrated to represent the 2 exposure datasets. With very few exceptions, the estimated parameter values for the 2 species were comparable, and the final predictions were in strong agreement with the observations. The model developed in the present study can therefore be used in the prediction of the body burden of 2,3,7,8‐TCDD in fathead minnow and medaka. Uncertainty in the model prediction as a result of variability in input parameters is discussed for the parameters with the highest impacts on the model outcome. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:1064–1071. © 2014 SETAC
A review of extramammary paget’s disease: Clinical presentation, diagnosis, management and prognosis

Extramammary Paget’s Disease (EMPD) is a rare neopl astic lesion, which represents less than 1% of vulvar neoplasms. The lesion generally appears as e czema and the most frequently reported symptom is the itch. Also because of these poor clinical fe atures, there is usually a delay in its diagnosis, based on the typical biopsy histological pattern. It has a good prognosis in absence of malignancy, but can result in a heavy quality of life impairment becaus e of frequent recurrence with necessity of ablative therapies and anxiety for possible cancerization. R arely EMPD can be invasive or associated to adenocarcinoma or other kinds of cancer. The first choice therapy is the surgical excision, with inguinal lymphadenectomy in case of infiltrative di sease. However, many other conservative therapies, including the topical use of antiblastic, immuno-mo dulating, and hormone-modulating drugs, are used against EMPD even if still off label. After complet ion of this article, the reader should be able to r ecall the clinical manifestations of the EMPD, the histol ogical pattern which allows its diagnosis, and to s tate the options for a treatment, which should be conser vative and at the same time as radical as possible.
Succession in Private Firms as an Entrepreneurial Process – A Review and Suggestions of New Research avenues

In considering firm succession as the acts of both entrepreneurial exit and entry, this paper adds to work that seeks to integrate entrepreneurship and family business research. We provide a comprehensive literature review of succession research over the past 35 years and identify seven thematical clusters within which succession can be understood as a distinct part of the entrepreneurial process, and three areas of particular interest for future research seeking to advance the literatures on entrepreneurship, family firms, and governance in private firms. The paper explores theoretical, conceptual, and methodological ways of integrating these findings into the research on entrepreneurship and family business.
ICT, Access to Services and Wage Inequality

This paper discusses how information and communication technology (ICT) affects the quality and reach of consumer services. These services need to be provided locally, but consist of several components, some of which can be digitised and transmitted over long distances. A general equilibrium model is developed and numerical simulations in a stylised two-factor, two-region, centre-periphery setting are presented. Trade in intermediate services improves the quality of consumer services enormously in the periphery, but may reduce the quality at the centre. Trade in intermediate services also has a dramatic impact on skilled workers' wages in the periphery, both relative to unskilled workers in their own region and relative to skilled workers at the centre and leads to a more equal distribution of income both between the centre and the periphery and within the periphery.
Stock Price Response to Mandatory Disclosure of Ownership Changes: Evidence from France

We analyse how public announcement of shareholders going beyond or above legal thresholds of ownership affects firm value. We use the event study methodology to measure the valuation effect of purchases and sales of shares by large shareholders over the period 1991 to March 2007 for firms listed in French market. While announcements of increases in ownership concentration do not trigger a significant market response, we find evidence for a negative impact of decreases in ownership concentration on stock price. Besides, we implement a cross sectional analysis of the relationship between changes in firm value and changes in ownership and find no support for the causality. :
Adjunctive Treatment With Risperidone in Clozapine-Resistant Schizophrenia: A Case Report and Review

