Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Family and Work-Life Balance Policies on the Performance of Spanish Listed Companies

Work-life balance has become a topic of great relevance in today's business world. In this work we present both a theoretical review on the state of art in this issue and an analysis testing the validity of the positive impact of work-life balance policies in firm performance. For the empirical analyses of these policies on performance we evaluated a sample composed of firms listed in IBEX-35. Findings provide support for the idea that introducing work-life balance practices benefits the company with respect to talent retention and higher employee engagement, as well as achieving a positive impact on productivity, costs and business results.
Genetic variants on 17q21 are associated with ankylosing spondylitis susceptibility and severity in a Chinese Han population

Objectives: The aim of this study was to test whether orosomucoid like 3 (ORMDL3) and 17q21 variants are associated with susceptibility to ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in a Chinese population. Method: A total of 753 unrelated AS patients and 1120 ethnically matched healthy controls were recruited. Seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs: rs7216389, rs12603332, rs12936231, rs9303277, rs11557467, rs1007654, and rs17608925), which were selected from chromosome 17q21 containing the genes ORMDL3, GSDMB, ZPBP2, and IKZF3, were genotyped by the Taqman SNP genotyping assay. Results: Five of the SNPs (rs7216389, rs12603332, rs12936231, rs9303277, and rs11557467) were associated with AS (all p ≤ 0.01), especially in males (all p < 0.001). Of these, rs7216389, rs12603332, rs12936231, and rs11557467 were strongly associated with severity of the disease based on radiographic findings (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our study confirmed that variants in chromosome 17q21 are significantly associated with AS in a Chinese Han population.
Extended deletions in the histidine-rough-B region of the Salmonella chromosome.

The biosynthesis of 0-antigenic lipopolysaccharides (LPS)I in Salmonella pro-ceeds in two stages (for review see ref. 2). of operon. P22 phage lysates on these histidinol-utilizing mutants to infect SU219, selection of the donor his marker performed on histidinol-containing minimal medium. A drop of an overnight culture of the his Hfr strains thus was on a lawn of the F- his-rfb extended deletion mutants spread on a minimal agar plate. The presence or absence of prototrophic recombinants after 2 days' incubation at 370 indicated whether the his mutation of the donor was by, or was outside of, the extended deletion. (control
Does Customer Satisfaction Matter to Investors? Findings from the Bond Market

This article examines whether customer satisfaction is associated with key metrics from corporate bond markets—namely, credit ratings and cost of debt financing. The authors draw on theory in marketing and finance to predict how customer satisfaction should be associated with both measures. To test the hypotheses, they employ the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) database of more than 150 publicly traded firms during the period from 1994 to 2004. The empirical work controls for factors that are known to influence the bond market, such as firm profitability and risk, as well as potential unobservable factors. The findings indicate that firms with lower customer satisfaction exhibit lower credit ratings and higher debt costs—financial consequences of customer satisfaction not previously observed. The results also suggest that the association between ACSI and cost of debt is attenuated by the inherent level of risk faced by the firm.
A Jump-Diffusion Approach for Pricing Exotic Multi-Asset Derivatives

We propose a simple multidimensional jump-diffusion process for pricing exotic derivatives with multiple underlyings. This process ensures the possibility of sudden drops in asset prices, fits several well-known empirical properties of asset returns, and incorporates dependencies between diffusions, jump intensities, and jump sizes. We show by pricing barrier reverse convertibles that neglecting jumps and dependencies can result in underestimation of the spreads associated with these investments. This feature is likely to have consecutive effects for studies on the overpricing of exotic multi-asset financial derivatives.
Does a brief suicide prevention gatekeeper training program enhance observed skills?

BACKGROUND Suicide is a significant public health problem worldwide that requires evidence-based prevention efforts. One approach to prevention is gatekeeper training. Gatekeeper training programs for community members have demonstrated positive changes in knowledge and attitudes about suicide. Changes in gatekeeper skills have not been well established. AIMS To assess and to predict the impact of a brief, gatekeeper training on community members' observed skills. METHODS Participants in a community gatekeeper training were employees at US universities. 50 participants were randomly selected for skills assessment and videotaped interacting with a standardized actor prior to and following training. Tapes were reliably rated for general and suicide-specific skills. RESULTS Gatekeeper skills increased from pre- to posttest: 10% of participants met criteria for acceptable gatekeeper skills before training, while 54% met criteria after training. Pretraining variables did not predict increased skills. LIMITATIONS Results do not provide conclusions about the relationship between observed gatekeeper skills and actual use of those skills in the future. CONCLUSIONS Gatekeeper training enhances suicide-specific skills for the majority of participants. Other strategies, such as behavioral rehearsal, may be necessary to enhance skills in the remaining participants.
A role for LYNX2 in anxiety-related behavior

Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental disorders in developed societies. Although roles for the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus and mediodorsal thalamus in anxiety disorders are well documented, molecular mechanisms contributing to the functions of these structures are poorly understood. Here we report that deletion of Lynx2, a mammalian prototoxin gene that is expressed at high levels in anxiety associated brain areas, results in elevated anxiety-like behaviors. We show that LYNX2 can bind to and modulate neuronal nicotinic receptors, and that loss of Lynx2 alters the actions of nicotine on glutamatergic signaling in the prefrontal cortex. Our data identify Lynx2 as an important component of the molecular mechanisms that control anxiety, and suggest that altered glutamatergic signaling in the prefrontal cortex of Lynx2 mutant mice contributes to increased anxiety-related behaviors.
Trends in radical prostatectomy

The surgical treatment of prostate cancer ideally removes the entire cancer, avoids excessive blood loss or serious perioperative complications, and results in complete recovery of continence and potency. To achieve this, the surgeon must excise sufficient periprostatic tissue to cure the cancer while preserving the cavernosal nerves required for erectile function and the neuromusculature required for normal urinary and bowel function. Here we will examine recent trends in radical prostatectomy, focusing on surgical technique.
Effect of Experiential Value on Consumer-Based Brand Equity: An Interactive Device Perspective

With every product we buy, there is an associated experience. The better the experiences, the better a user feels about his/her decision to buy and use the product; and the feelings do not stay with the product. They are indeed transferred as brand associations and imagery with the brand of the product, defined as brand equity in the marketing literature. Positive brand equity is critical for the success of a brand as it creates repeat transaction of the user with the manufacturer. It is in this context that this study attempts to understand the relation between different components of user experience and brand equity. Intrinsic and extrinsic values have been taken as components of user experience while association, perceived quality, perceived value, trust and loyalty are elements of brand equity. All the relationships between the different constructs of experience and brand equity were found significant. We also found significant evidence for the hierarchical formation of both user experience and brand equity. The study contributes to the literature of brand experience and how it is critical for brand equity and for the consumer. For marketers, we establish how important it is for them to provide a positive user experiences for their brands to be successful. A proper mix of intrinsic and extrinsic consumption values to the consumer will go every length to convince him/her to stay with the brand.
Data Scheduling in Multiple Channel/Multiple Receiver Environments for Processing Data Requests with Timing Constraints

In real-time environments, information is disseminated to clients under timing constraints. In this paper, we focus on the real time data scheduling problem in multiple broadcast channels environments, where the clients are equipped with multiple receivers. Each request is associated with a deadline. The clients can either retrieve data items from the broadcast channels or send requests to the server and then listen to the broadcast channels. The aim of our work is to serve as many requests as possible. In our approach, the content of the broadcast program is first decided. Afterwards, the proposed periodic broadcast program generation algorithm and the on-demand broadcast program generation algorithm are employed. Simulations were performed to show the benefit of our approach. We conclude that our data scheduling algorithms are scalable, and that the time spent on executing our data scheduling algorithms is low. Moreover, when our data scheduling algorithms are used, the percentage of requests that miss their deadlines is also low.
Degree of link dependence-based LTE-V2V clustering and alarm information forwarding

The LTE-based V2V communications is considered to be the key technology to improve the performance of the intelligent transportation system. In order to allocate LTE resources efficiently on the scenarios of large-scale LTE-V2V networks, a novel clustering algorithm based on the similarity of mobility is proposed in this paper. We present a new definition - degree of link dependence to measure the similarity of mobility and a novel maintenance scheme which can reduce the rebuilt cost. In the proposed algorithm, vehicles are grouped in one cluster only if they are with similarity mobility. The nodes selected as heads will not be reselected every cycle but keep their roles on the straight road, and only under some certain circumstance the heads list will be updated; but the ordinary nodes always continuously execute attaching-head process by themselves. In addition, under the topological structure of cluster, we devise an alarm information forwarding scheme which can distribute the alarm packets efficiently and reliably under half-duplex communication mode. The simulation results represent the performance of the algorithm in terms of the cluster head lifetime and the average reattaching-head times of ordinary nodes.
E-Selectin Ligands in the Human Mononuclear Phagocyte System: Implications for Infection, Inflammation, and Immunotherapy

