Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Medium-Sized Firms and the Limits to Growth: A Case Study in the Evolution of a Spin-Off Firm

This paper explores potential barriers to growth in key areas which can become increasingly problematic for some smaller to medium-sized firms (SMEs) as they grow and evolve from their early status as small scale spin-offs. These potential growth barriers can occur in: finance, competition from new firms or products and organizational integration of resources. Firms that fail to properly plan, manage and allocate resources will encounter difficulties in each area. Such firms are said to have poor 'governance systems'. While not proposing a universal theory about small firm behaviour, we argue that firms can encounter the same problems associated with poor communication, bureaucracy and loss of entrepreneurial spirit that plague large firms. We also show that the routines used to promote growth based on collaboration can sometimes create problems for firms as they ignore new challenges. We elaborate various theories on the limits to growth by examining the case of IV, a university spin-off.
Very Large Graphs for Information Extraction (VLG) Detection and Inference in the Presence of Uncertainty

Abstract : In numerous application domains relevant to the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community, data of interest take the form of entities and the relationships between them, and these data are commonly represented as graphs. Under the Very Large Graphs for Information Extraction effort-a one year proof-of-concept study-MIT LL developed novel techniques for anomalous subgraph detection, building on tools in the signal processing research literature. This report documents the technical results of this effort. Two datasets-a snapshot of Thompson Reuters Web of Science database and a stream of web proxy logs-were parsed, and graphs were constructed from the raw data. From the phenomena in these datasets, several algorithms were developed to model the dynamic graph behavior, including a preferential attachment mechanism with memory, a streaming filter to model a graph as a weighted average of its past connections, and a generalized linear model for graphs where connection probabilities are determined by additional side information or metadata. A set of metrics was also constructed to facilitate comparison of techniques. The study culminated in a demonstration of the algorithms on the datasets of interest, in addition to simulated data. Performance in terms of detection, estimation, and computational burden was measured according to the metrics. Among the highlights of this demonstration were the detection of emerging coauthor clusters in the Web of Science data, detection of botnet activity in the web proxy data after 15 minutes (which took 10 days to detect using state-of-the-practice techniques), and demonstration of the core algorithm on a simulated 1-billion-vertex graph using a commodity computing cluster.
The Institutional Economics of Corruption and Reform: Introduction

Corruption has been a feature of public institutions for centuries yet only relatively recently has it been made the subject of sustained scientific analysis. Lambsdorff shows how insights from institutional economics can be used to develop a better understanding of why corruption occurs and the best policies to combat it. He argues that rather than being deterred by penalties, corrupt actors are more influenced by other factors such as the opportunism of their criminal counterparts and the danger of acquiring an unreliable reputation. This suggests a novel strategy for fighting corruption similar to the invisible hand that governs competitive markets. This strategy - the 'invisible foot' - shows that the unreliability of corrupt counterparts induces honesty and good governance even in the absence of good intentions. Combining theoretical research with state-of-the-art empirical investigations, this book will be an invaluable resource for researchers and policy-makers concerned with anti-corruption reform.
Organizational Identity and Firm Performance: What Happens When Leaders Disagree About "Who We Are?"

This study examines how the organizational success of 113 nonprofit professional theatres was affected when two top leaders responsible for different parts of the organization held divergent views about organizational identity. Focusing on five values that differentiate theatres, we find that leaders' disagreement about organizational identity was related to lower ticket revenues and lower net income, and that organizational performance was lowest when disagreement about identity was extreme. Although some findings suggest that minor identity disagreement between leaders may not hurt organizations, results generally support the perspective that leaders should actively promote a single identity.
Women's Interlaced Freedoms: A Framework Linking Microcredit Participation and Health