Objectives: Long-term studies show that 47% to 63% of schizophrenic patients treated with clozapine fail to respond after 12 years of treatment. Such high rates of resistance justify the growing interest in therapeutic strategies based on enhancing the effect of clozapine with other antipsychotics. The combination of clozapine and risperidone in the treatment of partial responders to clozapine has been one of those receiving most interest from research. Methods and Results: The present work reports the case of a 26-year-old man, diagnosed with schizophrenia who, after treatment with clozapine at appropriate doses over 12 weeks without observable response, showed a marked and sustained improvement after the addition of risperidone to the clozapine treatment. We also present a detailed review of publications related to the therapeutic combination of clozapine and risperidone in clozapine-resistant schizophrenia. Conclusions: Despite the contradictory nature of the published data, our results are in support of other work reporting that treatment with a combination of clozapine and risperidone, apart from being well tolerated, may constitute an effective alternative in this type of patient. Nevertheless, there is a need for further, controlled studies, with larger samples, with a view to drawing definitive conclusions and making specific recommendations.
Agency Problems, Investment Policy, and Dividend Taxation

We develop an intertemporal firm model that illustrates how dividend taxation interacts with dividend policy and investment efficiency in different stages of a firm's growth process. Our results show that a cut in the dividend tax rate may increase investment efficiency by increasing the return that public investors can receive from monitoring and disciplining management. In the mature firm in which free cash-flow is inefficiently invested instead of paid out, a dividend tax cut will make investors demand higher dividends and will hence reduce the inefficient overinvestment. The model is build in the tradition of Jensen's (1986) free cash-flow hypothesis and on the literature on dividend policy and agency problems within a corporate governance framework. While our infant firm is unaffected by changes in dividend taxation, the dividend tax rate influences the duration of the growth phase of the firm and the investment behaviour in the mature firm. Our results are are in line with the old view of dividend taxation in that they predict the negative relationship of dividends and the dividend tax rate. The negative relationship between the dividend tax rate and the investment behaviour in the mature firm contradicts both the old and the new view of dividend taxation, however. This can be attributed to the fact that we incorporate agency problems into our model, a feature that both views abstract from. Supported by an increasing amount of empirical literature that finds indicators for agency problems within firms and for overinvestment tendencies, our modelling approach yields results that are compatible with Chetty and Saez (2005) analysis of the 2003 dividend tax cut in the United States.
Hox5 interacts with Plzf to restrict Shh expression in the developing forelimb

Significance Mammalian Hox genes are important for limb development. Posterior abdominal B (AbdB) Hox groups (Hox9–Hox13) are required for establishment of the limb proximodistal axis. In addition, Hox9 genes control the onset of Hand2 expression in the posterior forelimb, and HoxA/D AbdB genes are responsible for the initiation and maintenances of Sonic Hedgehog (Shh). In this study, we generated Hox5 triple mutants, resulting in embryos with severe forelimb anterior patterning defects. We found that Hox5 proteins interact with promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger to restrict Shh expression in the forelimb bud. The hindlimb in Hox5 mutants develops normally, revealing distinct differences in anteroposterior field establishment in the forelimb and hindlimb and unanticipated roles for non-AbdB Hox genes, including HoxB and HoxC group genes, in limb development. To date, only the five most posterior groups of Hox genes, Hox9–Hox13, have demonstrated loss-of-function roles in limb patterning. Individual paralog groups control proximodistal patterning of the limb skeletal elements. Hox9 genes also initiate the onset of Hand2 expression in the posterior forelimb compartment, and collectively, the posterior HoxA/D genes maintain posterior Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) expression. Here we show that an anterior Hox paralog group, Hox5, is required for forelimb anterior patterning. Deletion of all three Hox5 genes (Hoxa5, Hoxb5, and Hoxc5) leads to anterior forelimb defects resulting from derepression of Shh expression. The phenotype requires the loss of all three Hox5 genes, demonstrating the high level of redundancy in this Hox paralogous group. Further analyses reveal that Hox5 interacts with promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger biochemically and genetically to restrict Shh expression. These findings, along with previous reports showing that point mutations in the Shh limb enhancer lead to similar anterior limb defects, highlight the importance of Shh repression for proper patterning of the vertebrate limb.
Women on Top: The Relative Influence of Wives and Husbands on Contraceptive Use in KwaZulu-Natal