The mononuclear phagocyte system comprises a network of circulating monocytes and dendritic cells (DCs), and “histiocytes” (tissue-resident macrophages and DCs) that are derived in part from blood-borne monocytes and DCs. The capacity of circulating monocytes and DCs to function as the body’s first-line defense against offending pathogens greatly depends on their ability to egress the bloodstream and infiltrate inflammatory sites. Extravasation involves a sequence of coordinated molecular events and is initiated by E-selectin-mediated deceleration of the circulating leukocytes onto microvascular endothelial cells of the target tissue. E-selectin is inducibly expressed by cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-α and IL-1β) on inflamed endothelium, and binds to sialofucosylated glycan determinants displayed on protein and lipid scaffolds of blood cells. Efficient extravasation of circulating monocytes and DCs to inflamed tissues is crucial in facilitating an effective immune response, but also fuels the immunopathology of several inflammatory disorders. Thus, insights into the structural and functional properties of the E-selectin ligands expressed by different monocyte and DC populations is key to understanding the biology of protective immunity and the pathobiology of several acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. This review will address the role of E-selectin in recruitment of human circulating monocytes and DCs to sites of tissue injury/inflammation, the structural biology of the E-selectin ligands expressed by these cells, and the molecular effectors that shape E-selectin ligand cell-specific display. In addition, therapeutic approaches targeting E-selectin receptor/ligand interactions, which can be used to boost host defense or, conversely, to dampen pathological inflammatory conditions, will also be discussed.
Skills , Schooling and Non-Marital Teenage Pregnancy in Ghana †

Previous studies have examined the relationship between education and non-marital pregnancy and between education and teen-pregnancy focusing mainly on how non-marital or teenage pregnancy affects individual human capital and also only rarely considering the intersection of the two groups—and have mainly considered developed countries, especially the US. This paper examines non-marital teenage pregnancy in Ghana, focusing on the role and interplay of Ghanaian and English reading skills, formal educational attainment, and adult literacy course participation. Pursuing first an instrumental variables strategy, using year of birth and region of birth interactions as identifying instruments, indicates that skills and schooling may be treated as predetermined to whether an unmarried teenage girl has experienced a pregnancy. Continuing, therefore, with linear probability models yields three main results. First, I confirm the finding from previous studies that educational attainment is negatively associated with either non-marital or teenage pregnancy. Second, however, once Ghanaian and English reading skills are introduced, the association between educational attainment and non-marital teenage pregnancy decreases or disappears altogether. Third, for the teenage girls who have not completed primary school, adult literacy course participation is associated with a much lower probability of experiencing a teenage pregnancy. Again, adult literacy programs are specifically targeted at youth and adults with only limited schooling and also, in addition to their primary focus on literacy and numeracy, typically incorporate health components, including information on contraception usage. In turn, this— couple with the results in this paper—indicates that these programs are beneficial not only in terms of literacy and numeracy per se but also in terms of public health. Adult literacy programs in Ghana, therefore, should be interesting for policy makers as a vehicle to increase the basic skills stock of Ghanaians who have fallen through the cracks of the traditional education system both in terms of basic literacy and numeracy and in terms of health knowledge, including contraceptive use. Directions for future research are also presented. † I thank participants at the Annual Meetings of the Population Association of America for helpful comments and suggestions. I gratefully acknowledge financial support from Washington and Lee’s Lenfest Research Grant. Part of this research was carried out while visiting Princeton University’s Economics Department; the hospitality of the Department is gratefully acknowledged. The data were kindly provided by the Ghana Statistical Service. The findings and interpretations, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to the Ghana Statistical Service. 2 A bright future is the best contraceptive. –Marian Wright Edelman 1
Estimating the financial impact of data quality issues

Banks are required to hold a loan loss provision and equity capital to withstand credit losses from mortgages. Credit data is used to calculate the amounts of provision and equity capital that must be held, but data quality issues hinder the concise calculation of these amounts. This thesis covers a model that can be used to estimate the loan loss provision and equity capital impacts from data quality issues. Knowledge on these impacts allows a bank to prioritise data cleansing efforts, track data quality through time and promote a shared sense of responsibility for data quality.
Developing an approach to measure innovation performance in collaborative networks

Innovation is often addressed to be the result of collaborative network settings. Yet it remains difficult to provide proof in hard measurement data. Mainly motivated by practicability of data collection the paper proposes the “innovation alley” as a measurement approach. We discuss its conceptual and theoretical assumptions, first with a view on the network or mezo-level of analysis, second by presenting a longitudinal process basic structure which is well in line with existing product development management knowledge. We then elicit conceptual links to entrepreneurship for methodological reasons of measuring innovation performance. The “innovation alley” model is structured as a theoretical process of six steps with indicators at every stage to collect data on innovation performance. We include very specific network agents such as the ESNC and the concept of Living Labs in our model to evaluate their role and performance in the overall innovation process.
Change-point model on nonhomogeneous Poisson processes with application in copy number profiling by next-generation DNA sequencing