Improving the health of poor women is a public health priority worldwide. In this paper, we focus on microcredit — an intervention not explicitly designed to have an impact on health. Microcredit programmes aim to provide the poor with access to credit, thereby improving their opportunities to engage in productive activities. This paper presents a conceptual framework, inspired by Sen's capability approach, Michael Grossman's health production theory, and models of the determinants and pathways of population health, to assess how participation in microcredit can lead to improvement in the health of poor women. We explore how women's health capabilities (i.e. opportunities to achieve good health), and ultimately their health functionings (e.g. being healthy), can be expanded via key determinants of population health, such as access to resources and autonomy. *This is a revised version of ‘Expanding Female Health Capabilities in the South: Linking Microcredit Participation and Women's Health’, a paper presented at the 4th International Conference on the Capability Approach, Pavia, Italy, 5–7 September 2004.
Prediction of the therapeutic effect of dienogest in ovarian endometrial cysts using the apparent diffusion coefficient

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate whether apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) mean values can be used for predicting the treatment response in ovarian endometrial cyst patients with dienogest (DNG) administration. Eighteen patients received DNG (2 mg/day, orally) for 60 days, among whom 26 ovarian endometrial cysts were retrospectively identified. Mean ADC values of individual ovarian endometrial cysts were obtained by ADC maps inside the tumor. There was a significant correlation between ADC values and reduction ratio. When calculating the mean ADC values for three groups; more than 50%, 50–25% and less than 25%, ADC values significantly increased with increasing reduction ratio; 2.05 × 10−3 mm2/s, 1.28 × 10−3 mm2/s and 0.94 × 10−3 mm2/s, respectively (p = 0.0180). Multiple regression analysis by reduction ratio (%), ADC mean values (×10−3 mm2/s), tumor longest diameter (cm) and CA125 (U/ml) revealed that tumor reduction ratio by DNG administration could be predicted by the following equation; R = 19.3 + 24.0x – 0.4y + 0.1z (R: Reduction ratio, x: ADC mean, y: Longest diameter, z: CA125). In conclusion, the ADC mean value is useful for the prediction of the treatment response in ovarian endometrial cyst patients with DNG administration. Chinese abstract 该研究目的是探讨表面扩散系数（ADC）均值是否可以用来预测卵巢子宫内膜异位囊肿对地诺孕素（DNG）治疗的反应。 对18位患者(每天口服DNG 2mg),进行了为期60天的治疗,其中对26个卵巢子宫内膜异位囊肿进行回顾性分析。 通过每个肿瘤内的ADC图获得单个卵巢子宫内膜异位囊肿的ADC均值。 发现ADC值和减速比（reduction ratio）有显著相关性。 把平均ADC值分为三组；超过50%，50-25%，和不到25%时，ADC值随着减速比的增加而明显增加，分别为2.05×103mm2/s，1.28×103mm2/s和0.94×103mm2/s（p=0.0180）。 通过对减速比，ADC均值（×103mm2/s），肿瘤最长径（cm）和CA125(U/ml) 水平的多重线性回归分析发现，使用DNG治疗的肿瘤减速比可以用以下公式表示：R=19.3+24.0x-0.4y+0.1z(R:减速比，x：平均ADC，y:最长经线，z:CA125)。 总之，ADC均值对使用DNG治疗卵巢子宫内膜异位囊肿的疗效预测是非常有用的。
Mitochondrial DNA sequences in single hairs from a southern African population.

Hypervariable parts of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were amplified enzymatically and sequenced directly by using genomic DNA from single plucked human hairs. This method has been applied to study mtDNA sequence variation among 15 members of the ! Kung population. A genealogical tree relating these aboriginal, Khoisan-speaking southern Africans to 68 other humans and to one chimpanzee has the deepest branches occurring amongst the ! Kung, a result consistent with an African origin of human mtDNA. Fifteen cases of unrelated individuals having identical sequences in the most variable parts of the mtDNA control region were found within populations of ! Kung, Western Pygmies, and Eastern Pygmies, but no cases of identity were evident among these populations. This and other evidence of geographic structuring of the mitochondrial diversity in Africa, together with knowledge of the rate of accumulation of base changes in human mtDNA, implies that the average rate at which female lineages have moved their home bases during hunter-gatherer times could be as low as 13 meters per year. The technique of enzymatic amplification and direct sequencing applied to readily collected, highly stable biological materials such as hairs makes it possible to examine with high resolution many representatives of virtually any population.
Endothelial Expression of β1 Integrin Is Required for Embryonic Vascular Patterning and Postnatal Vascular Remodeling