ABSTRACT Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative influence of husband and wife on contraceptive practice. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among adult men and women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A matched file for 238 married or cohabiting couples was created. Results: Knowledge of methods of contraception was virtually universal and attitudes to contraception were favorable both in men and women. A substantial proportion of men and women reported using a method of contraception. The wife's desire to stop childbearing was the most powerful predictor of contraceptive use among couples, after adjustment for possible confounders. The husband's approval (or not) of family planning and his preference for future childbearing were not significantly related to contraceptive use. Conclusion: Contraceptive use within marital and cohabiting unions is high and the wife's fertility preference was found to be a key determinant of use. This conclusion challenges conventional wisdom that men are the dominant decision-makers in fertility and family planning decisions.
Short-term probiotic therapy alleviates small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, but does not improve intestinal permeability in chronic liver disease

Aim: Although numerous animal studies suggest that probiotic therapy has beneficial effects in various liver diseases, the evidence for beneficial effects in human liver disease is controversial. This study was carried out to investigate the efficacy of probiotic therapy in alleviating small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and permeability in chronic liver disease. Methods: Fifty-three patients with chronic liver disease were randomized to either probiotic therapy or placebo. Six bacterial species were used: Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium lactis, Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and Streptococcus thermophilus. After 4 weeks, changes in the composition of fecal bacteria, SIBO, intestinal permeability, and clinical symptoms were examined. Results: Three of the six probiotic species, B. lactis, L. rhamnosus, and L. acidophilus, increased in the feces of the probiotic therapy group (P<0.001), whereas there was no change in fecal microbiota in the placebo group. SIBO disappeared in many individuals of the probiotic therapy group, but none in the placebo (24 vs. 0%, P<0.05). General gastrointestinal symptoms also improved more in the probiotic group and improvement in intestinal permeability was slightly but not significantly more frequent in the probiotic arm than the placebo arm (50 vs. 31.3%, P=0.248). Numbers of lactobacilli in stool were correlated negatively with intestinal permeability (P for trend<0.05). Liver chemistry did not improve significantly in either group. Conclusions: We conclude that short-term probiotic administration in chronic liver disease is effective in alleviating SIBO and clinical symptoms, but ineffective in improving intestinal permeability and liver function.
Eating Attitudes and its Psychological Correlates among Female College Students

The purpose of the present study was to find out the prevalence and psychological correlates of abnormal eating attitudes in female college students in the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Two hundred undergraduates with mean age 19.0 years from five premiere colleges affiliated to the University of Madras were administered the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale, State Trait Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory. Abnormal eating attitudes (EAT-26 score ≥ 20) were found in 30% of the total sample. Use of Pearson Correlation and independent t-test revealed that participants who had abnormal eating attitudes had scored higher levels of depression and higher levels of both state as well as trait anxiety than those with normal eating attitudes ( Eat-26 score <20 ). No significant correlation was found between low self esteem and abnormal eating attitudes. Further, abnormal eating was not related to weigh as assessed using the body mass index (BMI). The present findings indicate a substantial prevalence of abnormal eating attitudes among female college students and also abnormal eating attitudes related to psychological characteristics such as anxiety and depression. The above findings highlight the need for the attention of clinicians, community workers and psychologists to curtail the risk of increase in eating disorders among this population.
Rapid and simple determination of hereditary haemochromatosis mutations by multiplex PCR–SSCP: detection of a new polymorphic mutation

Hereditary haemochromatosis is a common inherited disorder leading to excessive accumulation of iron in various organs. Two missense substitutions at the HFE‐gene have recently been associated with the disease, 187C G and 845G → A (mutations H63D and C282Y, respectively). We present a simple, rapid PCR–SSCP multiplex screening method allowing the simultaneous detection of both substitutions. Furthermore, testing the method on 420 Danish blood donors revealed the presence of a hitherto undetected third substitution in 13 individuals. The new substitution, a 193A → T transversion, affects codon 65 changing the code for serine to that of cysteine (S65C). It may thus have functional consequences for the HLA class protein encoded by the HFE‐gene. The allele frequencies observed were: H63D 14.8%, C282Y 6.2% and S65C 1.5%, which for the two former alleles are in agreement with frequencies reported for other North European population samples.
Determinants of manager pay in German state-owned enterprises and international public policy implications: 3-year study for sectors, performance and gender