We propose a flexible change-point model for inhomogeneous Poisson Processes, which arise naturally from next-generation DNA sequencing, and derive score and generalized likelihood statistics for shifts in intensity functions. We construct a modified Bayesian information criterion (mBIC) to guide model selection, and point-wise approximate Bayesian confidence intervals for assessing the confidence in the segmentation. The model is applied to DNA Copy Number profiling with sequencing data and evaluated on simulated spike-in and real data sets.
The First 5-Year-Long Survey on Intrauterine Unexplained Sudden Deaths from the Northeast Italy

ABSTRACT Purpose: Sudden intrauterine unexplained death syndrome (SIUDS) represents one of the main open issues in the scientific and social setting of the modern medicine, and our efforts have aimed to understand its possible causes and risk factors. Methods: A 43-case series of consecutive unexplained fetal deaths coming from Northeast Italy, collected in a 5-year period (2011–2015), has been submitted to an in-depth investigation, based on neuropathological and cardiopathological examinations, immunohistochemistry for neuronal nuclear antigen (NeuN), genetic characterization for the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene polymorphisms, and toxicological environmental analyses. Results: The overall survey from the neuropathological findings highlights one or more congenital morphological abnormalities of the autonomic nervous system in 77% of cases of sudden fetal deaths. Conclusions: From our results emerges the need to perform a complete autopsy of all SIUDS victims with an in-depth examination of the neuronal centers of the brainstem, which modulate the vital functions.
Contemporary treatment of class II dens invaginatus.

AIM To present the nonsurgical management of a tooth with class II dens invaginatus with an open apex utilizing contemporary techniques. SUMMARY Root canal treatment of teeth with complex root canal anatomy such as dens invaginatus can be problematic because infected pulpal tissues may remain in inaccessible areas of the canal system. The cleaning and debridement of such root canal systems are therefore challenging and may sometimes be considered impossible. An immature apical root-end development is another challenge in root canal treatment especially in controlling the apical extent of the filling material and achieving an apical seal. When difficulties in cleaning and filling combine, management options may include surgical intervention or extraction. This article reports the nonsurgical endodontic treatment of a case of an open apex and dens invaginatus utilizing the operating microscope, endodontic ultrasonic instruments and mineral trioxide aggregate. KEY LEARNING POINT Teeth with class II dens evaginatus and an open apex may be managed successfully with contemporary nonsurgical materials and techniques.
Luxury or Necessity

Before deciding which tamping machines to purchase, rather than simply comparing the purchase price and risking making decisions that will later be regretted, infrastructure maintainers need to look at the whole life cost and overall benefits. For example, while high-performance tamping machines are more expensive to purchase than lower-output machines, just one investment could save up to 60% annually.
Strategic postures of third‐party logistics providers in mainland China

Purpose – To examine the strategic posture of third‐party logistics (3PLs) providers in mainland China.Design/methodology/approach – A sample survey, obtained by mail, of 3PLs firms in mainland China. Key informant data are used to operationalize Porter's competitive strategy and provides a framework to identify logistics strategies pursued by 3PLs providers. Various aspects of 3PLs providers are compared by different strategy types.Findings – Identified four logistics strategies pursued by 3PLs providers in mainland China. Differentiation strategy outperforms cost leadership strategy. Companies pursuing cost leadership are shifting towards differentiation strategy to cope with the intense competition faced in mainland China's immense logistics markets.Research limitations/implications – Bias may exist due to the mail survey. In‐depth studies on strategy formulation of 3PLs providers could be carried out to examine what factors influence the strategy formulation and explore the strategy evolution path.Pra.
Empirical Evidence of Governance and Disclosure in Charity Organizations

The purpose of this study is to empirically test if there were any effects between governance attributes and the disclosures of charity organizations. The governance attributes include both the internal and external governance mechanisms. This paper reports on the study of disclosure in annual returns for the year 2009 of 101 registered charity organizations in Malaysia. The extent of disclosure was measured using the ratio of the charity organization’s total disclosure score to its total possible disclosure score. Using an unweighted index of disclosure, the results indicated that the external governance mechanism is significantly and positively related to the extent of disclosure. In contrast, both the proxy for the internal governance attributes was found to be insignificant. The findings suggested that the efforts of monitoring through external governance mechanism can lead to a higher disclosure and hence better transparency in charity organizations annual returns. This study examined the annual returns, as this is the only vehicle in which charity information is disclosed. Eventhough the main focus was on the extent of disclosures; such may not imply quality disclosures due to different instrument used to measure the disclosure. The findings of this study could assist regulators to improve governance through charity transparency in annual returns by imposing a mandatory external audit.