ABSTRACT The largest subgroup of integrins is that containing the β1 subunit. β1 integrins have been implicated in a wide array of biological processes ranging from adhesion to cell growth, organogenesis, and mechanotransduction. Global deletion of β1 integrin expression results in embryonic death at ca. embryonic day 5 (E5), a developmental time point too early to determine the effects of this integrin on vascular development. To elucidate the specific role of β1 integrin in the vasculature, we conditionally deleted the β1 gene in the endothelium. Homozygous deletion of β1 integrins in the endothelium resulted in failure of normal vascular patterning, severe fetal growth retardation, and embryonic death at E9.5 to 10, although there were no overt effects on vasculogenesis. Heterozygous endothelial β1 gene deletion did not diminish fetal or postnatal survival, but it reduced β1 subunit expression in endothelial cells from adult mice by approximately 40%. These mice demonstrated abnormal vascular remodeling in response to experimentally altered in vivo blood flow and diminished vascularization in healing wounds. These data demonstrate that endothelial expression of β1 integrin is required for developmental vascular patterning and that endothelial β1 gene dosing has significant functional effects on vascular remodeling in the adult. Understanding how β1 integrin expression is modulated may have significant clinical importance.
Value functions for infinite-period planning

Cost-benefit and risk analysis studies that model tradeoffs between the present and the distant future by means of present value discounting have been criticized for according the future, and thus future generations, far too little importance. This paper presents an alternative means of modeling tradeoffs between different periods that accords the future far more importance than present value discounting, and that is no more difficult to apply. The paper also presents a means of modeling the preference issue of concern for equity or stability between different periods.
Pricing in the Primary Market for Cat Bonds: New Empirical Evidence

We present empirical evidence from the primary market for cat bonds, which provides new insights concerning the prevailing pricing practice of these instruments. For this purpose, transactional information from a multitude of sources has been collected and cross-checked in order to compile a data set comprising virtually all cat bond tranches that were launched between June 1997 and December 2012. In order to identify the main determinants of the cat bond spread at issuance, a series of OLS regressions with heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent standard errors is run. Our results confirm the expected loss as the most important factor. Apart from that, covered territory, sponsor, reinsurance cycle, and the spreads on comparably rated corporate bonds exhibit a major impact. Based on these findings, we then propose an econometric pricing model for cat bonds in the primary market that is applicable across territories, perils, and trigger types. It exhibits a robust fit across different calibration subsamples and achieves a higher in-sample and out-of-sample accuracy than several competing specifications that have been introduced in earlier work.
Beyond words: testing alignment among inter-organizational performance measures

Purpose – This paper seeks to measure in a quantitative way the degree of alignment among a set of performance measures between two organizations.Design/methodology/approach – This paper extends Venkatraman's test of coalignment to assess the alignment of a set of performance measures governing a contractual inter‐organizational relationship. The authors applied the test and present coefficients of misalignment across three sets of measures: those used by a service provider involved in the research, those used by customers contracting the services, and those documented in 11 contracts studied.Findings – Results confirmed a high degree of alignment between target and actual operational performance in the contracts. The alignment of customers' financial objectives and contracts' operational metrics was low. Calculations show poor alignment between the objectives of the provider and the contribution received from the contracts.Research limitations/implications – Some limitations of the conclusions include th.
Crosstalk with Inflammatory Macrophages Shapes the Regulatory Properties of Multipotent Adult Progenitor Cells