Empirical studies have shown that state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and especially the compensation of topmanagers, are very relevant to the performance and sustainable provision of public services. Whereas there are numerous studies on the compensation of top-management of private sector organizations, almost no empirical studies have been conducted for SOEs. This paper examines the determinants and disclosure of top-management compensation from 176 SOEs in eleven sectors over three financial years by assessing 498 annual statements. As a methodological contribution, the paper demonstrates the relevance for adjusting raw data from financial statements to obtain meaningful performance figures in order to represent the real economic situation. This provides perspectives for research on organizational success for several disciplines. In contrast to the transparency requirements 75.2% of the companies do not disclose information about compensation in their annual financial statements. For the 233 annual financial statements with disclosed pay, firm size has a significant influence on the level of compensation. The number of employees, an important indicator for the relevance of the public service, has lower influence than balance sheet total and turnover. Furthermore, managers earn more in profitable sectors than in loss-making sectors; however loss-making sectors often have a special relevance of for society and for the sustainable provision of public services. With regard to laws which also formulate financial goals for SOEs, there appears to be no link between financial performance ratios and the level of compensation. However, a strong and highly significant correlation exists between the developments of return on equity (ROE) and performance-based components. Return on total assets (ROA), which seems to be a better figure in this context to link performance and pay, was found to have no association. Regarding the discussion about a bonus-malus-system the data show far more compensation rises than decreases. Women employed in top-management positions were found to earn, on average, notably less than men. This finding has special implications for the prevailing public policy discussion about the gender pay gap in which SOEs have a special responsibility. In the ongoing debate about the appropriateness of compensation, the findings indicate that the level of compensation is not particularly strongly determined by the indicators that were investigated in this study. The paper provides new empirical insights, research perspectives and concrete international implications for public policy making as well as for practitioners.
Financial indicators and growth in a cross section of countries

The authors use existing measures of the financial system - and construct many new measures - to document the relationship between the financial system and long-run growth in a cross-section of countries between 1960 and 1989. They consider various measures of the size of the financial system, the importance of different financial institutions, the financial system's allocation of credit, the financial system's efficiency, and the degree of financial repression. They use graphs, correlations, and regressions to gauge the robustness of the partial correlation between growth and the financial indicators. They also examine two channels through which financial indicators may be linked to growth: the share of GDP allocated to investment; and the efficiency with which resources are used. They find that many of the financial system indicators are significantly correlated with growth through both investment and efficiency. Moreover, many of these partial correlations remain strong after controlling for initial conditions, dummy variables for Africa and Latin America, and measures of monetary, fiscal, and trade performance. Their analysis suggests that it is empirically important to identify which financial intermediaries are doing the intermediation and to whom the financial system is allocating credit rather than simply using proxies for the overall size of the financial system, as has been common in past studies.
The Role of Offshore Financial Centers in the Process of Renminbi Internationalization

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been quite aggressive recently in promoting the international use of its currency, the renminbi. Historical experience suggests that an active offshore market is essential for a global currency. Indeed, anecdotal evidence affirms the role of offshore markets in pushing the renminbi currency to the world. One should not, however, overplay the contribution of offshore markets. While offshore markets offer the opportunities to experiment with the global use of the currency, the overseas acceptance of the renminbi is ultimately determined by both internal and external economic forces, and geopolitical factors. With its relatively small size, the offshore renminbi is not likely to pressure the PRC and alter its financial liberalization policy. A well-organized offshore renminbi market will complement the PRC’s renminbi internationalization policy, but it is not possible to raise the currency’s global status beyond the level justified by its economic and political attributes.