Macrophages and microglia are key effector cells in immune-mediated neuroinflammatory disorders. Driving myeloid cells towards an anti-inflammatory, tissue repair-promoting phenotype is considered a promising strategy to halt neuroinflammation and promote central nervous system (CNS) repair. In this study, we defined the impact of multipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPC), a stem cell population sharing common mesodermal origin with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), on the phenotype of macrophages and the reciprocal interactions between these two cell types. We show that MAPC suppress the secretion of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) by inflammatory macrophages partially through a cyclooxygenase 2- (COX-2-) dependent mechanism. In turn, we demonstrate that inflammatory macrophages trigger the immunomodulatory properties of MAPC, including an increased expression of immunomodulatory mediators (e.g., inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and COX-2), chemokines, and chemokine receptors. Macrophage-primed MAPC secrete soluble factors that suppress TNF-α release by macrophages. Moreover, the MAPC secretome suppresses the antigen-specific proliferation of autoreactive T cells and the T cell stimulatory capacity of macrophages. Finally, MAPC increase their motility towards secreted factors of activated macrophages. Collectively, these in vitro findings reveal intimate reciprocal interactions between MAPC and inflammatory macrophages, which are of importance in the design of MAPC-based therapeutic strategies for neuroinflammatory disorders in which myeloid cells play a crucial role.
Progression of neuronal and synaptic remodeling in the rd10 mouse model of retinitis pigmentosa

The Pde6brd10 (rd10) mouse has a moderate rate of photoreceptor degeneration and serves as a valuable model for human autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (RP). We evaluated the progression of neuronal remodeling of second‐ and third‐order retinal cells and their synaptic terminals in retinas from Pde6brd10 (rd10) mice at varying stages of degeneration ranging from postnatal day 30 (P30) to postnatal month 9.5 (PNM9.5) using immunolabeling for well‐known cell‐ and synapse‐specific markers. Following photoreceptor loss, changes occurred progressively from outer to inner retina. Horizontal cells and rod and cone bipolar cells underwent morphological remodeling that included loss of dendrites, cell body migration, and the sprouting of ectopic processes. Gliosis, characterized by translocation of Müller cell bodies to the outer retina and thickening of their processes, was evident by P30 and became more pronounced as degeneration progressed. Following rod degeneration, continued expression of VGluT1 in the outer retina was associated with survival and expression of synaptic proteins by nearby second‐order neurons. Rod bipolar cell terminals showed a progressive reduction in size and ectopic bipolar cell processes extended into the inner nuclear layer and ganglion cell layer by PNM3.5. Putative ectopic conventional synapses, likely arising from amacrine cells, were present in the inner nuclear layer by PNM9.5. Despite these changes, the laminar organization of bipolar and amacrine cells and the ON‐OFF organization in the inner plexiform layer was largely preserved. Surviving cone and bipolar cell terminals continued to express the appropriate cell‐specific presynaptic proteins needed for synaptic function up to PNM9.5. J. Comp. Neurol. 518:2071–2089, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Method for Prediction of Accessible Sites on an mRNA Sequence for Target Selection of Hammerhead Ribozymes

Hammerhead ribozymes are short RNA molecules endowed with endoribonucleolytic activity. Their use as molecular tools for specific inhibition of gene translation is affected by many factors including the target accessibility. A method for the prediction of accessible target sites for hammerhead ribozymes within a given RNA sequence is described. This method maps all putative NUH cleavage sites (N = A, C, G, U and H = A, C, U) and picks out short flanking regions as the binding domain for the corresponding ribozyme. The probabilistic level of unfolding, accessibility score (AS), is then calculated for each target region on the basis of a comparison of all folding structures obtained for the target RNA and arranged according to the Boltzmann's distribution. At the end, a series of imposed limits gives the best target sequences endowed with highly probable accessibility and with a potentially active catalytic structure of the hammerhead sequence. A successive experimental approach to verify the effective accessibility of selected targets was used. For that, antisense oligonucleotides addressed to the coding region of bcl2 mRNA were synthesized and administered to the MCF7 human cell line. The inhibition of gene expression, as measured by western analysis of the BCL2 protein, demonstrated that all target sites selected on the basis of their putative accessibility were actually sensitive to antisense treatments while the inaccessible ones were not. The application of this target discovery method to ribozyme design is proposed in order to satisfy a crucial condition.
Hypodermoclysis in Dehydrated Elderly Patients: Local Effects with and without Hyaluronidase

Dehydration is frequently encountered in elderly patients and hypodermoclysis is an alternative method of parenteral rehydration. Hyaluronidase is classically added to the solution infused subcutaneously. The local effects of hypodermoclysis with or without hyaluronidase were investigated by using a randomized double-blind study in 12 dehydrated elderly patients. Five hundred millilitres of a 5% glucose saline solution was infused subcutaneously in 2 hours in each thigh, (A) with and (B) without 250 U of hyaluronidase. Circumférence and temperature of each thigh were assessed before and after the infusion. Color was evaluated after the infusion. The gain in thigh circumference was less in the presence of hyaluronidase, but the other variables did not differ. The patients were thoroughly questioned about pain: no difference was noted between solutions A and B. We conclude that hyaluronidase adds no comfort that justifies its systematic use in the hypodermoclysis of glucose saline solutions.
Criteria for the diagnosis of familial Mediterranean fever.

OBJECTIVE To establish a new set of criteria for the diagnosis of familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). METHODS Twenty-seven features and manifestations typical of FMF were studied to determine their prevalence in 105 patients with FMF and 106 controls. Diagnosis of FMF in the study group was based on clinical judgment. Controls were patients with a variety of other diseases who presented to the emergency room or outpatient clinics with recurrent episodes of pain in body sites usually involved in FMF attacks. Manifestations observed to be significantly more common in FMF patients than in controls were incorporated into the rule proposed for diagnosis of FMF, based on a model of major, minor, and supportive criteria. RESULTS Two sets of diagnostic criteria were established. A conservative criteria set for diagnosis of FMF was based on the presence of 1 major or 2 minor criteria, or 1 minor plus 5 supportive criteria, and a simple criteria set for diagnosis of FMF required 1 major or 2 minor criteria. The sensitivity and specificity of these 2 criteria sets were >95% and >97%, respectively. CONCLUSION The proposed new sets of criteria were highly sensitive and specific, and could be used to readily diagnose FMF and to distinguish FMF from other periodic febrile diseases.
Binaural redundancy and inter-aural time difference cues for patients wearing a cochlear implant and a hearing aid in opposite ears

We investigated speech perception advantages arising from the use of inter-aural time difference cues, and from the provision of redundant information by the use of a hearing aid contralateral to a cochlear implant (bimodal hearing devices). Thirty-eight subjects (14 normally hearing and 23 hearing-impaired) participated in this study. The effect of binaural redundancy was assessed by comparing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) required for 50% correct identification of sentences in noise when listening monaurally to that when listening binaurally. The use of inter-aural time difference cues was determined by comparing the binaural SNRs obtained with or without a noise delay of 700 µs between ears. Results indicated adults who used bimodal hearing devices benefited from binaural redundancy, but children did not. Whereas normally hearing subjects used inter-aural time difference cues to improve speech perception in noise, neither adults nor children who used bimodal hearing devices were able to do so.
Edge-extended Design for Improved Flicker Noise Characteristics in 0.13-μm RF NMOS

This paper proposed a new device layout to improve the flicker noise and generation-recombination (G-R) noise characteristics in 0.13-μm RF N-MOSFETs. By extending the active region edge along the gate, the impact of stress and traps introduced by shallow trench isolation (STI) on device flicker noise was reduced significantly. Under a fixed V<sub>DS</sub> of 1 V and V<sub>GS</sub> of 0.5 V, the edge-extended devices (W/L= 1/0.13, N<sub>finger</sub>= 40) present a reduced noise current spectral density (S<sub>ID</sub>/I<sup>2</sup>) variation to only ˜ one third (S<sub>ID</sub>/I<sup>2</sup> ranges from 4.5times10<sup>-12</sup> to 9.4times10<sup>-12</sup> Hz<sup>-1</sup> at 100 Hz) of that for devices with conventional layout (S<sub>ID</sub>/I<sup>2</sup> ranges from 2.33times10<sup>-12</sup> to 1.69times10<sup>-11</sup> Hz<sup>-1</sup> at 100 Hz). The associated G-R bulges in flicker noise were almost disappeared with the new design. This study indicates the imperfections and stress at the STI edge are important origins to affect flicker noise characteristics especially for RF devices with a small finger width. In addition, the tradeoff between the improved flicker noise characteristics and the device RF performance is also investigated.